Last week, when the NFL and the NFLPA* decided to engage in several days of secret meetings in the Chicago area, they had to pick a place for the sessions -- and a place to sleep at night. They selected the Hotel Baker in St. Charles, Illinois, to the surprise of the staff and other local residents.
Al Lagattolla of the Kane County Chronicle reports that the sessions featured tight efforts to ensure privacy, including the covering of all windows when the folks gathered for the talks were eating in a hotel restaurant. “They didn’t make us sign anything for confidentiality, but they requested that it be kept confidential,” Hotel Baker general manager Rowena Salas told Lagattolla. “We had to adhere to that and they were pleased with how we kept it so private.”
Once word of the talks began to make its way into the media, however, one of the owners decided to leave the campus.
Jerry Jones.
He wanted to listen to music, so Salas recommended McNally’s Irish Pub. Jones arrived at 9:00 p.m. and stayed until 11:30 p.m., and he reportedly was the “life of the party.”
It’s unclear when or if the not-so-secret talks will continue in not-so-secret fashion. If they do, another town in some out-of-the-way place could soon get a surprise.