a week old and I didn't see it till now—Rick Venturi on the move

Rick Venturi: Media ‘Complicit’ in Rams Leaving, St. Louis Fans ‘Loyal’

Brendan Marks posted on January 14, 2016 10:02

http://www.insidestl.com/insideSTLcom/STLSports/Rams/tabid/137/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/20062/Rick-Venturi-Media-Complicit-in-Rams-Leaving-St-Louis-Fans-Loyal.aspx

Former Rams assistant coach Rick Venturi, who for several years served as an analyst at 101 ESPN, joined The Ryan Kelley Morning After on Thursday.

Venturri gave his thoughts on everything surrounding the Rams leaving St. Louis for Los Angeles, including who’s responsible for the team leaving and what the city could have done to prevent it.

We typed up several excerpts and included paraphrased tweets from the interview, which you can listen to below:

“I feel terrible for the fans because that’s a great sports town. No fan base has been more loyal through awful football for 20 years – other than 15 minutes of fame with ‘The Greatest Show on Turf’ – it’s been awful football. Those people have supported it. They had very few blackouts…I feel bad (for media guys) who cover sports.”:

Did you see this coming?

“Four or five years ago…when I was on the air, I actually saw an inevitability here. I was apart of the Baltimore-to-Indianapolis move (and a part of when the Browns moved to Baltimore). I remember saying (you better get out in front of this thing) because if you don’t think Cleveland can lose a team…anybody can lose a team. Unfortunately, I was prophetic.”

On how the media is partly culpable in the Rams leaving:

“I think there was a misreading of the tea leaves by the powers of St. Louis. In that sense, I think the media was complicit, not maliciously in any way…I think they were homers in a sense, provincial in a sense, to believe that, one, Kroenke was a Missouri man more than a business man. The top-tier lease thing was there, the stadium has gone down hill, the team was awful. So when you didn’t get out in front of it (years ago, it was going to be difficult to keep the team).”

“I think the local media gave credibility (to Roger Goodell). And he works for the owners and the owners’ benefits. I think had the media actually recognized the tea leaves better…particularly some of the stronger sounding guys in town, could have shot a much stronger warning shot, really something that may have really woke up people earlier. But I don’t blame anybody because that market was going to steal somebody.”

Were you surprised the NFL didn’t take time to thank St. Louis for supporting a team that had been so bad?

“Absolutely. It was harsh in that sense. Kroenke’s obvious plea to the league…was harsh. It was really harsh. Goodell, who gave lip service to the local media guys…all of a sudden acted like he’d never been here before. But everything the NFL does is (based on finances). So that doesn’t surprise me.”

On Kroenke:

“Kroenke doesn’t surprise me. He’s a different guy. I was there for three years on the staff, never met him. I saw him a couple times. Obviously, he’s a mogul. He had the wherewithall…to give them a magical kingdom out there. Because he has unlimited funds and he has a vision as a developer.”

On the product Los Angeles is getting:

“I don’t think on the outside world…I don’t think people realize how good (the St. Louis fan base has been) despite that disaster there. Wait until Los Angeles gets a hold of this program. Wait until they see this operation from top to bottom, from drafting to coaching to playing, wait until they get a load of this.”