Roger Goodell wants to keep Raiders and Chargers in home markets

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell covered a whole host of issues at his annual press conference focusing on the state of the league.

Among the most interesting topics covered was the future of the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers in their current home markets.

Simply put, Goodell stated that the league will work to keep these two teams in their current cities:

Considering Goodell and the NFL showed no such goodwill to the city of St. Louis in the lead up to the Rams move, this has to be taken with a grain of salt.

The NFL will do what’s best for its bottom line, leaving cities and fans out in the cold as long as it makes the league that cold-hard cash.

By now you likely already know that both the Chargers and Raiders were vying for a chance to relocate to Los Angeles during league-wide owners meetings last month in Houston.

As it turned out, the league-wide vote paved the way for the then St. Louis Rams to move back to Southern California. It also provided the Chargers with the right to join the Rams in Inglewood — something the franchise will have to decide on by January of next year.

If the Chargers opt to remain in San Diego, the door will be left open for the Raiders to join the Rams in Southern California.

Interestingly, the Chargers have committed to playing in San Diego for the 2016 season. Outside of that, nothing has really been decided here.

The Raiders have been flirting with the idea of both Las Vegas and San Antonio in recent months. And with the city of Oakland no closer to approving a new stadium, the Raiders’ future in Northern California remains up in the air.

Goodell can give his whole PR talk. He can tell us a story of a league that wants to work with current host cities. That amounts to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things.

If it’s more profitable for the Raiders and Chargers to move, that’s exactly what the NFL is going to push moving forward.