HOUSTON – (IT'S YOUR NIGHT, MAYBE)
This is it. OVER 1 AND A HALF BILLION $$$ is on the line. Not even I could screw that up. Unless I bought an NFL FRANCHISE.
Tonight the POWERBALL lotto goes and it's drawn interest from all over the world. I hear the Iranians grabbed 10 of our sailors in hopes at least one of them had some lotto tickets. THE NFL OWNERS were buying the TEXAS version to help defray moving expenses for the Rams and maybe the Chargers. The Texans voted in favor of the move because they were tired of the restaurants in ST. LOUIS. Ironic that the vote came down here in Houston since our city was the last to uproot a team and move it some other town just before the 1997 season.
L.A. has been without a team since 1994. They haven't cared about that since 1994. St. LOUIS now will hold the weird record of having both the CARDINALS and the RAMS take a hike. I really never thought the Bidwell family (owners of the CARDINALS) had any personality at all and now the current owner of the Rams has tied them in ABANDON SHIP DRILLS.
I was sent to L.A. in 1980 by NBC SPORTS to cover a holdout of the RAMS QB Vince Ferragamo. I was at Ch. 2 and doing double duty as the NFL regional reporter. It meant a 7 day week in the fall, but the money was O.K. I was told by the producer of NBC SPORTS that Vince wouldn't do an interview with HOWARD COSELL because he thought Howard was obnoxious. (Imagine that) Ferragamo did the interview with me because I GUESS he didn't know any better. I VISITED with him at the Rams facility and at his home. It went well and I figured my career with NBC was set.
Turned out later that year NBC SPORTS hired a full time guy to do what I had been doing. Bob Costas. Some guy from St.Louis. I gotta see if my 2 bucks turns into $1.5 billion. I am on a roll having won $4 yesterday.