Who’s picking up the St. Louis tab?

A lot of headlines already this week, but the prevailing sensation at the NFL owners meeting in Atlanta was a pregnant pause. So much is about to happen: the Sunday Ticket/NFL Media equity deal, Deshaun Watson’s punishment, Dan Snyder investigations, Stephen Ross investigation …

… and that was before Wednesday, when Jon Gruden won two big early victories in court against the NFL.

NFL insiders now expect the final decision on who should pay the $790 million settlement in the St. Louis relocation lawsuit to go back to Commissioner Roger Goodell, saying there are too many hard feelings and varied opinions among the owners to reach a negotiated solution. A five-owner special committee hopes to at least give Goodell and the finance committee some guidance on what would be acceptable.

In order to pay St. Louis promptly, The Athletic reported, teams were docked $7.5 million each from revenue sharing pots. I can confirm that (though my sources say the number is slightly lower), but as the story notes, teams could still be repaid and don’t know what to expect.

That last part is critical, and needs repeating: The revenue hit to teams was not a policy decision. It’s a bit like how the money flows when you have a colonoscopy — you and your insurance company together pay a fee that day, but there could be months of back-and-forth with the clinic (and lawyers) before the account is completely settled, and reimbursements after the fact are common.

Do not underestimate the bad feelings this is generating among owners. Some think Kroenke promised to indemnify the league, and it’s that simple. There are a few others who think the league should fully share the burden. Then there’s another group who believe this is mostly Kroenke’s fault, but acknowledge the NFL might have made it worse in court, so some limited contribution is fair.

Let’s say there is some middle ground here. How do you do parse that out?

One viewpoint goes: Kroenke should get help up to about $450-$500 million, but the extra $290 million is entirely his problem because of this letter — which raised the cost of settling for no good reason, in their view. Also, his desire to settle this before SoFi Stadium hosted the Super Bowl likely increased costs too. How much?

Even if owners could get to agreement on cost sharing, the exposure varies so much depending on the books of each team. Just consider the $7.5 million hit already — that’s 2% of the Cowboys’ 2019 operating income, but 17.4% of the Lions’ income.

Incidentally, this case is costing the league nearly as much as the 2013 concussion litigation settlement, which had paid out more than $800 million in claims as of last fall.

Incidentally, this is the first edition of SBJ Football since the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote this compelling account of how the NFL and the Rams managed the move to L.A. Give it a read. One key takeaway: The Rams and NFL execs had already discussed the SoFi Stadium site extensively by the 2014 Super Bowl, when Roger Goodell said: “There are no plans, to my knowledge, of a stadium development.”

This week, I asked the commish: “The stories they told with those records makes it appear clear to a reasonable reader that the public was misled by the Rams and the league about Stan Kroenke’s intentions prior to that process becoming public. With so many stadium and venue issues popping up around the league over the next 5-10 years, what assurances can you give fans in other cities that they’ll hear the straight story from the league and their team about their needs and their intentions and their sustainability in their markets?”

Goodell: “I would tell you, first standpoint, I don’t agree with your assumption, on what you conclude. Second of all, I think those processes end up being very public. Very transparent. And I think everyone understands exactly what the club needs and what the community wants to do, and they try to work to reach that kind of an agreement. But none of us want to see relocations. We’ve always said we work hard to avoid those. When they happen, they’re painful for everyone. And we do our best to avoid that.”

I wasn’t able to follow up.

The questions from Robert Kraft never stop, says NBC Sports Chair Pete Bevacqua.

While NBC and the NFL were negotiating its 2021 extension of “Sunday Night Football” rights, Bevacqua told me recently, Kraft would pepper him for all the details. Where the Peacock streaming service was heading? How they saw linear broadcast TV and streaming evolving together? How NBC would handle the change? All while throwing in questions about analytics’ and gambling’s role in production and consumer behavior in the coming decade — and more.

“With Robert, it was never kind of a look back and let’s pat ourselves on the back for the great job we’ve done over the last decade,” Bevacqua said. “Let’s assume that, let’s acknowledge that. But let’s really think about the next 10-11 years and beyond, and how we can keep this going? And I really admired that element of the conversations we had with him.”

Kraft was recently given the SBJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award, an occasion for industry leaders to share their reflections on the six-time Super Bowl champion owner’s way of doing business. Bevacqua echoed the opinions of many, who remember Kraft’s knack for sincere human connections.

When the Buccaneers and Tom Brady played in New England on “SNF” last fall, Bevacqua, his wife and NBCU CEO Jeff Shell were Kraft’s guests for the game, and they felt it firsthand on that “magical night.” “There’s such a warmth to him, he just makes you feel comfortable and at home,” Bevacqua said.

Here is Kraft’s acceptance speech at the recent Sports Business Awards.

Let’s check on the USFL through Week 6 of 10. It’s averaging around 870,000 viewers through 22 game telecasts, Austin Karp reports — less than the 2020 XFL (1.9 million through a similar number of games) but more than the Alliance of American Football in 2019 (556,000). There was a big drop after Week 1, but viewership has mostly stabilized.

What did the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” say about the Fox Sports-owned USFL this week? The N.Y. Post’s Andrew Marchand: “The numbers are pretty good, they’re consistently not bad, when you consider they own the league and NBC has their games on as well.”

My colleague John Ourand: “They created a TV show, and they’re getting not-NFL numbers, not-NBA Playoff numbers. But they’re getting pretty good numbers for Saturday afternoon/Saturday night football.”

• In a bid to help families that have owned NFL teams for generations keep the clubs family-owned, the league voted to lower the minimum equity threshold required for controlling individuals in those families from 5% to 1%, sources tell me.

• The NFL will proceed with the creation of its own streaming service, NFL Plus. A launch is expected in July. Live games on mobile phones and tablets will be the content centerpiece of NFL Plus, which will sell for about $5 monthly, though a source cautioned the pricing structure may change.

• Confirming my colleague Terry Lefton’s reporting back in February, Pepsi this week made it official that it will not renew its deal to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show.

• The Eagles will become the first NFL team with commercial rights in Africa under an expansion to the NFL’s international marketing program, a source close to the process told me. The Eagles will become the 19th team to join the program, and get rights in Ghana, Australia and New Zealand.

• The NFL is considering radical changes to the Pro Bowl, recognizing that the tackle football exhibition aspect of the all-star celebration no longer meets the league’s quality standards.

• Owners this week approved a proposal requiring teams to share customer data with the league office, sources told me, a step that would supercharge the centralized NFL fan database but has some clubs concerned about data privacy and competition.

• All five groups vying to buy the Broncos submitted their proposed amendments to the sale contract ahead of the second round of bids coming due in June, sources said, more evidence that momentum is building toward a sale that’s likely to set a new price record for a pro sports team acquisition.

• Five states have fully sanctioned girls flag football: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Nevada and Alaska. At least seven more have launched pilots, including population-rich California and New York, and the number is growing rapidly. In most states, an NFL club is involved to one degree or another.