AP

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was reportedly high on comrade Stan Kroenke’s bid to bring the Rams to Los Angeles.

And now, he’s said so publicly.

The Cowboys owner said after a joint practice between his team and the Rams in Oxnard that he had nothing but respect and admiration for his currently-in-St. Louis counterpart.

“Since I was born in Inglewood, since I’m a favorite son of El Segundo — and if you go down through there you can probably find 15 or 20 relatives of some distance back — so I’ve got a lot of background in California. I’m a real fan of Stan Kroenke,” Jones said, via Steve Wyche of NFL Network. “I’m really a fan of Los Angeles and having the NFL have a major posture relative to the sports scene in Los Angeles.

“Stan is outstanding. He’s been outstanding in the NFL and he’s the kind of people you want to be with.”

While that’s something short of an endorsement (and something closer to an introduction at a Civitan Club meeting), Jones’s words might also signal the preference which was reportedly stated behind closed doors in last week’s owners meetings.

Jones said both proposals were strong, refusing to dump on the Carson bid which might host the Chargers and Raiders, but said the bigger issue is getting the nation’s second-largest market right.

“The main thing is Los Angeles needs the very best, the very best we can put in Los Angeles, so that’s the big issue,” Jones said.

It doesn’t hurt that Kroenke can throw more money in the direction of the project in the form of transfer fees, and that he has shovels ready to hit the dirt now.

But with the likelihood of the league trying to “manage the outcome” of the effort to get a team back there, having Jones speak so glowingly about Kroenke is definitely worth filing away.