Mr. Holden’s Too-Free Speech

There are reasonable ways to spur interest in bringing professional football back to Los Angeles, and there is City Councilman Nate Holden’s way. Recently, he has garnered puzzlement in Los Angeles--and apoplexy in Oakland--over his claims that the Raiders will soon get the legal right to return to Los Angeles and that they might do so.

It’s still not clear what dimension of reality Holden is operating in, but this much is true: Raiders owner Al Davis and the National Football League aren’t close to settling a lawsuit Davis has filed over his claim of first right to any team in the L.A. market. There is no Los Angeles-based plan afoot to have the Raiders break their contract with Oakland and Alameda County and return here. Indeed, elected officials ranging from Holden’s council colleagues to L.A. County supervisors have taken great pains to distance themselves from Holden’s comments.

So what is Holden up to? The worst possibility is that he was never serious and wanted only to embarrass the National Football League at anyone’s expense, including Oakland’s and Alameda County’s, for not getting L.A. a team. That surely would rile the Bay Area, which is already finding it difficult enough to get residents to pay for the “personal seat licenses” that were part of the costly deal that brought the Raiders back to Oakland.

“The amount of time we have had to spend on these unfounded rumors is worth something,” said Mary King, an Alameda supervisor who is running for mayor in Oakland. King said officials there are considering a lawsuit against Los Angeles alleging that the Bay Area city has been damaged by Holden’s assertions; such a legal action is exactly what Holden’s critics fear.

Holden’s next move should be to hold his tongue. Fat chance.