L.A. fans didn't earn NFL team

fter months of speculation, positioning and bargaining, Los Angeles fumbled the ball in its game of "Let's bring L.A. a football team."

Yes, that's right. The NFL finally allowed Houston to become the league's 32nd instead of Los Angeles - the second-largest television market in the country. The NFL voted 29-0 to award Houston with a team. Unanimous. In the end, nobody believed Los Angeles deserved a team.

But Houston didn't win an expansion team, L.A. lost it.

The NFL was ready to give the city a football team, but Los Angeles couldn't get its act together. Conflicting proposals by conflicting prospective owners aren't going to impress anyone. It certainly didn't impress NFL owners.

Plus, money talks, and after having to hear two garbled proposals from L.A., the owners heard sweet music from Houston to the beat of a $700 million franchise fee and $310 million for a stadium. That's more than a billion dollars - the richest offer ever for a franchise.

It's not the NFL's fault that L.A. doesn't have a team; it's the city's fault. In March, the league gave Los Angeles a team on the condition it have its act together by Sept. 15. Even after the date passed, the NFL gave L.A. another chance that the city couldn't even capitalize on.

Well, no more chances now. Michael Ovitz, the supposed super agent, and Eli Broad could never agree on money, a stadium site or how to split the bill. When Los Angeles needed unity between the competing owners, the two continued to part ways. And now both have nothing to show for their opposition.

But does anyone care that L.A. doesn't have a team or that the city won't have an expansion team that's not going to win for a few years? Does anyone care that Los Angeles won't have a team that an average fan can't afford to watch?

Knowing L.A. fans, it's a definite no because fans in general in this city have no passion for their sports teams. They are some of the most hypocritical fans in the nation. When the Raiders and Rams left a few years ago, nobody cried. Nobody cared that not just one team, but two, were tired of L.A. and were shipping out.

Fans in Cleveland were all but committing suicide because the Browns were leaving for Baltimore. Weeks before Cleveland's owner decided, fans were sending messages, begging and pleading not to move the team.

But what was happening when both of Los Angeles' teams decided to leave? Nothing. A few goodbyes and a lot of good ridances. And the feeling was mutual. Sure, there were a few signs held up in the crowds that asked nicely if the Rams would stay. But those were the die-hard fans, and there weren't too many of them in L.A.

And look at Cleveland now. Their dedication and perseverance with the city's football tradition has paid off. The NFL decided to resurrect the Browns as an expansion team. It just goes to show that Los Angeles needs the NFL, not the other way around. Football won't die because Los Angeles doesn't have a team. Los Angeles doesn't like to commit - like a bad boyfriend, there when things are going good, but nowhere to be seen when things are bad.

If an expansion team is brought here, Los Angeles won't have much patience with it. When you play in Los Angeles, you have to win now, or pay the consequences. Look at the Dodgers, Kings and Lakers. With these teams, if they're not winning, nobody's watching. You'll see an empty Dodger Stadium and an empty Forum. But you make the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals or the NBA finals, and the fans are screaming that they never left. That's just the kind of city Los Angeles is. With a lot of the worst and most disrespectful fans in the country.