The NFL faces an unprecedented situation in a league where the potential is very real that the Oakland Raiders could win Super Bowl 51 in early 2017 and find themselves based in Las Vegas when the 2017 – 2018 season gets underway in September.
Oakland remains firmly atop the AFC West Division with four games remaining in the regular season. The only true obstacle in their path at this juncture, barring an inexplicable collapse, is an upcoming Thursday evening game with the Kansas City Chiefs. If they win that, they merely have to mind their p’s and q’s with games against the underachieving Sand Diego Chargers, the injury-decimated Indianapolis Colts and the offensively inept Denver Broncos.
Based on the way those opponents have been playing, other than Kansas City, the Raiders could conceivably lose two of their four remaining games and still win their division.
Oakland owner Mark Davis, son of legendary prior Raiders’ owner Al Davis, has vowed to move the team to Nevada, especially now that almost $1 billion in tax money is being made available to the team as an incentive from the state of Nevada.
The move would need the blessing of a majority of the other NFL franchise owners, but it is hard to see the move being blocked, especially as some of the revenue promised to the Raiders will trickle into the coffers of the other teams in some fashion.
