And now, onto the big rumor, that Libby wasn't actually on the plane and that she's part of the Hanso foundation. Oops, wait, not that one (sorry, we have "Lost" on the brain and did "American Idol" really do double the ratings and is it one of those decline of Western Civilization type things or should we just roll with it?) No, we're talking about the story in this week's Sports Illustrated saying that former 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo and former 49er head honcho Carmen Policy are thinking about buying the Raiders and moving them to LA.

The story isn't online because you have to subscribe to the magazine, but since we do, we can detail what the what is. Basically, the story says that Eddie D and Carmen P have been talking about it, that he tried to buy the Tampa Bay Bucs a few years ago, that the NFL might actually vote to let him in, and Al is thinking about selling because he's a little unwell these days. The writer, Michael Silver, went on KNBR a few days ago to say it's all true, scout's honor.

All sorts of Bay Area writers and the occasional Raider blogger have tried to debunk the story and call pish-posh on it. The gist of their argument is that, basically, Al would never give up the Raiders. Never, ever, never, ever. Which we'd have to agree with-- we have visions of a 103 year old Al, looking like a skeleton with a died black pompadour and white jump suit and hooked up to all sorts of machines and intravenous tubes, wheeling down Raiders HQ in a wheelchair and telling everyone who would listen the glories of the vertical passing game.

The Raiders, of course, deny it, and the thinking is that Al will hand over the reigns to his son to which we say Al has a son? Really? When did that happen? And considering Eddie D has attached to his name the words "extortion" and gambling," we don't think the NFL would seriously consider him. The story in SI, however, says that most of the owners who hated on Eddie D. are gone and that the NFL is so desperate to get a team into LA that they'll let Eddie D. have the team if he can pull the move off.

Anyways, as long as there are no football teams in LA, there will always be rumors that the Raiders are on their way there. Which is what happens when you move twice in twenty years and spend the rest of the time whining about how awful your stadium is. It's pretty clear the NFL wants an established team to move there and doesn't want to expand again. That leaves only about five teams (Oakland, San Diego, Minnesota, Buffalo, and your San Francisco 49ers) as candidates to play, as they are the only five teams without shiny new taxpayer funded stadiums to move into. That means that until Oakland coughs up more money to keep the Raiders, these "Raiders to Move to LA" stories will never stop.