The Raiders — in Las Vegas?
According to a former Raiders player, the late Al Davis was open to the idea.
In a story published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, former Raiders quarterback David Humm claimed Davis “would have loved to have moved the Raiders” to Las Vegas, with Humm claiming that Davis “told me that many times.”
Davis, who would have turned 85 on Friday, had birthday parties in Las Vegas, and a memorial service for him was held in the city two years ago.
In his remarks to the Review-Journal’s Norm Clarke, Humm opined that “there’s no way commissioner Pete Rozelle would have allowed” a Raiders move to Las Vegas “because of the sports books and gambling.”
Ah, yes, the gambling.
The NFL has never had a franchise in Las Vegas, and the odds probability of a team ever landing in what Danny Ocean dubbed “America’s Playground” is rather low, for the reasons Humm mentioned.
As long as there are people, there will be gambling, and as long as there is legalized gambling, there will be cities built around the business of gambling. And as sure as sunburn for those who forget their sunscreen and sign all of their drinks to their rooms at the Wynn and Mirage and the Cosmopolitan and Mandalay Bay, the Las Vegas Raiders will be just a summer daydream, save an unexpected change in NFL philosophy.