jim, i was ready Bernies article about Faulk comments about the team and owner. I laugh at Bernies little rant against faulk…. st louis signed the contract to the dome and have known about the contract and did nothing till the last minute only after the ruling came out that st louis was in the wrong… dang… what a surprise they have to honor there part of the deal… Ive been a ram fan for 45 years and haven’t missed a game on tv since 1997. Hate to see them move but business is business and st louis did business poorly…. thanks for the chats and keeping us up on things.. we all appreciate it
simdoc 4:38 PM*

One, you have to go through the arbitration process. Two, Peacock has been working on this behind the scenes for well over a year. Three, LA has done next to nothing for 20 years to get a stadium. Four, San Diego has been at it for 15 years. I could go on. So you’re telling me St. Louis gets a year, a year and a half to meet Stan Kroenke’s schedule? Not the league’s schedule. But Stan Kroenke’s? Sorry. No sale. Obviously, Faulk’s entitled to his opinion, but he should stick to his area of expertise: the game of football.
jthomas 4:42 PM*
====================================

Its interesting how people have different ideas about
time-frames. JT sets the relevant time frame at “a year or a year and a half”.
But couldnt you argue that for years and years, the St.Louis folks have known this
issue was coming. And they did nothing?

I think both sides have points.

w
v

Seahawks offense stayed true to form on last Super Bowl pass
http://seattletimes.com/html/seahawks/2025607820_seahawksjenks03xml.html
…

…“Who was asking about the passing stats?” Carroll asked. “Who was that guy? Who was that?…This game of football has always been about the physical side of it, the aggressive, physical, take-care-of-the-ball mentality. We close the loop on toughness by being a running team. The circle of toughness wouldn’t be there if we were throwing the ball.”…

============
w
v

I just find it interesting that the headline is
about his arrest for trying to buy sex
but oh, btw, buried in the article
there’s also two assault charges.

w
v

i didnt interpret it
as a “bad call.”

Lynch coulda been stopped
for a two yard loss, etc.

…anyway, the good thing is this will haunt
seahawk fans, players and coaches for eternity.
Bad thing is, it makes the Pats organization
the best ever, i would think.

w
v

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by wv.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by zn.

Hawks 30
Pats 24

w
v

Holy shit. You don’t read that kind
of article about pro football everyday.

I shall save it.

There’s a lot of truth in there
swimming around in that kaleidoscope
of big-thots.

Btw, a minor point:
“The Rice assault would probably have disappeared down the memory hole like its dozens of predecessors
had it not been accompanied by the galvanic and undeniable reality of video…”

Thats always true. Nixon would still be prezident
had it not been for an electronic-record.

w
v

PA Ram wrote:

Do you think it will affect
the play on the field?

w
v

It could. But remember, JF has been through this before, AND he has a knack for creating “us against them” environments. So, he could make it the one team in existence that thrives off of not having a complete home field advantage.

Well, if it becomes obvious the rams are lame-ducks in St.Louis
and the fans stop showin up….can we still give the fans a nickname?
Like Seattle’s “12th Man” thing — ? What could we call them?

w
v

The Invisible Man?

Ha. I love it. The Invisible Man 🙂

w
v
The Invisible Man: The drugs I took seemed to light up my brain. Suddenly I realized the power I held, the power to rule, to make the world grovel at my feet.
(The Invisible Man 1933)

“…fact, an NFL source told me Kroenke has covertly begun the process of collating support from fellow owners should he actually decide to move the Rams to Los Angeles…”
http://www.dailybulletin.com/20150130/rams-owner-stan-kroenke-working-behind-scenes-to-make-la-jump

w
v

There’s a lot of tip-toe-ing and ‘balancing of interests’
talk going on now.
(and there’s lots to balance — San Diego,
Oakland, St.Louis, LA, the NFL, season ticket sales, etc etc)

Exactly WHEN are we gonna know something concrete?
Is there a time-table here? Some dates
where something has to be decided?
Or is everyone going to be in limbo
all during the offseason and season?

w
v

Zooey wrote:

It would be nice if every team was owned publicly like Green Bay.

How the hell did that ever happen, btw?

Community ownership
Main article: Green Bay Packers, Inc.
The Don Hutson Center

The Packers are the only community-owned franchise in American major league professional sports.[25] Rather than being the property of an individual, partnership, or corporate entity, they are held in 2014 by 360,584 stockholders. None is allowed to hold more than 200,000,[2] approximately 4% of the 5,011,557 shares[26] currently outstanding. It is this broad-based community support and non-profit structure[27] which has kept the team in Green Bay for nearly a century in spite of being the smallest market in all of North American professional sports.

The city of Green Bay had a population of only 104,057 as of the 2010 census,[28] and only 600,000 in its television market, a fraction of the average NFL figures. The team, however, has long had an extended fan base throughout Wisconsin and parts of the Midwest, thanks in part to playing one pre-season and three regular-season home games each year in Milwaukee through 1995. It was only when baseball-only Miller Park preempted football there that the Packers’ home slate became played entirely in Green Bay.

There have been five stock sales to fund Packer operations over the team’s history, beginning with $5,000 being raised through 1,000 shares offered at $5 apiece in 1923. Most recently, $64 million was raised in 2011-2012[29] towards a $143-million Lambeau Field expansion. Demand exceeded expectations, and the original 250,000 share limit had to be increased before some 250,000 new buyers from all 50 U.S. states and Canada purchased 269,000 shares at $250 apiece, approximately 99% online.[26]

Based on the original “Articles of Incorporation for the Green Bay Football Corporation” enacted in 1923, should the franchise to have been sold any post-expenses money would have gone to the Sullivan-Wallen Post of the American Legion to build “a proper soldier’s memorial.” This stipulation was included to ensure there could never be any financial inducement for shareholders to move the club from Green Bay. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which makes donations to many charities and institutions throughout Wisconsin.[26]

Even though it is referred to as “common stock” in corporate offering documents, a share of Packers stock does not share the same rights traditionally associated with common or preferred stock. It does not include an equity interest, does not pay dividends, can not be traded, has no securities-law protection, and brings no season ticket purchase privileges. All shareholders receive are voting rights, an invitation to the corporation’s annual meeting, and an opportunity to purchase exclusive shareholder-only merchandise.[27] Shares of stock cannot be resold, except back to the team for a fraction of the original price. While new shares can be given as gifts, transfers are technically allowed only between immediate family members once ownership has been established.[26]

Green Bay is the only team with this form of ownership structure in the NFL, which is in direct violation of current league rules stipulating a maximum of 32 owners per team, with one holding a minimum 30% stake. The Packers’ corporation was grandfathered when the NFL’s current ownership policy was established in the 1980s.[30] As a publicly held nonprofit, the Packers are also the only American major-league sports franchise to release its financial balance sheet every year.
Board of Directors
Main article: Green Bay Packers Board of Directors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers#Community_ownership

rfl wrote:

You and I fundamentally differ in perspective here…

“Being close” is a matter of improvement. It’s talent level, and somewhat more than that.
But it’s a matter of taking incremental steps along a continuum leading, hopefully, to a breakthrough.

And, see, I am asking different questions. As I keep saying, I saw this team learning to compete in Fisher’s 1st year. It happened ALMOST immediately. Remember how they “almost” beat DET in Game 1? …..

That teamed learned to compete virtually immediately. Fisher SAID he could teach them, and then he did. They played like winners though their capability was still limited.

That’s what I haven’t seen since. The team has “gotten better,” but its competitive discipline has regressed. It’s a much better team than the ’12 bunch, but has a worse record.

So, most guys on this board raise the question of improvement. You say they are close to breaking through. Well, maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t.

What I am saying is that breaking through won’t come from incremental improvement. It won’t come from raising the talent level. It COULD come from adding a genuine leader in competitiveness, though they’re hard to find. But I would say …

1) We haven’t seen what I am talking about AT ALL in the last 2 years.
2) We won’t see a breakthrough on the basis of improved talent.
3) We’ll have no idea when the breakthrough is coming … until we see it in games that count and that matter.
…

Well, hopefully at the very least I have been able to clarify HOW my view differs from the board consensus.

Well, i am reading those words slowly
trying to ‘get’ what you are saying.
I’m not quite sure that your way of thinking
‘computes’ in my wv-brain. It almost
sounds like you are talking about some sort of
“intangible” thing. A ‘mental toughness” maybe.
The kind of mental toughness we always associate
with Belichick teams, maybe. I dunno.

Anyway, all i can say is — Food for thought.

w
v

rfl wrote:

wv wrote:
I dont think the problem with the Rams
is a lack of competitive spirit though.
I dont see that.

Interesting.

I guess, by the way, that I failed to say what I intended. The post is not about competitive spirit.

It’s about performance that competes effectively in the clutch, the zone where games and seasons are won and lost. It’s not measured with emotion or with individual plays, any more than a golf tournament can be won with a single shot or good round. It’s about measuring up to the test of winning and losing.

Do you really see the Rams doing that? Honestly? Hmmmmmmmmm …

Well, it’s clear that there isn’t much interest in this issue. Time to put this dead horse to rest.

Well, i dunno. For one thing, i dont think
we can compare golf to a team sport. Ya know.
A team sport is so much more complicated.

Do the Rams “compete effectively in the clutch?”

Well, hell no. Not nearly often enough, LoL.

But the reasons, imho, are the ones i listed
in my other post.

And i do think they are close. I expect
a break out season next year. Because
I think a lot of pressure on the offense
will be relieved with some solid upgrades
on the OLine. And yes, i think thats do-able
and i think Snead can accomplish that. It
cant be that hard to find a Center and a Guard.

Let me ask you something RFL, would you fire
Fisher at this point or give him another season?

Also, what do YOU expect to see next season?
I expect a ten win season or thereabouts. What
do YOU expect?
w
v

• This reply was modified 11 years, 3 months ago by wv.

Excellent writing, RFL.
I enjoyed reading that.

I dont think the problem with the Rams
is a lack of competitive spirit though.
I dont see that.

I see key injuries, youth, lack of depth,
and bonehead-mistakes, mainly.

We are all tired of the mediocrity
though, thats for sure.

w
v

Dak wrote:

Let’s look at it this way. You have a girlfriend. You’ve been in a committed relationship all along, but you just haven’t tied the knot. She says she wants to stay with you. But, she wants security, and you’re pretty happy the way things are. You realize that you have to do something more in your life to keep her, maybe get a better job, or sock away more money so you can buy a dream house for the two of you … somewhere really nice to raise a family. But, she’s stopped talking to you about the future, and maybe you think, well, she just needs to think more about what she wants, exactly.

But, unknown to you, she’s met another suitor who has some really nice assets to offer her. She’s been socking away her own money, and plenty of it, and now she’s thinking about greener pastures. She doesn’t even come to you and tell you about her plans with this new suitor. You learn about it from some other people. You approach her, and she’s aloof and even avoiding your phone calls. What’s going on? Is the relationship over? She tells you that she wants to take day by day and see what happens.

Not a perfect analogy, but pretty close to the STL-SK-LA triangle. The bottom line is that SK stopped working on the relationship with St. Louis, and while the St. Louis leaders could have done more to entice him to stay, they also were working on the assumption that SK can’t just up and move without trying to work out the stadium situation in St. Louis. He didn’t inform St. Louis at any time that he had no intention of working on a St. Louis stadium, but rather he was working on an L.A. plan. The St. Louis contingent was naive for thinking that SK would work with them, I guess, but it’s true also that NFL bylaws say that SK was SUPPOSED to give it the old college try before declaring that it couldn’t be done. After a disagreement on the dome upgrade, SK hasn’t worked with St. Louis leaders at all. They couldn’t even get him on the phone. The state’s governor couldn’t get him to return calls.

So … it’s a double cross. And, here’s the thing: Every time I hear a St. Louis fan talk about the situation, their eyes are open now to what SK is doing. He’s moving forward and onward to LA, St. Louis fans be damned.

It will make for an interesting year of lame duck football. I expect attendance to be pretty low. And, that will also play into SK’s favor, as well.

I’m really down about the NFL because of this. I don’t know how much I’ll be invested in the league when the Rams move. I didn’t feel this way until now, really. My feelings continue to change, evolve, shift … and add the New England cheating stuff, and it’s just so obvious the NFL is full of crap. There is no integrity in this league.

Good stuff, Dak.

But…you started the relationship story without
an analogy about how the girlfriend got to St.Louis
in the first place….. take the story back to 1994, 1993, etc. 🙂

w
v