For a couple of days here, it was almost like Grantland never went away.

ESPN.com … just the regular ol’ website most of us go to for scores and boxscores … generated a pair of lengthy, NFL-oriented entries that are highly readable and worth the 20-minute (each) investment.

One (4,500 words) was an extremely clever/funny piece looking into the NFL’s future, and the other (6,100 words) was an exhaustive, behind-the-scenes report on the Rams’ move from St. Louis to Los Angeles.

Two fine pieces of writing, totally different styles (one whimsical, the other serious as hell), and neither the sort of thing we have associated with ESPN.com, over the years.

So, good for them. (But I’d rather have Grantland back, thank you.)

The first to appear was the piece predicting the winners of the next 25 Super Bowls.

At first, you wonder how the hell that is going to work.

But Thomas Neumann, a writer with whom I am not familiar, cleverly (and amusingly) identifies trends already observable in the league, and speculates at others, as he rolls off 25 final scores, taking us through Super LXXV in the year 2041.

The piece is not serious, but it is built around a handful of not-crazy assumptions:

–The NFL has no shame when it comes to stadium naming rights. (The Trump Dome, Dubai; Viagra Stadium, Paris.)

–Current players will be coaches, going forward (well, of course), but which of those will succeed is open to speculation, and we can bank on sons and grandsons and great grandsons suiting up.

–The league will continue to grow; Neumann suggests 128 teams by 2041, playing in countries as diverse as China, South Africa and Australia.

–The date of the Super Bowl will steadily be pushed back in time, as the playoffs are expanded to ridiculous numbers of teams, with kickoff for Super 75 pegged at June 30.

–The Lions and Bills still will not have won a Super Bowl.

It is a funny and insightful piece, with regular cameos by future president J.J. Watt. The only significant trend not broached is how the league is going to navigate the concussion issue over the next quarter-century, and in a humor piece, which is what this really is, an author can avoid reality if he chooses.

The second piece is a beefy context/investigative story in which a writer for The Magazine, Don Van Natta Jr., tells the real story behind the Rams’ move from St. Louis back to Los Angeles.

In it, the NFL is explained as an assembly of owners who often take no advice from their “king”, the commissioner, and pretty much do whatever they want — as evidenced by Stan Kroenke’s decision to move to Los Angeles/Inglewood and build the most expensive facility in sports history.

Perhaps the most interesting bit is the behind-the-scenes chaos during the two-plus years that it took to sort this out. The author suggests that the Ray Rice case preoccupied (and diminished) Roger Goodell, the commissioner, leading to 32 owners maneuvering like Byzantines to try to find their own advantages in any franchise move.

Two owners bulk large in the factions that developed, the pro-Inglewood group led by Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and the pro-Carson faction led by Jerry Richardson. Jones is portrayed as the leader of the forward-thinking but particularly ruthless owners, and Richardson as the point man for the only slightly more gentile “traditionalists”.

Another fascinating bit is the role that a man described only as an “NFL executive” named Eric Grubman played in the league decision. The author of the story sites several examples of this mysterious NFL exec intervening at several crucial moments to back the Kroenke plans.

This is the important story. The first is fun, but the Rams relocation story is the one NFL fans should make a point of reading.