http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2015/05/26/bradfords-acl-what-are-the-odds/

…

To get a better understanding for the situation, we spoke with Dr. James L. Carey, Director of the Penn Center for Advanced Cartilage Repair and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. From Dr. Carey’s vantage point, does the fact that Bradford is coming off two ACL ruptures make it more likely that he will sustain a third?

“No,” he replied. “In my opinion, I don’t think that he’s at an increased risk for a third injury any more so than his other knee or the knees of any other NFL quarterback.”

The odds of re-injuring the same knee are relatively low. According to Carey, studies have shown that the probability of re-tearing a reconstructed ACL is about three to six percent. (Those studies were on the general population, not just football players. But they line up with other findings that suggest the chance of a recurrent injury to the same knee amongst NFL players within two years is about five to six percent.) Meanwhile, the probability of tearing the other knee — or the “native ACL” — is higher, around nine to 12 percent.

“You would think the reconstructed ACL would be more at risk. And it’s really changed our behavior a lot in how we treat these athletes when they return to play,” said Carey. “For example, bracing used to be pretty common after ACL reconstruction. At this point, I guess the question is: which knee do you want to brace? The other knee is actually at a higher risk in general.”

The reason for the lower odds? Part of it, Carey theorizes, is that the tissue used to reconstruct may be a little bit bigger than the native ACL. If the original ACL is seven millimeters, say, it might have been replaced with a nine millimeter graft, so there’s more give. Also, because of all of the attention that leg receives during rehab, it’s not uncommon for patients to feel that the reconstructed side is the stronger of the two.

Bradford turned out to be part of that three-to-six percent group that ruptured the same ACL twice. What to make of it? Carey likened an ACL tear to pulling out a kitchen drawer just hard enough that it jumps off the rails and hits the ground. Oftentimes, you fix the stop, put the drawer back in its grooves and the issue never comes up again. But in some cases, the same elements come together and the drawer pops back out.

“I think it’s just kind of one of those freak deals,” said Bradford at his introductory press conference. “From everyone I’ve talked to – our team doctors in St. Louis, Dr. [James] Andrews, they just thought that it was one of those things where they felt like I got hit a certain way two times and regardless of whether my ACL was an original, a repair, it was going to tear. So I think it just happened.”

“We’ve done our due diligence in terms of talking to Dr. Andrews in terms of what we are getting,” said Chip Kelly. “So we feel very confident in where Sam is.”

While the chances of a re-tear are pretty low, Carey said that athletes that have had multiple ACL ruptures in the same knee are at greater risk for cartilage damage and arthritis. So there could be some long-term effects down the road.

Bradford’s injury history goes beyond ACLs, of course. He missed a chunk of games in 2011 with a high ankle sprain. Was sidelined most of his junior season at Oklahoma with an injury to his throwing shoulder that eventually required surgery.

At some point, don’t you have to say that a player is injury-prone?

“I think it’s mostly the environment that the athletes are in,” Carey opined. “In football, there are a lot of ankle sprains and ACL ruptures. It’s part of the nature of the game. I think all of the athletes are vulnerable to these injuries — it’s part of the game — but I don’t think that any one athlete is systematically more prone to these injuries than any other athlete, really.”

Though there can be contributing factors, from style of play to training. Kelly puts a big focus on the latter, as we know, utilizing sports science and personalized regimens to try and maximize output and reduce the chance of injury.

To that end, Carey cited the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ findings that “neuromuscular training programs could reduce ACL injuries.”

“Basically for every 109 patients that they treated, they prevented one ACL,” said Carey, who added that such programs have the best chance of preventing non-contact injuries. “So I think there is a benefit. Between the preseason and training camp, the Eagles probably touch about 109 players, and they can save an ACL. And in a game like the NFL, which is a game of inches and seconds, boy, one player can be a huge thing.”

Especially if that player turns out to be your starting quarterback.

Chip Kelly, football’s most intriguing figure, is also its most unknown

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/footballs-most-intriguing-figure-chip-kelly-is-also-its-most-unknown/2015/07/24/e65e4b72-3086-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html

On a Monday afternoon nearly two years ago, a woman in her mid-forties settled into a long Metro ride, Dupont Circle to Landover, bound eventually for FedEx Field.

Jennifer Jenkins hadn’t been to an NFL game since she was a little girl, football making so much noise during one part of her life that for a long time she tuned it out. But this day in September 2013 was different: Chip Kelly was coaching his first NFL game, his Philadelphia Eagles playing the Washington Redskins.

Kelly, 51, coaches football in a way that calls attention to himself, but he keeps much of his life off limits. Even the profiles that have been written give little sense of him away from the field, apart from the occasional mention of how he is a lifelong bachelor, seemingly married to the game.

Wearing neither team’s colors, Jenkins reached the stadium that afternoon and an old friend from her native New Hampshire pushed a ticket into her hand. She found her seat near the 50-yard line, behind the Philadelphia bench, surrounded by the hopeful, the jeering and the curious.

A while before the game, she pulled out her cellphone and sent a text message to the Eagles’ rookie head coach, the man who had been her husband for seven years.

‘A different kind of weirdo’

The most interesting man in football walks through the doors at Eagles headquarters, toward an outdoor lectern. It is late May, and more than 100 reporters have gathered under a tent.

During the next 13 or so minutes, Kelly will be asked about the action-packed way he spent his offseason: engaging (and prevailing over) former general manager Howie Roseman in a front-office power struggle, trading away quarterback Nick Foles (who passed for 40 touchdowns the past two seasons) and acquiring Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow (who appeared in a total of seven games the past two years), and dealing with former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy’s suggestion that Kelly has spent the past two years pruning “all the good black players” from Philadelphia’s roster.

“I’m not governed by the fear of what other people say,” Kelly says, and his first 30 months as an NFL coach have shown even more proof of that. Since that debut game at FedEx Field in 2013, the Eagles have parted ways with more than half of the players who suited up — including McCoy, wide receiver DeSean Jackson and guard Evan Mathis, with their combined eight Pro Bowls.

Kelly is sarcastic and dismissive of reporters; he declines most every interview request, including one for this story, and refuses in any forum to answer questions about his personal life. His family has been ordered to keep quiet in public about Kelly, and Mike Zamarchi, the coach’s longtime buddy, says Kelly’s friends are “sworn to silence.” Players, too, are kept at a distance, and so are fellow coaches: Mike Bellotti, the former Oregon coach and athletic director who was Kelly’s boss for three years, knows little more about Kelly than that he hates green vegetables and loves beer. “I’m not sure I would consider that I know Chip,” Bellotti says.

There are holes in the Kelly story, unanswered questions and mystery that have grown his legend as much as anything. His middle name is absent from many public records, and even Mark Saltveit, who has written two biographies of Kelly, has had trouble accounting for a six-year period of Kelly’s life, between his final game as a college player at New Hampshire and his graduation from the school.

After one of his four seasons as Oregon’s head coach, Kelly spent part of one summer by running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain; later a story circulated that his 6,300-square-foot house in Eugene contained little more than a couch and a television. It was bizarre, but because it was Kelly, it was also believable.

When he took over the Eagles, players saw his quirks and emphases up close. Kelly asked them to supply daily urine samples, to document their sleep and heart rates, to practice while a network of speakers blared drill cadences and favorites from Ricky Martin or “The Lion King.” “There’s plenty of weirdos in the NFL,” one of Kelly’s former players says. “He’s just a different kind of weirdo.”

Who, it should be pointed out, led Philadelphia to the NFC East title that first year. In the time since, Kelly has been called a genius and an innovator, a narcissist and a cowboy, a revolutionary and a racist. It’s possible his act will get him fired, but because it’s Kelly, it’s just as believable he’ll win multiple championships. “Every time I’m talking to him,” the former player says, “I’m standing there wondering what the hell he’s thinking.”

‘He likes to ask why’

Jenkins was a senior at New Hampshire when a friend introduced her to Kelly on Thanksgiving day in 1989. The Manchester city football championship was that day, a reason to celebrate no matter the winner, and so she and Kelly, four years older than Jenkins, talked for a long time.

He was 25 and shy, but when he spoke his words were thoughtful and energetic; football was more than a passion — even then, as Jenkins put it in a recent telephone conversation, the game was a “way of life” for Kelly. He was ambitious and bright, the son of a trial lawyer who believed in challenging the establishment, one of four brothers, a young man determined to leave his mark on the world.

“I don’t know when he became inquisitive, but I know he likes to ask why, and I know he likes to understand why things are happening,” says Bob Leonard, who coached Kelly as a high school player. “Even as a kid he was like that.”

Jenkins and Kelly kept seeing each other, she learning that he was a reader but had no patience for fiction; he read self-improvement books before it was trendy, and his impatient intellect led some people to mistake him for aloof. Jenkins stayed in New Hampshire when Kelly took his first college coaching job in 1990, working with the defense and special teams at Columbia University, but after two seasons he was back home.

A few weeks before Kelly’s first game as New Hampshire’s running backs coach, his name spelled “Chip Kelley” in the school’s 1992 media guide, he and Jenkins stood in front of about 250 guests and married. “A great party,” Jenkins says now, and it is around this time that she wonders if she should continue. She figures Kelly wouldn’t like her sharing all this.

Difficult to define

At Oregon the coaches learned that a good way to kill a conversation with Chip Kelly — in the football offices, on the golf course, over burgers and beers — was to expand the discussion.

“In terms of football, he’s awesome; he’s willing to talk about anything,” Bellotti says. “But beyond that, he does play things very close to the vest.”

Nick Aliotti, who spent six years alongside and under Kelly as the Ducks’ defensive coordinator, can’t remember one conversation in which the men talked about family. When Bellotti elevated Kelly from offensive coordinator to head coach in 2009, Kelly asked Bellotti, who became Oregon’s AD, to continue making public appearances and meeting with boosters because Kelly didn’t like making small talk. Bellotti, who has spent all his life on the West Coast, figured that’s just how people from the Northeast must be; Aliotti assumed the disconnect was because he’s nine years older than Kelly — and that Kelly is acerbic and unyielding. “I like the guy a lot,” Aliotti says, “but he can piss you off.”

There was no doubt, though, that the man knew how to coach, keeping players motivated and challenged. At New Hampshire, he might run the single-wing offense one game and the spread the next; to mix it up, one week the Wildcats attempted six passes, former New Hampshire quarterback Ryan Day says, and the next they threw it 65 times.

Kelly relied on efficiency — more offensive plays means more potential for points — and thought about ways to simplify a complex game. One way was abandoning long and nonsensical play calls; one season at New Hampshire, he nicknamed deep routes after long-distance phone companies: “AT&T” meant the pass was going to the A receiver, “Nextel” bound for the X.

He experimented with concepts and plays, took an interest in sports science, and refused to change. Aliotti once confronted Kelly about running practices too fast; the Ducks’ defensive staff had little opportunity to coach players and make adjustments. Kelly didn’t care. Now Aliotti admits Kelly’s attitude and increased tempo forced the defense to adjust, helping shape Oregon into one of the nation’s most feared all-around programs.

“He was never afraid of what people thought or afraid to fail,” says Day, who’s now the Eagles’s quarterbacks coach.

Players on Kelly’s first Eagles team saw their new coach as a look into the NFL’s future — but also as something of a curiosity. He had seemingly come out of nowhere, having never been a head coach before 2009 and spending most of his career in the relative anonymity of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Kelly’s first impressions showed a coach who spoke often about being quick and efficient, but also a man unafraid to spend hours cycling through PowerPoint slides about the effects of alcohol, marijuana, sleep and water on an NFL player’s body. It seemed Kelly valued each morning’s urine test — plastic specimen cups waiting in locker stalls, jersey numbers written in black ink — as much as how a player performed during practice or a game.

“He wants guys who care about that stuff,” Eagles tight end Brent Celek said, “because that stuff does matter. A lot of the guys who are in our facility think the same way.”

Kelly backed up his methods with science and commitment, but what some saw as a revolution, others saw as misguided. One NFL player compared Kelly with Elon Musk; another referred to the coach’s methods as “Orwellian.” Regardless, each day players were greeted at the team facility by screens revealing who had completed the morning routine — an iPad soreness and mood survey, the results of a heart-rate monitor, and of course the urine test — showing players’ head shots and a background that turned green when the daily assessment was completed.

“Most people were very receptive to it, [but] some guys were like: ‘What are we doing; why are we doing this?’ ” a former Eagles player says, adding that as quickly as players learned how to cheat the hydration test, adding a splash of water from the urinal, Kelly ordered the system revamped to discourage diluters.

Kelly was approachable and, many times, jovial. But like at Oregon, his emotions and background story were largely out of bounds. Players pondered Internet rumors about their coach and wondered aloud about his psychological chemistry. “I don’t know if he was always the underdog or something or if his parents were always hard on him,” the former player says. “But it’s always like he’s got a chip on his shoulder.”

It had become common to wonder about the truths in Kelly’s life, and when he made those unavailable, the convenient response for anyone in his orbit was to accept legend as fact.

Why such a secret?

In 2011, Jenkins read an article in the New York Times that described bachelor coaches and how, even in the image-conscious and political world of college football, Kelly had never been married.

“Why does everything say that you weren’t married?” Jenkins said a friend recently asked her. “I just roll my eyes.”

It used to hurt, she says, as if seven years of her life had been washed away. But now she finds the humor in it. Jenkins’s former co-workers knew the real story, and a friend joked about calling a sports radio show to reveal that the friend had been in Kelly’s wedding party. After enough strangers told Jenkins they didn’t believe her, she began carrying a wedding photograph on her iPhone. “Nobody talks about it,” she said. “But everybody knows.”

Why, Jenkins sometimes asked herself, was this considered a secret? It didn’t seem like one to her, and if it was, the artificial intrigue was either the most NFL thing ever or the most boring secret of all time. The truth was no more scandalous than Kelly’s middle name (Edward) or how he spent those six years between playing at New Hampshire and graduating (coaching junior varsity football, Jenkins said, and working as a gym teacher as he slowly completed his degree requirements).

As for the marriage, the years had simply come and gone in New Hampshire, Kelly an assistant on his mentor Bill Bowes’s staff and Jenkins working at the university. They lived in Durham for a while, and then Kelly took a coaching job at Johns Hopkins, moving to Baltimore for one year while Jenkins remained in New Hampshire.

Kelly rejoined Bowes’s staff yet again in 1994, and four years later he and Jenkins had begun to drift apart. They were no longer living together, and in 1999 they divorced.

Football, as the most important thing in Kelly’s life, was a strain, Jenkins admits. But the game cannot be blamed for the demise of their marriage. Like many other things in Kelly’s seemingly complicated life, reality was simple: For a long time they were happy, and then after a while, they weren’t.

“It wasn’t his fault because he was focused on football,” she said. “That’s just not the way we’ve ever — that’s not it. That’s not what happened.”

She took a breath.

“We were just young,” she said, preferring to keep the details to herself.

Back into the breach

A few days from now, a quiet patch of land near the corner of South Broad Street and Pattison Avenue will come to life. Ninety players will file into the Eagles’s training complex, equipment will be moved onto the practice fields, and the results of a dramatic offseason — led mostly by the actions of a private man and daring coach — will soon begin to reveal themselves.

Will Foles and McCoy be remembered as foundation blocks or expendable pawns? Was it wise or foolish to cut ties with Mathis, the guard named to the last two Pro Bowls, and sign John Moffitt, who spent the past two years retired from the NFL and facing criminal charges? Has Kelly, who now possesses full control over Philadelphia’s football operation, taken on too much responsibility?

“You start chasing perception,” Kelly said during that standing-room-only news conference in late May, “and you’ve got a long life ahead of you, son.”

For a few weeks, Kelly disappeared into the silence, returning to New Hampshire and his summer home — a football man passing the days until it was time to return to work. One day in July, a text message popped into Kelly’s phone. Jenkins does this sometimes, a joke she thought Kelly might like or, because she’s superstitious, the same note of encouragement she sent the last time the Eagles won. Even at the end of their marriage, she said, they have remained friends.

Jenkins is 47 now, living most of the year in Washington; she started a care package business called MommaLu Remedies, and like Kelly, she has never remarried. These last two years or so, Jenkins has, for one identifiable reason, found herself supporting the Eagles.

“I want him to win. I want him to be successful,” she says. “It’s everything that he has worked for.”

Sometimes Kelly texts back immediately; other times days or weeks come and go. Jenkins knows he’s a busy and complicated man, probably off somewhere trying to answer the most glaring question: Can he make the leap from football’s most interesting man to one of its most successful?

Next Sunday, after seven months of intermittent noise, hopeful and curious players will push through the doors and flood the practice fields. Kelly will jog onto the turf behind them. Then the speakers will fire up, the football season beginning, music and instructions so loud nothing else can be heard.

Earl Thomas unsure he’ll be ready for Week One

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co…arl-thomas-unsure-hell-be-ready-for-week-one/

After Seahawks safety Earl Thomas had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder in February, word was that there was “no doubt” he’d be ready to play when the Seahawks open the regular season.

The lack of doubt was a bit surprising given the six-to-eight month timeline given for a full recovery from the surgery and it seems that the passage of time has allowed some doubt to creep into Thomas’s head. Thomas told Ed Werder of ESPN reports that while he is making steady progress in his rehab from the surgery, he’s not expecting to be cleared for the early portion of training camp and that he’s uncertain about his status for the season opener against the Rams in St. Louis.

“I’m unsure about everything at this point,” Thomas said. “I will find out more when I get back to Seattle on [July] 30th when I take my physical.”

That’s obviously not ideal for the Seahawks given Thomas’s importance to the team’s defense, but it would be far worse to rush in hopes of getting back for Week One if taking a more patient approach makes it likelier that Thomas will be 100 percent for a greater number of games.

With almost two months to go before the Seahawks take the field for the first time in the 2015 season, there’s plenty of time for Thomas’s status to become more certain and it will surely be something they’re watching closely in Seattle.

Key Rams for 2015: Offensive tackle Greg Robinson

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/19610/key-rams-for-2015-offensive-tackle-greg-robinson

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Before the St. Louis Rams report for training camp next week, we’re taking a look at five players returning to the team who will need to provide more if the team is going to be a playoff contender in 2015.

We continue with offensive tackle Greg Robinson.

Why more is needed: It’s probably not fair to Robinson to expect him to become one of the primary bedrocks of the offensive line in just his second season, especially given how much of a learning curve he had when he entered the league. But he was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft and many would argue that draft position alone should bring expectations for production right away. No matter where you come in on that discussion, though, there’s no doubt that the Rams need Robinson to take a big step forward this season. That’s because, despite starting just 12 NFL games, Robinson is the second-most experienced projected starter on the team’s offensive line going into the year. Adding more pressure to the job is the fact that Robinson plays the most important position on the line and will be responsible for new quarterback Nick Foles’ blind side. Robinson flashed potential as a rookie but was better at guard than he was at tackle after moving to the outside. There’s no denying the size and ability that Robinson has but the Rams simply don’t have the time to be patient with him. Robinson had offseason toe surgery but should be at full strength and ready to go when the season starts.

What the Rams need from him: Left guard Rodger Saffold is the only starter on the line with more starting experience than Robinson but Robinson is already in a position where he needs to become a leader for a young line. Beyond that, the Rams need him to play and produce like a former No. 2 overall pick. For Robinson, that means showing rapid improvement, particularly as a pass blocker. Robinson had a tendency to get lost in pass protection, particularly when defensive lines ran stunts and games at him and was also occasionally over aggressive in the run game. The Rams need Robinson to handle talented pass-rushers without having to offer much help and be a hammer in the run game. If he can do that, it would allow rookies Jamon Brown (right guard) and Rob Havenstein (right tackle) and whoever starts at center a little more leeway to get help from tight ends and running backs in pass protection.

Outlook: The good news is that none of the issues Robinson had as a rookie seemed to be physical and were correctable simply by gaining more experience and learning the nuances of the position. Robinson earned praise from the coaching staff during the offseason for his commitment to sharpening up that aspect of his game and Robinson said he and Saffold spent a lot of time together studying film and ironing out details. Likewise, Robinson can settle in at left tackle and devote himself to the position rather than bouncing between guard and tackle like he did as a rookie. It seems unlikely Robinson will make the leap to a Pro Bowl level or better but there are plenty of reasons to believe he’ll be markedly better in 2015.

How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces?

These are from a book called Disorder in the Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place.

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death..
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor , how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral…
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?

______________________________________
And last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No..
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-2015-training-camp-profile-wr-tavon-austin/%5DRams 2015 Training Camp Profile: WR Tavon Austin
The offense for the St. Louis Rams sure is shaping up nicely, but will the third-year wide receiver Tavon Austin have anything to do with it?

http://www.rams-news.com/ranking-the-top-20-coordinators-across-the-nfl-williams-14-nfl-com/%5DRanking the top 20 coordinators across the NFL: Williams #14 –NFL.com
This week, I’ve been examining the guys behind the guys — spotlighting the finest coordinators across the NFL landscape.

http://www.rams-news.com/nick-foles-feeling-at-home-with-rams-simmons/%5DNick Foles Feeling at Home with Rams –Simmons
Though he’s been a member of the Rams for only a short time, quarterback Nick Foles has already made enough of a positive impact to trigger talk of a contract extension.

http://www.rams-news.com/todd-gurley-return-for-rams-camp-looking-realistic-nfl-com/%5DTodd Gurley: Return for Rams camp ‘looking realistic’ –NFL.com
Todd Gurley’s rehab from an ACL tear is progressing to the point where the St. Louis Rams running back is eyeing next month’s training camp for his return to the field.

http://www.rams-news.com/why-are-the-rams-the-most-feared-team-by-the-seahawks-fans-audio/%5DWhy are the Rams the Most-Feared team by the Seahawks Fans –Audio

http://www.rams-news.com/after-initial-shock-of-rams-drafting-gurley-tre-mason-back-to-chasing-greatness/%5DAfter Initial Shock of Rams Drafting Gurley, Tre Mason Back to ‘Chasing Greatness’
When the St. Louis Rams used the 10th choice of the 2015 NFL Draft on Georgia running back Todd Gurley on April 30, it might have been the surprise pick of the first round.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-should-stay-patient-wait-on-nick-foles-extension/%5DRams Should Stay Patient, Wait on Nick Foles Extension
NFL general managers who don’t have a franchise quarterback in their stable are constantly on a quest to find one.

http://www.rams-news.com/which-non-nfc-west-team-will-give-the-rams-problems-in-2015/%5DWhich Non NFC West team will give the Rams Problems in 2015?
There is no question that the St. Louis Rams have an extremely tough schedule in 2015.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-back-up-plan-austin-davis/%5DRams’ Back Up Plan: Austin Davis
If Nick Foles were to ever go down, Austin Davis would once again have to come in and try to save the Rams’ season.

http://www.rams-news.com/james-laurinaitis-talks-rams-roster-growth-audio/%5DJames Laurinaitis Talks Rams Roster Growth –Audio

http://www.rams-news.com/change-to-nick-foles-gives-rams-average-offseason-grade-video/%5DChange to Nick Foles Gives Rams Average Offseason Grade –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/who-will-be-the-rams-offensive-mvp-in-2015/%5DWho Will Be the Rams’ Offensive MVP in 2015? –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-mcsafety-highlights-2014-video/%5DRams McSafety Highlights 2014 –Video

Meet Dr. Erin Shannon, the holistic practitioner several Rams and other athletes swear by

By Elisabeth Meinecke

http://www.foxsports.com/midwest/story/meet-dr-erin-shannon-the-holistic-practitioner-several-rams-and-other-athletes-swear-by-061615

ST. LOUIS — In 2011, Joe Buck was having the worst year of his broadcast career.

Early on, he’d visited vocal expert Dr. Steven Zeitels for help with a vocal cord that had been paralyzed from nerve damage. If anyone could fix the problem, it was Zeitels, whose Rolodex of clients, from Adele to Steven Tyler, read like a Grammy awards list. But his prognosis on Buck was bleak: While there were outlier cases, the rule of thumb was if his voice didn’t return to normal in three months, it likely wasn’t going to — ever.

It’s over, the FOX Sports broadcaster thought when he heard the news. Not being able to talk at full volume, in his profession, was crippling. He felt embarrassed and grew reclusive. He didn’t want to talk on the phone. He didn’t want to be social.

That October, however, during the National League Championship Series, Buck ran into childhood friend Dr. Erin Shannon. The two were almost like siblings — they’d grown up in the back of the Cardinals’ radio booth together, he the son of legendary Cardinals voice Jack Buck, she the daughter of the elder Buck’s broadcast partner, Mike Shannon. Now a practicing psychologist, Erin had recently incorporated a form of holistic treatment known as energy medicine into her work with professional athletes and had experienced success helping them rehab from physical ailments.

“I can help you,” she told Buck. “I can fix you.”

Buck, at that point, was willing to try anything. They began a series of noninvasive treatments, and as the major league postseason progressed, so did Buck’s rehabilitation — so much so that by the time David Freese hit one of the most electrifying home runs in World Series history, his call was memorable enough to help capture an Emmy for outstanding play-by-play that season.

“(It) was ironic and weird that I won it for that year because the year wasn’t good,” Buck admits. “But the postseason was really good, and that’s specifically when I worked with Erin.”

He continued sessions with her through the NFL season and visited Zeitels again in early 2012. The doctor took a first look, then a second at the previously paralyzed vocal cord. He was blown away.

“It’s moving,” Buck says Zeitels told him. “It’s fine.”

Buck admits there are still some days even now, three years later, when he’ll struggle with his voice, but that there are other days when he feels it’s even better than before the problem arose. Overall, he feels close enough to 100 percent on a daily basis that he thinks no one would ever notice he had an issue.

“I’m forever indebted to (Erin) for all of it,” he says.

***

Dr. Erin Shannon is a holistic practitioner with more than 22 degrees and certifications in both Eastern and Western medicine, and her ability to help athletes — and yes, at least one prominent broadcaster — recover from injury, or improve the mental side of their game, has drawn players from around the world to seek her help. Some of the toughest guys in the NFL walk through the doors of her St. Louis office, and she’s also treated MLB, NHL, MLS and NBA players, and even MMA fighters.

One of her biggest advocates is husband and St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who has witnessed her success helping athletes heal from injury quicker than their estimated recovery time. Some of her biggest fans are the clients who’ve felt the results, such as Buck.

“She’s got a great diagnostic ability to figure out what’s wrong with somebody,” Buck says. “And, I think, maybe as importantly — or even more importantly — how to fix it.”

The field of energy medicine itself is based on an understanding of the body that’s rarely encountered in traditional Western medicine.

“It is literally the electric energy that runs through our body, just like blood runs through our body,” Shannon explains.

It hinges on the belief in a strong mind-body connection, a common theme in Eastern medicine, and its noninvasive approach, Shannon says, complements Western medicine’s work. She’s well versed in both schools of thought, but it’s the former that has proved game-changing in her work with professional athletes.

One energy medicine service particularly useful to athletes is the ability to maintain strength in their muscles post-surgery, even when they cannot work out. Using visual imagery and energy techniques, an athlete can prevent atrophy and shorten his or her recovery period by as much as 50 percent. So, if they’ve had surgery, say, on their right leg, they can walk into the training room however many weeks later without atrophy in the limb.

“We will cut recovery times in half,” Shannon says. “And recovery is 100 percent, meaning we don’t have weakness in that leg.”

According to Shannon, the process involves releasing the memory of the trauma from the muscle tissue and the fascia.

“I’m about as much science as I can be with it, and I’m about helping people.”

“The body remembers the trauma,” she explains. “The mind might be sleeping from the anesthesia, but those muscles feel you cutting.”

The technique can even help target a nagging health concern that hasn’t required surgery. Shannon once treated a client who’d been cut from a professional team due to a recurring hamstring problem. He’s since played professionally for four seasons (and counting).

Because her approach to an athlete’s health, however, is holistic, Shannon’s treatments generally provide both mental and physical benefits. Rams defensive end William Hayes initially came to her because of tightness issues and lower back pain, but says the sessions make him feel better mentally, too.

“I went to work a lot of times saying, ‘I’m tired today, I’m not going to have a good day,'” he says. “She put in my mind to always say positive thoughts, and when you say positive thoughts, your body actually reacts to it. And I find that to be very true.”

In fact, the common refrain among Shannon’s clients is her help with the mental side of their sport, which they believe many athletes ignore, to their detriment.

“I think so often guys get so caught up in, ‘Oh, I need to lift weights, I need to take care of my playbook, I need to take care of running,'” says Rams defensive end Chris Long, another Shannon client. “Football is such a mental game. It’s such an emotional game as well, and I think a lot of what she does can cross over into that.”

Linebacker James Laurinaitis agrees. He heard about Shannon’s work through some of his teammates and became a client of hers last year. He’s been most drawn to the mental aspect of her techniques, or “mental coaching,” as he calls it, and says he noticed a difference even in training camp.

“I think as an athlete you always have self-doubt in certain areas,” he says, “so having that mental ability to kind of flip your thought process and try to really tell your mind that maybe things aren’t as difficult as you think they are, and don’t be afraid of certain things — I really found myself throughout the year, and really throughout training camp, just kind of using the techniques that she’s taught about really positive self-talk and really getting rid of all the negative kind of baggage that can weigh you down throughout a game.”

Shannon’s husband, meanwhile, sees how guys who earn their pay exuding strength and fearlessness can gain an advantage from having an outlet to purge vulnerabilities.

“Sometimes it’s hard for a guy like that to let the door down and be honest with a coach. Talk about a weakness. Maybe get tears in his eyes,” Williams says. “The fact that she, from a psychological aspect, has been tremendous with these guys on being able to get them through some tough times in their life, some tough days in their life, some tough situations in their life, things they’re going through, has been monumental.”

In addition to the emotional and physical aspects of her practice, Shannon also aids athletes in developing a skill that all superstars in sports have: Instinct.

People often say an athlete is “in the zone” when the player is at peak performance. At that moment, the athlete’s focus, control and ability to anticipate opponents seem almost inexplicable, and thus a cliche phrase covers what observers can’t explain. Often, the athlete can’t articulate it, either.

Shannon can.

“It’s that moment of optimal awareness where time slows down, crowd noise goes away, and you feel your senses heightened,” she explains. “You can feel like you can sense what everybody’s movements are going to be. You can sense the trajectory of the ball. You can feel the wind.”

Just like continuous reps help build a certain muscle group or skill, Shannon’s techniques can strengthen an athlete’s ability to get back to that heightened sensory state, enabling him or her to perform at peak level, again and again.

“The greatest athletes know how to get there, and they can get there all the time,” she says.

If it all still sounds hard to quantify, that’s because it is. Even Shannon’s athlete patients have a hard time articulating what she does.

“You should go in and see Doc Shannon,” they’ll tell one of their buddies.

“Why, what does she do?”

“Just go in and see it, because I can’t even explain it to you.”

***

Originally, Shannon was supposed to be the athlete, not the doctor.

She grew up in St. Louis, the youngest child of Mike and Judy Shannon. Her father’s ability to beat a life-threatening kidney disease at age 30 while playing for the Cardinals helped teach his children that determination could conquer anything. Her mother was the kind of person who always made those around her feel better — “St. Judy,” people called her.

Their youngest daughter, meanwhile, planned to be an Olympic runner, but an injury in high school cost her a college scholarship, her Olympic dreams and, she admits, her identity. With no idea what she wanted to do, the self-described jock enrolled at Loyola Marymount University and became an English major. She took one psychology course, found it ridiculously easy, and was shocked when she saw other kids taking notes in class. To her, the information was almost intuitive — so intuitive that psychology courses became her version of an easy A.

Erin Shannon is the daughter of Mike Shannon, a former Cardinals player and the club’s longtime radio voice.

Eventually, one of her professors, the granddaughter of a famous psychologist, began touting Shannon as a psychology prodigy, which, despite the A’s, stunned her as much as anyone. Shannon ended up switching her major and, per her usual habit of going all-in whenever she decided on something, took so many credits that she was able to graduate in around two years. In masters and graduate programs at Pepperdine, the pattern of ease continued; she tested out of classes containing material she’d never studied before.

Meanwhile, she learned to survive an adventuresome psychology internship in the Los Angeles public school system, which was rife with gang wars. Kids who looked at the young, slender graduate student and thought they had the advantage soon learned otherwise — even the ones who smuggled guns past the school’s security scanners. Raised in the adrenaline-saturated environments of locker rooms and clubhouses, Shannon refused to be intimidated.

She married a St. Louis businessman and, after graduating from Pepperdine, moved back to the city and soon landed a post-doctorate fellowship at Washington University in the psychiatry and genetics departments. She was the school’s first-ever dual fellow in those departments, but upon having her first child she resigned to become a stay-at-home mom.

When her family’s financial circumstances changed several years later, she found herself having to go to work — for the first time — in private practice. At the time, Shannon had no idea what a psychologist earned, or any idea how to set up a business. She gritted her teeth and went about it anyway. She took out a $600 ad in the Ladue News once — even that was more than she could afford — and hoped for the best. She still doesn’t know how, but people started coming.

She became interested in Eastern medicine after it eased her mother’s pain during the last days of her battle with brain cancer. Driven by the memory, and angered that, despite all her medical training, this was the first time she’d been exposed to techniques that may have helped her mother earlier in her illness, Shannon began reading about various forms of energy medicine. Once she started, she kept going, which is how she ended up with 22-plus degrees or certifications combined between her Eastern and Western training.

“You need to stop getting all the degrees,” Shannon says her brother finally told her. “We take you seriously. Stop. You know enough.”

“If I have an addiction, it’s learning, researching, studying,” she says. “And I’ll always do that. I’ll always have to stay up an extra hour and read the newest research article. I’ll always have to learn the newest, best, extra-special thing for my patients, because I feel like I need to know and they deserve the next newest thing, and science will always give us something new.”

After four years of intense research and training in energy medicine, she took on her first sports client in 2011, an older pitcher who’d been having trouble with his arm. She helped fix the problem, and by the end of the following week, her practice was flooded with athletes. Trying to raise six kids, and soon to be divorced, she’d stumbled on a surprising gap in sports medicine. Big-time agents started sending clients. She even had international patients. She found herself sleeping in her office like a gypsy, trying to keep up with the demand.

She made it work. Shannon now balances a full-time practice and parenting responsibilities, and has found new support along the way. On Sept. 28, 2012, she was on her way to a Rams-Seahawks game when she met Gregg Williams. Two years later, they were married.

Still, she remains driven by the memory of her mother’s illness — had she known about these techniques earlier, she wonders, would things be different? Could she have saved her mother? Haunted by the thought, Shannon found a measure of personal healing through determination: She would let no one else suffer as her mother had.

***

As an NFL defensive coordinator, Williams is not interested in fluff science — he’s interested in results. And the results he’s seen from his wife’s work with athletes are impressive. In fact, he admits he’s somewhat awestruck by it.

“It’s amazing on how she’s been able to get some of these guys to bounce back faster from an injury because of some of her methods of energy medicine and holistic medicine that has got guys healthy quicker,” he says. “Obviously, whenever a guy sees that, he’s all in because it’s about availability, it’s about production, it’s about performance, and they have to be on the field to do that. And she’s been able to help that and extend careers and quicken up rehab.”

Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has seen firsthand what his wife’s methods can do to speed his players’ recovery times.

He believes her work is a “missing ingredient” in the NFL, although he’s had players as far back as the early ’90s who’ve used some of the techniques.

“There are a few teams in the league from a psychological aspect that are doing this, and they are doing it and it’s been producing results,” he says. “I do know there are players in every different city that’s out there that understand (energy medicine) and they have been doing this on their own.”

In fact, Shannon — who is currently writing The Warrior Whisperer, a book due out this Christmas, about her practice — emphasizes the history of these techniques while discussing people’s concerns about any religious implications of her practice. She says the ancient Chinese used these methods, and that they’ve been practiced across a variety of religions. She tries to keep her approach as scientific as possible, her main focus being results for the athletes who come to her for help.

“I’m about as much science as I can be with it, and I’m about helping people,” she says. “I’m about anything and everything that I can use to help people. And if it works, then I use it. And this works.”[

Quick Progressing with Shoulder Rehab

Myles Simmons

http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Quick-Progressing-with-Shoulder-Rehab/00539de0-65ed-43e1-a9a2-18b36d03184d

Wide receiver Brian Quick has been working diligently to get back to full strength after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury last Oct. 26 against the Chiefs. While the wideout is still limited in what he can do on the field, head coach Jeff Fisher said on Thursday that Quick is coming along well.

“We’ll have to watch him, keep him out of contact, but he’s running routes against air,” Fisher said. “He’s catching and progressing nicely.”

It’s been a long process to rehab an injury so extensive that it surprised the wide receiver.

“That’s what really kind of got me,” Quick said. “It was pretty bad.”

But he said his mindset has been in the right place to physically recover.

“Anybody can give up and think it’s over,” he said. “I thought the opposite.”

On Thursday, he gave plenty of credit to the Rams’ head athletic trainer Reggie Scott and assistant athletic trainer Byron Cunningham for their assistance in the process.

“Byron working with me this offseason — we came together and worked really hard,” Quick said. “When I say ‘we,’ he put a lot into it. And I definitely came in and put in the work as well.”

The wide receiver said he felt he turned a corner about two months ago, while working through some drills with Cunningham.

“They saw I was coming along a little bit further than expected, so we just went from there,” Quick said.

Now at OTAs, the wide receiver has been able to participate in some positional drills, but he’s not been cleared to do much else quite yet.

“It’s always hard, coming out here seeing these guys work, and you have to sit down and watch them,” Quick said. “You want to be out there so badly, but you have to just be patient. It’ll come.”

The wideout has to be smart with how he maneuvers his shoulder at this point, a task made easier by the trust he’s gained from the training staff. Quick said that he’s gotten hold of how his body will react to different movements he makes on the field, and how he catches balls.

So while there is still no set schedule for Quick’s full return, he said that once it happens, he’ll be primed to make an impact.

“I know that when it’s time, I’m going to be ready,” Quick said.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-coach-jeff-fisher-couldnt-say-no-to-garcia-pd/%5DRams Coach Jeff Fisher Couldn’t Say ‘No’ to Garcia –PD
When he interviewed Jeff Garcia for the Rams’ quarterbacks coach job in February, coach Jeff Fisher came away impressed.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-among-teams-with-best-offseasons-so-far-brandt/%5DRams Among Teams with Best Offseasons So Far –Brandt
Below is my list of the six teams that have had the best offseasons, with five more to consider at the end for good measure:

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-brian-quick-making-progress-toward-return-latsch/%5DRams’ Brian Quick Making Progress Toward Return –Latsch
A year ago, Rams wide receiver Brian Quick was one of the most impressive players on the field during the team’s OTA sessions.

http://www.rams-news.com/new-rams-qb-nick-foles-taking-charge-of-rams/%5DNew Rams QB Nick Foles Taking Charge of Rams
For St. Louis Rams quarterback Nick Foles, the last three months have been a whirlwind.

http://www.rams-news.com/could-the-rams-be-a-better-offensive-team-in-2015/%5DCould the Rams Be a Better Offensive Team in 2015??
Backed by arguably one of the NFL‘s top defenses, it is time for the St. Louis Rams to finally become a complete team in order for them to become a playoff team in 2015.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-strong-pass-rush-is-back-under-co-ordinator-gregg-williams-ap/%5DRams’ strong pass rush is back under co-ordinator Gregg Williams –AP
The St. Louis Rams’ strong pass rush is back under co-ordinator Gregg Williams.

http://www.rams-news.com/ready-to-play-rookie-havenstein-an-odds-on-favorite-to-start-on-o-line-this-fall-fsmw/%5DReady to Play: Rookie Havenstein an Odds-on Favorite to Start on O-line this Fall –FSMW
Yeah, there’s a chance rookie tackle Rob Havenstein may not be starting on the St. Louis Rams’ offensive line come fall.

http://www.rams-news.com/kenny-britt-on-qb-foles-he-can-throw-every-pass-in-the-book-ap/%5DKenny Britt on QB Foles: ‘He can throw every pass in the book’ –AP
Quarterback Nick Foles is getting to know his new St. Louis Rams teammates.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-rb-tre-mason-says-todd-gurley-is-family-now/%5DRams RB Tre Mason says Todd Gurley is ‘Family’ Now
St. Louis Rams running back Tre Mason made the NFL All-Rookie team last season. After being selected out of Auburn with a third-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft

http://www.rams-news.com/akeem-ayers-finds-right-fit-with-rams-latsch/%5DAkeem Ayers Finds Right Fit with Rams –Latsch
Akeem Ayers had plenty of options in free agency this offseason, but the outside linebacker who spent most of his first four seasons with the Titans felt at home when he visited with the Rams.

http://www.rams-news.com/brian-quick-progressing-with-shoulder-rehab-simmons/%5DBrian Quick Progressing with Shoulder Rehab –Simmons
Wide receiver Brian Quick has been working diligently to get back to full strength after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury last Oct. 26 against the Chiefs.

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-center-competition-just-getting-started-wagoner/%5DRams Center Competition just Getting Started –Wagoner
Some thoughts and observations from the St. Louis Rams’ second open organized team activity on Friday afternoon:

http://www.rams-news.com/nick-foles-adjusting-to-vastly-different-offense-wagoner/%5DNick Foles Adjusting to Vastly Different Offense –Wagoner
Since his arrival in the NFL in 2012, quarterback Nick Foles’ view of the field has largely come standing upright from a few yards behind the center.

http://www.rams-news.com/todd-gurley-finding-ways-to-participate-in-rams-otas-wagoner/%5DTodd Gurley finding ways to participate in Rams OTAs –Wagoner
Although St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley isn’t technically participating in organized team activities this week, he is doing everything he can to get a reasonable approximation.

http://www.rams-news.com/greg-robinson-the-weight-loss-will-help-me-be-quicker-video/%5DGreg Robinson: The Weight Loss Will Help Me Be Quicker –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/sasser-story-could-have-a-few-more-twists-and-turns-video/%5DSasser Story Could Have A Few More Twists and Turns –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/jeff-fisher-talks-nick-foles-todd-gurley-and-bud-sasser-audio/%5DJeff Fisher Talks Nick Foles, Todd Gurley and Bud Sasser –Audio

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-og-rodger-saffold-being-patient-is-the-hardest-thing-video/%5DRams OG Rodger Saffold: “Being patient is the hardest thing” –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-rookie-rb-todd-gurley-its-just-about-getting-my-rehab-video/%5DRams Rookie RB Todd Gurley: “It’s just about getting my rehab” –Video

http://www.rams-news.com/rams-qb-nick-foles-building-chemistry-with-receivers-video/%5DRams QB Nick Foles Building Chemistry with Receivers –Video

Rams chat with Jim Thomas

http://sports.live.stltoday.com/Event/Rams_chat_with_Jim_Thomas_91?Page=0

Any survey results from Peacock or the Team owners? When should we expect some news?
by Jack Reynolds 2:05 PM

Hello again, everybody. As for survey results, nothing yet that I’m aware of.
by jthomas 2:05 PM

Jim – With the flurry of activity surrounding the owners meetings – including the possibility of a special meeting just to discuss St. Louis – and, the lawsuit, what’s your current stay percentage? Are you encouraged or discouraged?
by McGarrett 2:05 PM

I’m still at 43-57
by jthomas 2:06 PM

Hi Jim. Any updates to the story hat Stan was going to sell the Rams to his wife to meet the cross ownership rules. I know the NFL does whatever it wants when it comes to owners, but is that allowed? I’d like to know how that will impact the possible move to LA.
by STLFootball 2:06 PM

That was an old story, from at least a couple of years ago, that got published by mistake.
by jthomas 2:06 PM

so, with the lawsuit (whatever it is) are the rams as good as gone?
by steve r 2:07 PM

I wouldn’t say that. Not at this point.
by jthomas 2:07 PM

What’s your take on the demolition at Hollywood Park on Sunday? Do you think it was just Stan staying one step ahead or do you think the NFL basically said “hey, you’re going to win so why don’t you go ahead and start building”?
by flyguy 2:07 PM

Not much of a read on it either way. No matter what, the Hollywood Park facility was going down.
by jthomas 2:08 PM

I won’t ask for specifics, but do you or any member of the PD staff have information about the future of Rams football in St. Louis that you are unable to divulge to the public? A simple Yes or No answer will suffice.
by Turf Toe Jones 2:08 PM

Of course.
by jthomas 2:08 PM

Will Trey Watts remain a Ram after this suspension? How about Pead? Keep him around for some extra competition?
by AzRams`Fan 2:08 PM

Watts needs to have a very good training camp in order to give the Rams’ coaches something to think about. As does Pead. Obviously, Watts’ suspension opens up another opportunity for Pead to stick around.
by jthomas 2:10 PM

Does the team generate enough money in the region to justify staying? Or the inverse?
by willeyeam 2:10 PM

I think so.
by jthomas 2:10 PM

Jim – Any updates on Gurley’s health yet?
by Ryan 2:10 PM

Nothing yet. We’ll know more later in the week at the open OTAs.
by jthomas 2:11 PM

Was there any Rams offer to Joe Barksdale that was better than what he received from San Diego?
by Turf Toe Jones 2:11 PM

Both the Rams and Atlanta offered more money.
by jthomas 2:11 PM

IF both healthy, Bradford out performs Noles or vice versa?
by Don 2:11 PM

I’d say Bradford. But the “if healthy” is a monumental “if.”
by jthomas 2:12 PM

I keep reading the Rams drafted “road graders” and they’re a ground and pound team….”Gradest Show on Turf”? Kind of catchy if they can really run the ball.
by AzRams`Fan 2:12 PM

Yeah, which I believe is what they’ve been trying to do for 3-plus years.
by jthomas 2:12 PM

Do you think Peacock and Blitz should have just pushed for a public vote?
by c_good 2:12 PM

I know time is of the essence. And I realize it takes money to launch a campaign. But I don’t know why they didn’t try a vote first.
by jthomas 2:13 PM

What will Garcia’s role be?
by willeyeam 2:13 PM

He has the title of offensive assistant. It’s an entry level position and involves a lot of grunt work. It’s not a high-profile position.
by jthomas 2:14 PM

Do you think Nick Foles can lead the Rams to the playoffs?
by Big Dave 2:14 PM

If Foles stays healthy, the young offensive line produces, and the defense plays up to its press clippings _ yes.
by jthomas 2:15 PM

Hi Jim I just saw the Tre Mason Wired of his 3TD game vs OAK & he seems like a super exhuberant & likeable but humble well grounded guy with high character. He & Gurley could be big together yeah?
by Sacramento Ram 2:15 PM

Yeah, it’s just a matter of finding enough work for both _ and Gurley getting healthy.
by jthomas 2:16 PM

When do you think we will hear more news regarding the stadium from Peacock?
by Mark 2:16 PM

Hard to say. Perhaps when all the land is assembled.
by jthomas 2:16 PM

Does Cody Davis make the team this year??
How about Christian Bryant?
by mikeq 2:16 PM

Barring injury, McDonald, McLeod, and Barron are locks. I would think Alexander would be close to a lock because of his draft status (fourth round). That leaves one spot if the team goes with five safeties. And at this point I think Davis would have the edge over Bryant.
by jthomas 2:18 PM

Has the season ticket sales dropped from last year at this time?
by Mark 2:18 PM

From what I have been told, yes, ticket sales are down although I can’t give you a percentage.
by jthomas 2:19 PM

take this with a grain of salt but I know a guy whose son is involved with the development of NFL stadiums. He says the STL stadium is a done deal with Raiders/Chargers to Carson and Jags will be pushed to London once their lease expires (2020s I think).
by stlrams4ever 2:19 PM

Clip and save.
by jthomas 2:19 PM

I think the biggest obstacle is stan contributing what he needs to for the stadium to go forward. No indication he will. Your thoughts. Thanks
by Paul 2:19 PM

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. What if the NFL approves the Carson site? What other choice will Stan have.
by jthomas 2:20 PM

With all the moves made on the o-line, staying the course at WR, and total overhaul in the QB room, I think we may see more of the wide open offense that they tried in the beginning of ’13 as opposed to the G&P they are trying to sell. Thoughts?
by willeyeam 2:20 PM

No chance.
by jthomas 2:20 PM

If Stan is forced to stay he will have to contribute monies towards the new stadium, that is if he wants owners to vote for him to take over the Broncos when the time comes.
by Terry 2:21 PM

Something like that.
by jthomas 2:21 PM

Is there a large amount of technique difference between run blocking and pass blocking as an o-lineman? When someone is good at one but not the other, is it seen as a difficult transition to become good at both?
by Jason Vorhees 2:22 PM

Well, run-blocking takes more strength and power. Pass-blocking takes more athleticism and footwork. I know that’s a big generalization, but that’s it in a nutshell. Of course, there are also line calls, blitz pickups, dealing with stunts and blitzes that must be taken into account as well in pass blocking. This mental part can be just as difficult for incoming college players as the physical part.
by jthomas 2:25 PM

People keep saying Stan may be “forced to stay” as if something is “forcing” him to leave (besides the $$). Am I missing something?
by willeyeam 2:25 PM

No, but it’s clear he wants to leave.
by jthomas 2:25 PM

The national perspective on the Rams’ WR corps still seems to be that there are no real playmakers. Why do Snead/Fisher feel good about their options on the outside especially considering Quick has still yet to prove he is 100% healthy?
by Tackleberry 2:26 PM

They’re banking that Quick will pick up where he left off, that Britt will continue to play like he did last year, and that Austin and Bailey continue to improve. Plus, they have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Cook and Kendricks at tight end. And they’re hoping they’ll be catching passes from a first-string QB most if not all of preseason.
by jthomas 2:30 PM

any word on how the 3 FA RB’s, Brown Laskey and Franks looked during rookie camp?
by Run Ram Run 2:30 PM

Nothing yet. Today was their first full practice and was not open to the media.
by jthomas 2:30 PM

Do you think Bradford will have a tougher adjustment to the philly O, or foles to the STL O? Thanks
by Paul 2:30 PM

I don’t think it’ll be too tough for either. Remember, Bradford has his former OC as a rookie, Pat Shurmur, in the same role in Philly. So that will make the transition easier.
by jthomas 2:31 PM

Jim: I have hopes for more simple offense with better execution… have you interviewed the New OC yet … any insights to how he thinks? Everyone knowing what to do on every play was a problem at times for the rams.
by Jeff In Utah 2:31 PM

Yes, I wrote a couple of stories on Cignetti right after he was hired. He’s run-oriented, yet flexible. His overall philosophy isn’t that different from Fisher. He does want a simpler playbook with simpler terminology.
by jthomas 2:33 PM

Jim – Is it just me or has the Raiders to STL chatter died down considerably?
by McGarrett 2:33 PM

Two factors at play here. The seeming progress of the Carson project, and Mark Davis saying he was not interested in moving to St. Louis.
by jthomas 2:34 PM

Any word on pending FA Justin Blalok?
by Matt in SC 2:35 PM

I’ve heard nothing in the way of updates at this point.
by jthomas 2:35 PM

Jim, if I gave 500 million each to St. Louis, San Diego, and Oakland for stadium construction, would I be on Stan’s Christmas card list?
by Jimbo 2:36 PM

No sir.
by jthomas 2:36 PM

The player on offense with the most potential to gain pro-bowl/all-pro status is ______
by willeyeam 2:36 PM

A healthy Gurley. And probably a healthy Saffold.
by jthomas 2:36 PM

Hi Jim, If you were Nick Foles would you make sure your insurance policies are up to date? The ol could be very painful for him.
by Rick 2:36 PM

He needs to get the ball out quick.
by jthomas 2:37 PM

Roger Saffold: Any hopes of him playing RG, not LG this year .. he is great pulling to the left from the right side, looked lost, slow, tentative pulling right from the left ..
by Jeff In Utah 2:37 PM

I guess it’s possible. We’ll see where he lines up in OTAs.
by jthomas 2:37 PM

So what’s your take on Policy spearheading the Carson project? Seems like he is openly challenging Kroenke to prove why he deserves to be in Los Angeles and not the Chargers/Raiders.
by Den 2:37 PM

Policy certainly gives the Carson project more credibility, and he still has contacts in the league.
by jthomas 2:38 PM

i don’t understand why you would not share all the information you have about the rams stadium situation with your readers. this is not national security nor are any lives at stake. public dollars are being spent for this stadium development effort. why withhold information you have that we don’t have from this discussion?
by branford76 2:38 PM

Over the course of a story, any long-term story really, you are told things by sources that are off the record. In order to develop those sources, you have to play ball to a certain extent. You have to build up an element off trust.
by jthomas 2:40 PM

What do you mean by “clip and save” ??
by stlrams4ever 2:40 PM

In other words, remember it, and let’s see if it’s true in a few months.
by jthomas 2:41 PM

I’m looking through Cignetti’s Bio and I see he was with Cal Bears and DeSean Jackson when they were averaging 33 points a game. Do you see him opening up the offense (a little) and utilizing Austin and bailey in the same fashion, or is Fisher going to keep a tight leash on the offense?
by PURE ADRENALINE 2:41 PM

Again, I believe the basic philosophy won’t be much different.
by jthomas 2:42 PM

Over/under 45,000 in attendance for opening day?
by Dr D 2:42 PM

I’ll say tickets distributed will be over. Not sure about actual in-house attendance.
by jthomas 2:43 PM

Hi Jim, Thanks for all that you do for the cause of professional football for St. Louis! I keep picking up bits and pieces from Twitter sources, Post Dispatch and others that the NFL behind the scenes is more than frustrated with how Mr. Kroenke has gone about his business through all of this. Is there anything to that? Thanks and Go ST. LOUIS Rams!
by Dan, the Lineman 2:43 PM

I think there’s something to what you’re saying. Whether it turns out to be a major factor in how things unfold, I’m not sure.
by jthomas 2:44 PM

If Carson gets approval and the Rams have to stay in St. Louis, does Kroenke say “I don’t want to spend $450 million on a new stadium. Keep playing in the Dome.”
by Tom R 2:44 PM

Don’t think he would turn down an opportunity to play in a new stadium.
by jthomas 2:44 PM

In house attendance barely 40K, you can take that to the bank
by Dr D 2:45 PM

We’ll see.
by jthomas 2:45 PM

How much do you expect Foles to play in preseason? Will he need more reps than a holdover starter?
by Ryan 2:46 PM

You would think so, but Fisher in the past has been pretty conservative about playing his top starters very much in the preseason.
by jthomas 2:47 PM

Jim, Jack Robinson says he was the best player on the Blue Raider’s in ’03. No way that can be true. The dude was a Little League bench warmer, right?
by Kevin 2:48 PM

Jack was a very good all-around player, but no one could punt and run the bases like Kevin Robinson.
by jthomas 2:49 PM

Do you think there are any negative effects from the Rams waiting to start OTAs later than every other club in the NFL?
by Benadict Arnold 2:49 PM

No.
by jthomas 2:49 PM

Fisher’s decision to jettison SB or front office?
by Don 2:49 PM

I wonder about that one. Only because even Fisher was telling close associates that he thought the Rams would get a deal done with Bradford.
by jthomas 2:50 PM

Just for the record. I am a DIE HARD RAMS FAN in California. When they moved to St. Louis I was deflated, But I stick with my TEAM, not the owner, and I hope all the RAMS FANS in St. Louis would do the same if they moved back to California. But I do understand if they jump ship if Rams are back in Cali and another team moves into St. Louis. But for now GO RAMS wherever they end up!!
by PURE ADRENALINE 2:51 PM

If another team had moved into the market in 1996, or shortly thereafter _ say that expansion team LA was supposed to get that became the Houston Texans _ would you have remained a Rams fan.
by jthomas 2:52 PM

Suppose the Rams do leave, should St. Louis be entitled to all or a part of the “relocation” fee extracted by the NFL to help replace lost tax revenue and jobs? Or will that money just be divvied up between the other B/Millionaire owners?
by Benadict Arnold 2:52 PM

That money goes to the owners and the league. St. Louis won’t see any of it.
by jthomas 2:52 PM

How close does Kronke stay on the operations of the team?
by Don 2:53 PM

I assume you mean day-to-day operations. He’s pretty aware of what’s going on. But let’s face it, it’s not the same as having an owner on site most of the time.
by jthomas 2:53 PM

JT – Why no Sunday or Monday night Games for the Rams? Do you think attendance was a part of the decision?
by Captain Obvious 2:54 PM

Lack of success, I’m sure, was the main issue.
by jthomas 2:54 PM

I know this probably gets asked every chat, but any insights into the Blalock situation? Hurt? Asking too much? Moved beyond?
by Michael 2:55 PM

Just not in a hurry to sign. Looking for the right fit. And we’re not talking about Will Shields here, although his experience would be a plus.
by jthomas 2:56 PM

Good Day Jim, Now that the Rams D is loaded over or under 60 sacks for the season?
by OzyRamsFan 2:57 PM

60 is a big number. I’ll say under.
by jthomas 2:57 PM

Hi Jim, what’s your opinion on this late start to OTAs? Good common sense move or gimmick?
by steve 2:57 PM

No big deal. They’ve started this late the past couple of years under Fisher.
by jthomas 2:58 PM

Have you heard what’s to become of the Union Light & Power Building? I think the art work showed this a Rams team store but this is too big a building for only a team store. I’m thinking a Rams themed bar/restaurant would be great. At Lambeau Field in GB they have Curly’s and I’m thinking we could have something like that. I haven’t heard any details on this building. Are they holding out on that to potentially use that as a bargaining chip for Stan Kroenke?
by Terry 2:58 PM

I think that’s all to be determined. The team’s got to be here first.
by jthomas 2:59 PM

Granted the financing is finalized, I would be shocked if the owners voted to leave 400 million in public dollars on the table and let Stan move the team. One owner is quoted as saying Goodell won’t let that happen. To be at 43-57 they are leaving while there is plenty of optimism Peacock will get it done, you must know something we don’t that is very negative towards the deal getting done. Any hints?
by stlrams4ever 2:59 PM

Why should I change the percentage until something happens in terms of financing and land acquisition? It makes no sense.
by jthomas 3:00 PM

Will you attend the Rams games as a reporter IF they move to LA?
by Sam Bentley 3:00 PM

That’s not really my call. Up to my editors. Perhaps the opener in LA.
by jthomas 3:01 PM

Jim – I’m 100% behind the Rams getting a new stadium, but I am curious why you only hear about old stadiums being a problem in certain cities. The Buffalo Bills play in a stadium from the 70’s and you never here about it. Why is it an issue in certain cities but not others?
by Ryan 3:01 PM

The Rams have that “first-tier” clause in their stadium lease. That’s what’s forcing this whole relocation issue _ not the condition or age of the stadium.
by jthomas 3:03 PM

Best season Mariota or Winston?
by Don 3:03 PM

Winston. Has better talent around him.
by jthomas 3:03 PM

Which of the recently drafted rookies will start/make a meaningful contribution, in your opinion. Put differently, who should I watch for among them?
by MJ 3:03 PM

Check back with me in mid-August.
by jthomas 3:04 PM

WHEN DO THINK THERE WILL AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE POSSIBLE MOVE TO LA BY THE RAMS? BEFORE DEC. OR EARLY NEXT YEAR? AND IF THEY DON’T MOVE DO YOU THINK THE CHARGERS OR RAIDERS WILL BE HERE IN 2016
by LAFAN 3:04 PM

I think we’ll have a pretty good idea by the end of the calendar year.
by jthomas 3:05 PM

Jim, What happened to the lawsuit filed in St. Louis. I thought that it was to be held last week. Any updates.
by Ramsfan 3:05 PM

The initial hearing was canceled last week, per judges request. I think he was under the weather.
by jthomas 3:05 PM

If Carson works out, can Kroenke keep going year to year at the Dome, to see what other opportunities pop up in the next 5 years? (London?)
by bh 3:06 PM

That’s an interesting thought. In theory he could, but why would he turn his back on the possibility of a new stadium.
by jthomas 3:07 PM

Your predictions on NFC West?
by Don 3:07 PM

1.) Seattle; 2.) Arizona; 3.) St. Louis; 4.) San Fran.
by jthomas 3:07 PM

Is the Post-Dispatch moving into another building downtown? Do you have a desk there? Or do you basically work from home and Rams Park?
by Rock15 3:07 PM

Yes, we’re moving to another building. Haven’t had a desk there in years. Work either at Rams Park, on the road, or occasionally at home.
by jthomas 3:08 PM

Hey Jim,
Do you stay in touch with former Ram players?
Could you call Kurt, Isaac or Marshall if you wanted to?
by isiah58 3:08 PM

Of course.
by jthomas 3:08 PM

In regards to the Rams staying or going. What do you need to see that would change your % one way or another?
by DJM34 3:08 PM

Concrete news on land acquisition and financing.
by jthomas 3:09 PM

Does it concern you that Atlanta chose former Ram Mike Persons over Justin Blalock?
by Tom R 3:09 PM

No.
by jthomas 3:09 PM

Jim hopefully Fisher has the team ready to play against Seattle. First game last year they did not look ready. Been to training camp the last two years; looks like a country club atmosphere. They do not seem to work that hard. Any Thoughts?
by Bart 3:09 PM

It was shocking how unprepared the Rams looked in last year’s opener. Hopefully that changes this year.
by jthomas 3:10 PM

Permalink
They’ve been unprepared each of the last 3 seasons.
by Dr D 3:11 PM

Well, they won their opener in 2013 vs. Arizona.
by jthomas 3:11 PM

Why is Bill McLellan writing that the stadium deal is dead? Does he have Goodell in his hip pocket?
by Rock15 3:12 PM

I would expect nothing less from Bill.
by jthomas 3:12 PM

Jim – Guessing land acquisition would come before financing. Both in fall or land in late Summer?
by McGarrett 3:12 PM

Yeah, land first. I would think that could be done by end of summer.
by jthomas 3:13 PM

Your choice owner like Kronke or Jones?
by Don 3:14 PM

I’d take Jones any day.
by jthomas 3:14 PM

Hi Jim–are you more or less optimistic about the Rams than you were before the draft and the Bradford/Foles trade?
by c_good 3:20 PM

About the same.
by jthomas 3:20 PM

Hey Jim, Is the best chance of the Rams staying here turning out to be the Carson Project? If that is approved, will StanK then set his eyes on buying the Raiders or Broncos in your opinion? Thanks
by STL45Fan 3:20 PM

Certainly, St. Louisans hoping the Rams stay here should be rooting for Carson. If Carson happens, there’s no guarantee Davis will sell the Raiders. Denver would solve Stan’s cross-ownership issues, but there are no guarantees Broncos will sell either. Stan could be stuck with the Rams.
by jthomas 3:24 PM

Welcome back, Jim! Missed ya! I’m hearing reports that T Rob Havenstein and G Jamon Brown were over drafted by as much as 3 rounds early? Have you seen same? Can you report on contrary scouting?
by bfulton 3:24 PM

I don’t know if Havenstein was over-drafted, but I’d say Brown was. But not by three rounds.
by jthomas 3:25 PM

Jim – If the Rams leave would the post start covering the Chiefs?
by Ryan 3:26 PM

Doubt it.
by jthomas 3:26 PM

Did the Rams always intend to target DT Fairley or was that a surprise opportunity? Did it throw original plans to sign, say, free agent Olinemen?
by bfulton 3:26 PM

I think Fairley was in their plans all along. I don’t think it affected any plans to sign offensive linemen.
by jthomas 3:27 PM

Any Bud Sasser sightings? I have heard that he wasn’t around Ram’s Park much since the rookie orientation.
by joe 3:28 PM

Last I was told, he still hadn’t passed physical, and thus hasn’t been cleared to play.
by jthomas 3:28 PM

As we all try to see the future, which forthcoming step do you think will be the most telling indicator of a move? Before any official announcement of course.
by Jack Reynolds 3:29 PM

To a large degree, I still think this is in the hands of the stadium task force. If they get the land, and nail down the financing, I believe the Rams have a good chance of staying. If they don’t _ say good-bye to the Rams in St. Louis. This should crystallize in the fall.
by jthomas 3:32 PM

Jim, With Fisher not liking to start rookies on opening day, how many rookies start the opener on the O line 0,1 or 2 ?
by OzyRamsFan 3:34 PM

I’m going with 1 _ Havenstein.
by jthomas 3:34 PM

How sincere do you think Stan Kroenke was when he stated how dedicated he was to St. Louis when he gained full ownership of the team in 2010? It seems odd that his “dedication” would evaporate just over the failed negotiations with the CVC.
by Freddy Kreuger 3:34 PM

He seemed sincere at the time. He hasn’t been very patient since.
by jthomas 3:35 PM

Hi Jim, I saw a stat that 2nd round pick Havenstein benched 225lbs 16 times at the combine. That seems extremely low he a guy that weighs 330. Makes me wonder how he’ll do against linemen that are a lot stronger than him. Hopefully I read it wrong….do you recall what it was and if true, what that might mean for him at the next level? Thanks!
by Greg 3:37 PM

No, 16 is the correct number of reps at the combine for Havenstein in the 225-pound bench press. You’d expect more for someone with a road-grader reputation.
by jthomas 3:38 PM

Maybe the QB change will show if Bradford was the issue or not. But I’m very happy with our WR group. I won’t be surprised if our points score total is up 20 – 25 this year.
by PURE ADRENALINE 3:39 PM

It might. But I think the early concern is whether there will be enough protection for Foles with such an inexperienced offensive line.
by jthomas 3:40 PM

Thanks for the chats JT! Always engaging. Though there are a myriad of scenarios that could play out ultimately regarding the Rams staying or relocating, it seems to me that if SD is able to negotiate a new stadium site for the Chargers, the Carson deal is dead. Then, Inglewood becomes the choice of preference for the NFL and thus the Rams. Assuming that the Raiders can’t finance a stadium in Carson alone, what could possibly deter the owners from approving Kroenke’s project? Thoughts?
by Knux 3:41 PM

I’ll have to see it to believe it on the San Diego stadium front.
by jthomas 3:42 PM

Can a team in so much turmoil, will they stay or will they go, be able to focus enough on the game to make a run to the playoffs?
by bjf 3:42 PM

That’s the question isn’t it?
by jthomas 3:42 PM

Hopefully the defense decides to play 16 games this season. I live in Philly and saw Foles play. If he gets time he is great. Do u think the OL aqusitions in the draft will give him that time
by mla 3:43 PM

Very debatable whether OL draft picks will be able to give Foles enough time this year.
by jthomas 3:44 PM

Can Stedman Bailey beat out Quick on the outside, or is his primary competition with his former MVU teammate in the slot?
by YoMurphy 3:44 PM

I believe the Rams coaches would prefer Quick in the starting lineup because of his size.
by jthomas 3:45 PM

In 2005, when Georgia waved her right to the stadium clause that the Dome had to be in the top quartile, was the Dome out of the top quartile at the time do you think? And, is there a legal document that was written, filed, or signed waving the right to this and I’m wondering what was written by the Rams about that and does it have any bearing on the case the Rams are trying to make now.
by Terry 3:45 PM

There were so many stadiums built or massively renovated between 1995-2005, I don’t think the Dome would’ve been in the top 8 in 2005. I don’t know if there was anything in writing by the Rams waving that right.
by jthomas 3:47 PM

You think Stan might just be using Inglewood as leverage to get a new stadium in St. Louis? Or is Stan hellbent on LA.
by Keith 3:48 PM

I believe Stan is way past the leverage stage.
by jthomas 3:48 PM

Hi Jim, Connecticut Rams fan since 1973, Why not go for it and put a retractable roof on the St.Louis new stadium Say to get a Super Bowl?
by Tim m 3:48 PM

If you do that, then you’ve got to come up with an extra $300 million. The Task Force is having a tough enough time getting to $985 million.
by jthomas 3:49 PM

Permalink
Have read the discussions regarding the Rams losing Chris Long after this season due to cap considerations. Seems as if we are just getting close to putting together a competitive team, then we face losing some of the talent we’ve accumulated over the years. Fairley will also be a possible loss. Any others that come to mind?
by Michael 3:49 PM

Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson, William Hayes, Eugene Sims, Rodney McLeod, and Brian Quick also have contracts scheduled to expire after the 2015 season.
by jthomas 3:50 PM

Do you think Fairley is a long term starter for the Rams or just this year?
by Terry 3:51 PM

I’m gonna say a one-year rental. If he plays really well, the Rams will have a tough time keeping him beyond 2015.
by jthomas 3:52 PM

JT…good coverage, considering the 800 pound gorilla, in the room…how is the Marketing Team going to “sell” The Rams…? Or, since it’s the NFL, it won’t matter…???
by Norm Van Brocklin 3:53 PM

I think we’re all curious to see how many fans actually show up once the games start.
by jthomas 3:53 PM

would it seem most players want a move or do they comment?
by Don 3:55 PM

I’m sure a lot of the younger, single players would enjoy playing in LA.
by jthomas 3:55 PM

Jim, will you be at the Coach Fisher Softball Event? and I want to remind all the Rams fans to come out and have a good showing of support so we can keep the Rams in St.Louis beyond 2015.
by Terry 3:56 PM

I have a radio show obligation from 6-7 p.m. that day, but may join the festivities in progress..
by jthomas 3:56 PM

This is all going to come down to if the financing is in place by the time the big decisions are going to be made isn’t it? StLouis gets the financing=Owners vote for Carson…none in place=Inglewood it is?
by Shackleferd 3:57 PM

Don’t know how often I can stress it _ financing is key.
by jthomas 3:57 PM

I DO NOT RECALL SEEING AUSTIN, BAILEY AND GIVENS ON THE FIELD AT THE SAME TIME, THAT WOULD BE INTERESTING WITH MASON AND GURLEY IN THE BACK FIELD AS WELL. HARD TO DEFEND. WOOPS SORRY FOR ALL CAPS 🙂
by PURE ADRENALINE 3:58 PM

Well, Givens was barely on the field at all last year, so you’re probably right.
by jthomas 3:58 PM

We find endless optimism for OL draft picks but forget about candidates like B Jones. If he’s healthy, shouldn’t he be ready to step in and be at least better than Wells?
by flagthrower 3:58 PM

It looks like that’s the plan _ for Barrett Jones to have first crack at starting job.
by jthomas 3:59 PM

Any chance San Diego and St. Louis get stadium deals done locally, and the NFL decides to expand to LA giving Kroenke the rights to own the expansion team?
by Kip 3:59 PM

There is no movement for expansion in the league at this time.
by jthomas 3:59 PM

Sad desperate history of Rams OL injury years? There are a few seasons that sort of qualify for that. Here I do 2007, 2009, & 2011.

Each of those years had their own special injury hell.

In 2011, they fielded 9 starting OL, and (by my quick count) 8 different OL combinations.

The starters included Saffold Bell Brown Dahl Smith Goldberg Wragge LeVoir Mattison

That’s not really the whole story. Because of constant shuffling, some started more than one position. Dahl for example had to shift to right tackle. Brown got benched and then had to come back at guard. They started 3 different left tackles—Saffold Levoir Goldberg.

The week 1 OL was

Saffold Bell Brown Dahl Smith

The week 17 OL was

LeVoir Brown Wragge Mattison Dahl

With lots of variations in between.

Of the 5 in the week 17 OL, 3 were out of football after that season and 1 more lasted just 1 more year. Only Dahl kept playing, though not at ROT.

All this was compounded by 2 things.

1. They were playing an entirely new offensive scheme without benefit of an off-season. On top of it, McD was not patient with it—when installing the offense over the summer, he would go over something one day and then move on the next. (In 2012, players remarked on how unlike the year before they would review things as a part of installing the new system, and this was contrasted with 2011). As a result, the OL began the season about as out of sync as I have ever seen them. There were times when a pulling guard and the center wouldn’t have their timing down and one would actually trip the other.

2. Both Bell and Brown were out of it mentally. After the season, in fact, both had offers and yet both left football. Brown actually got benched, as I said, yet they needed to bring him back. I think Brown’s brother being killed as a soldier overseas shook him up. That was the season also where Jason Smith hung it up mentally—if you recall he was getting neck and head injuries and was checking out mentally because it didn’t seem worth it to him, it was scary to him.

In 2009, it was 9 starters and 7 OL combinations. One loss wasn’t an injury—they cut Incognito.

Barron Bell Brown Incognito Smith Goldberg Setterstrom Greco Allen.

In 2007,, the mother of all OL injury years, it was 12 different starters and 8 different OL combinations. They had 5 different OL combinations in the 1st 5 games….6 in the 1st 8 games.

Pace Setterstrom Romberg M.Brown (at both OG and OT)Barron Terrell Goldberg Incognito McCollum (at both center and guard) Gorin Lecky Steussie

….2007 had 14 OL on the roster, in the end.

—
===

So far that leaves out 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2014.

http://news.yahoo.com/biden-announces-death-son-beau-brain-cancer-015713117–politics.html

Beau Biden dies at 46; son of VP had life of adversity
Associated Press By RANDALL CHASE
2 hours ago

DOVER, Del. (AP) — He was the privileged son of a longtime U.S. senator and two-term vice president, yet Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III was no stranger to personal adversity

When he was only 3, just weeks after his father, Joe Biden, had been elected to the Senate, the younger Biden was seriously injured in a 1972 car crash that killed his mother and infant sister. His father was sworn into office at his hospital bedside.

As a young college student, not long after his father’s 1987 presidential campaign imploded among allegations of plagiarism, he was back in the hospital, holding vigil with other family members as Joe Biden underwent surgery for a life-threatening aneurysm.

And after launching his own successful political career, Beau Biden was dogged by health problems. In 2010, he suffered a mild stroke at the age of 41.

On Saturday, Beau Biden died of brain cancer, less than two years after he was diagnosed. He was 46.

Although twice elected attorney general, the younger Biden never realized the dream of many Delaware political observers that he would follow in his father’s footsteps as a U.S. senator, and perhaps even become governor.

Biden did, in fact, plan to run for governor in 2016. He made the announcement in an April 2014 email to supporters in which he also noted he would not seek re-election as Delaware attorney general.

The announcement caught Delaware’s political establishment off guard, and also renewed questions about Biden’s health. In the ensuing months, he kept a low public profile and declined news media requests for interviews.

“I think he would have run. I think he would have won,” said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a fellow Democrat. Markell said he last spoke to Biden in February, when he invited him to a meeting of Democratic governors in Washington, D.C.

“He was serious” about running for governor, added New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon, a longtime friend and political ally of Joe Biden who described Beau Biden as the most popular politician in Delaware. “He thought he was going to win this battle.”

Gordon said he last spoke to Beau several weeks ago, when Biden participated in a conference call on crime issues in Wilmington.

“He was a rock star,” Gordon said. “He had a great image, great character.”

President Barack Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, were grieving alongside the Biden family.

“Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth,” Obama said in a separate statement. The Obamas visited the vice president and his family at their official residence, the Naval Observatory, on Sunday afternoon.

After leaving office earlier this year, Biden joined a Delaware law firm run by Stuart Grant, a prominent Democratic campaign donor and plaintiffs lawyer specializing in corporate litigation. The law firm announced late last month that Biden was expanding his work on behalf of whistleblower clients, but Biden was not available for comment.

Biden, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, earned a law degree from Syracuse University in 1994. He served as a law clerk for a federal judge in New Hampshire before working for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1995 until 2002, including five years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia. In 2001, he volunteered for an interim assignment helping to train judges and prosecutors in postwar Kosovo.

With his father, then Delaware’s senior U.S. senator, at his side in 2006, Biden launched his campaign for attorney general. He promised to reorganize the state Department of Justice to better combat identity theft, Internet stalking by pedophiles, street crime and abuse of the elderly.

Politically astute, photogenic and backed by his father’s political machine, Biden won with 52.6 percent of the vote.

“He’s supped at this table since he’s been 3 years old,” a beaming Joe Biden said after the victory. Beau Biden was a toddler when his father was first elected to the Senate.

“I’m just proud of him,” the elder Biden added. “I think he will make the state proud.”

During the campaign, however, the younger Biden sidestepped questions about his ultimate political ambitions.

“Sometimes, it’s not good to look too far down the road,” said Biden, who remained similarly cautious about discussing his long-range plans in an interview with The Associated Press after suffering the stroke in 2010.

“Having long-term dreams is a good thing … but having a plan has never worked for me, because life always intervenes,” Biden told the AP at the time. For Biden, his initial health scare was also a reminder to balance his job with family time — advice he encouraged others to follow.

“It’s kind of reinforced how I’ve operated my life,” he said.

As attorney general, Biden established a child predator unit, joined other attorneys general in taking on mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses, proposed tougher bail restrictions for criminal defendants, and defended the death penalty, putting him at odds with some fellow Democrats.

But a spate of shootings in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington went largely unabated during his tenure, and his office stumbled in some high-profile murder prosecutions, including two cases in which murder charges were dropped. Biden also faced scrutiny over how his office handled the case of Earl Bradley, a pediatrician who sexually assaulted scores of young patients over more than a decade before being arrested in December 2009.

Biden cited his focus on the Bradley case in announcing in January 2010 that he would not run for the Senate seat that his father vacated in 2008 when he was elected vice president.

The younger Biden’s decision stunned political observers, including many fellow Democrats who thought Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, had been appointed to the Senate on an interim basis to keep the seat warm for the son. A fellow Democrat, New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, won the seat after Castle, who had been considered the odds-on favorite, was upset by tea party-backed Christine O’Donnell in the GOP primary.

“I have no regrets,” Biden said after O’Donnell’s stunning primary victory scrambled the political calculus surrounding the Senate seat.

Biden coasted to re-election as attorney general in 2010 after Republicans declined to field a candidate against him.

In addition to his work as a lawyer and attorney general, Biden was a major in an Army National Guard unit that deployed to Iraq in 2008.

Beau Biden is survived by his wife, Hallie, and children Natalie, 11, and Hunter, 9, along with his father and stepmother, a brother and sister, a sister-in-law and brother-in-law, and three nieces.

Funeral arrangements were not announced. Beau Biden is entitled to military funeral honors, said Lt. Col. Len Gratteri, a spokesman for the Delaware National Guard.

___

Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.