ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — Six months after St. Louis lawyers secured a $790 million payment from the NFL to settle a suit over the Rams' departure, the Post-Dispatch is pulling back the curtain on how it all happened.Ìý

Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the newspaper last week offer the most complete picture yet of how Rams owner Stan Kroenke planned his escape to Los Angeles, how closely the NFL worked with him to keep fans in the dark, and just how deeply St. Louis lawyers got into the league's inner sanctum as they went after damages.Ìý

Read the full story here.

1. Kroenke was scouting LA land in 2013Ìý

Kroenke and top team executive Kevin Demoff began talking about buying land in Los Angeles in earnest in the summer of 2013, more than a year before they revealed their plans to the public.

Demoff would later remember Kroenke calling him really early one day as he was driving around the land.Ìý

“And if you’re getting a call from your boss at 7:15 and you know they’re on the West Coast,� Demoff said that day, “either it’s something really great or you’re about to fired, right?�

“He goes, ‘I’m driving around Hollywood Park. This is an unbelievable site,’� Demoff continued. “We’re on the phone for two hours and he says, ‘I think this could work.’�

“That,� Demoff said, “was the first time I ever thought this could become a reality.�

2. The NFL knew about the Rams' plan

In October of that year, Kroenke met privately with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and two other key team owners and laid out his plan to move.Ìý

With St. Louis refusing to upgrade the Edward Jones Dome, the Rams could give notice to leave as soon as 2015, Kroenke said. Kroenke, whose wife is Ann Walton, already had a line on the first chunk of land in Hollywood Park: It belonged to Walmart, and the company wanted to sell.

And he had political connections in the area: “(U.S. Rep.) Maxine Waters is a very good friend,� he said. “And the Mayor (of Inglewood) is a hell of a guy. … He has already jumped on our train.�

When asked if he could make St. Louis, Kroenke dismissed the idea. The city had lost too many big companies. Sponsorship was down. "I'm not sure a new stadium does it for you," he said.

3. Demoff plotted to highlight St. Louis struggles

In December 2013, Demoff sent Kroenke a secret memo laying out, in detail, strategies to get NFL permission to move the Rams, including a plan to highlight St. Louis’ “downward trend as a market.�

Demoff said the team should consider paying for a study on the long-term prospects of St. Louis'Ìýeconomy and population growth.Ìý

The plan would come to fruition three years later, when the Rams officially filed for relocation and cast St. Louis as a bad investment for the league.Ìý

4. The NFL worked with the Rams to spin key developments

At least twice, the Rams and the NFL worked together on public statements obscuring Kroenke’s moves in LA.

The first time was after Kroenke bought land at Hollywood Park in 2014. NFL executives, including the commissioner, recommended that the Rams steer clear of a story on the land buy and have Kroenke’s real estate company comment instead.

The second time was in 2015, after Kroenke leaked the news that he was building a stadium in Los Angeles. Kroenke's men coordinated with the league to make sure everyone kept with the protocol set the previous year.

5. Rams fans had a friend in Cincinnati

By the end, just two of the NFL team owners voted against the Rams’ move.

Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown was the only vote against any relocation to Los Angeles and was outspoken about it: “There’s nothing wrong with the markets where these teams play now,� he said at one meeting in 2015.

He asked at another:Ìý“Shouldn’t we be supportive of the markets that have supported us for all these years?â€�Ìý