In one of the most pathetically embarrassing interviews of recent times, Roger Goodell, commissioner of the National Football League, tells a Wall Street Journal editor today (Jan. 8) why we should all feel sorry for the owners of professional football teams. Goodell is trying to get public support for the NFL owners' attempt to take more of the total income pie from the players. The dispute could lead to an NFL lockout or strike in 2011. The piece runs on page A11 in the Opinion section. The interviewer clearly sides with Goodell, weeping for the impecunious owners (many of whom are billionaires).

Goodell's first slip-up involves the Chargers. The editor writes, "The difficulty of building new stadiums, Mr. Goodell argues, is why for 15 years there hasn't been an NFL franchise in Los Angeles -- the country's second largest market." Goodell is quoted directly: "We need to get back to a system that allows us to make those investments to grow the game." Hmmm. It was in the mid-1990s, 15 years ago, that the Chargers made the one-sided deal with San Diego to refurbish the stadium now known as Qualcomm. The Chargers insisted upon, and the City of San Diego permitted, a clause allowing the team to shop itself around to other cities. Later, when the team agreed to drop the reviled 60,000 seat guarantee, the Chargers wangled three-month windows each year when it could relocate. And it could talk to another city about such a relocation without telling San Diego. Former Councilmember Bruce Henderson, who pointed out beginning in the mid-1990s that the Chargers/San Diego contracts were roadmaps to L.A., says, "So for 15 years they have been trying to fund a stadium in L.A. That's why these escape clauses have been written into the San Diego/Chargers contracts."

Second is an astounding omission. The interview with Goodell takes up about 60% of a full page. Over and over, the commissioner laments that owners need more money so they can build more stadiums. But owners only put a portion of the money into stadiums. According to the text "Sports Economics" by Rodney Fort, between 1999 and 2003, a full 64% of money going into stadiums, ballparks, and arenas represented public, or taxpayers money. In the entire interview, there is not one word about states and municipalities being in financial trouble, and certainly not having money to put into welfare for billionaires. We are supposed to weep tears for the owners, but the states and cities, which put in the most money, are ignored completely.

Finally, the Journal makes a statement that sheds light on why football stadiums are costing a good deal over $1 billion these days. Goodell is the source of the statement. Says the Journal, "high tech amenities are increasingly needed to lure fans from their 60-inch, high-def home televisions." The way that's done is to have enormous screens inside the stadium -- a la the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. Sports moguls have seriously proposed building retractable-roof stadiums in L.A. and San Diego -- quintessential Mediterranean climates. On their face, these are utterly goofy ideas. But those retractable roofs may be needed to control the lighting so that the big screens can be clearly seen, says Henderson.

San Diegans, watch your wallets. Professional pickpockets are at work.