Former “St. Louis” Rams feel the pain of team’s departure

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/former-st-louis-rams-feel-the-pain-of-team-s/article_a98df965-e399-5ec4-87bc-a0be6f9eee82.html

When the news came down Tuesday night that the Rams were moving back to Los Angeles, Isaac Bruce was bombarded with texts, emails, and tweets from former teammates.

“Just guys expressing what happened when we played there in St. Louis,” Bruce said. “Just some sentiments, just memories — sharing memories.

“It went from being sad to a little humorous, because you’ll start quoting things, and things that happened in the locker rooms. Things that happened during and after games.”

It was almost analogous to a funeral, which may be apropos, because Bruce and his former Rams teammates were talking about what very well may be the death of professional football in St. Louis.

Bruce has a unique perspective because he played 13 years here for the Rams — longer than anyone else. He was the first “St. Louis” Rams star, and also the last “Los Angeles” Ram left on the roster, having played his rookie season for the LA Rams in 1994, the organization’s last in southern California before moving to the Midwest.

“I did enjoy LA when I was there,” Bruce said.

But he made his name in St. Louis, and the city will always hold a special place for him.

“Fan support was just phenomenal, from the very first time I played a football game here,” Bruce said. “We didn’t play a preseason game that whole 1995 (preseason) in the city of St. Louis.”

The Rams played their first regular season game on the road as well, at Green Bay. And then they came home.

“We burst on the scene that second week of the season in 1995,” Bruce said. “And what I saw really made me feel welcomed into the NFL as far as the fan support was concerned. Most of my games prior to that time, we didn’t have much fan support in Los Angeles.”

Although Stan Kroenke’s relocation application criticized a lack of fan support in St. Louis, that wasn’t what Bruce or any of his teammates saw during their time here.

“I don’t know about what numbers Kroenke was using to complain about that,” said former Rams center Andy McCollum. “I have no idea. I know when we were here, especially when we were having so much success, it was as good as anywhere in the country.

“And even lately, when we were not winning as much, I think there’s still a lot of fan support. It’s a shame. I really feel for them.”

Few Rams played as long as McCollum did in St. Louis. For nine seasons, from 1999 through 2007, he called St. Louis home as one of the “Doughnut Bros.” — the nickname given to McCollum and longtime Rams right guard Adam Timmerman. McCollum started 109 games as a Ram over those nine years.

Even before his playing career ended following a one-year stint with Detroit in 2008, McCollum decided to settle down in the Gateway City with his wife and children. The McCollums live in the Eureka area and have three boys and three girls, ages 7 to 17.

McCollum is a financial planner for Resource One Advisors. He helps coach the Eureka High football team and has been involved in coaching the Eureka youth football program for about 10 years.

“We just liked it here,” McCollum said. “My wife and I both grew up in Ohio. It’s a similar feel here. Just a great, great place to raise a family. It’s nothing more complicated than that.”

As such that puts McCollum in a unique group of Rams who not only played in St. Louis but made the area their permanent home. Some of the others include Aeneas Williams, Grant Williams, and Orlando Pace.

As silly as it may sound, since the relocation vote came down McCollum said many of his friends and neighbors have asked him if he’s moving to LA.

“That ain’t gonna happen,” McCollum said. “It’s not my kind of town.”

It’s Kroenke’s kind of town, a place where the Rams owner can add to his already vast fortune and be hailed as the man who returned football to Los Angeles.

(This coming, of course, 21 years after he helped move football out of LA to greener financial pastures in St. Louis with then majority owner Georgia Frontiere.)

Bruce and his other former teammates and coaches from the Greatest Show era obviously feel for the fans of St. Louis. And they recognize the work done by the stadium task force.

“They once again showed their fortitude, their courage, putting a plan together in so short a time,” Bruce said. “And letting America know that St. Louis is a place that can cause Fortune 500 companies, businesses, to flourish. And also professional teams.

“It’s just unfortunate that the business side of it kind of fell on our heads like it did 21 years ago to Los Angeles.”

But Bruce is a positive thinker if nothing else. He’s aware of the rich tradition of the Rams in Los Angeles, and realizes that playing in such a large market could be an exciting time for the current players.

He plans to open up a branch office, so to speak, of the Isaac Bruce Foundation in LA, while keeping the foundation active in St. Louis.

And he doesn’t think the legacy of the Greatest Show will be lost or overlooked now that the franchise is once again calling Los Angeles home.

“I see it this way,” Bruce said. “I don’t think Eric Dickerson’s legacy was tainted at all (by the move to St. Louis). Guys like Marshall (Faulk). Guys like Torry (Holt). Like Orlando. These guys are NFL legends. So what they did, and their body of work, is legendary in the NFL in itself.”

One of those Rams legends, Pace, isn’t so sure.

“It’s funny. Me and Torry Holt were just having a conversation about that,” Pace said. “I think one of our concerns is what we did here, the fun we had, that championship that we won here — hopefully it doesn’t get lost in the move to LA. Because we put a lot of smiles on people’s faces, and we enjoyed each other.”

Bruce is doing his best to make sure that legacy lives in St. Louis. Although plans are in its infancy, and there are many details to be ironed out, he hopes to put on a charity game at the Edward Jones Dome involving all former “St. Louis” Rams.

“We want to put together a flag football game, autograph session, for the city of St. Louis — the fans, so they can come out and see the guys up close and personal once again,” Bruce said. “It may be a while before everyone’s together like that again.

“So they can drive to the dome as opposed to flying to another city to see these people.”

Well that didn’t last long.

Great game.

I think the only thing that nourished the possibility that they would choose community was this erroneous assumption that Kroenke was doing this as a maverick, and telling the NFL about it the same time it we found out through the media. But they knew all along what Kroenke was doing, told him to go ahead and explore that option, and the way it played out was more-or-less inevitable given that Kroenke’s development plan held MUCH greater appeal than the other plans.

All of which I take as saying they basically ignored their own relocation guidelines and more or less just jerked St. Louis around on the stadium stuff.

How did they ignore their own guidelines? Well in a word they say you can’t move just to make more money. And without looking it up (so just plowing ahead just in the spirit of spontaneous conversation), they can’t just turn their backs on a genuine local effort to keep the team.

And for those who say yeah but SK had the samoulians and St. Louis didnt, another way to approach this whole thing would have been for the league to put money and resources into St. Louis AND into getting at least the Chargers to LA. But you don’t get the big Death Star Complex thing that way, which is what had them fixated like lovestruck customers watching Jessica Rabbit on stage.

Now am I going all moral? Well…not entirely. Out of this kind of thinking, I first have that “alternative perspective” thing going about how the league treats communities. That is, they don’t HAVE TO treat them that way, it’s just a policy preference. I also get a better understanding of why St. Louisans are so pissed. None of this though tugs me back from being personally invested in how the Rams play. I separate the things. Should I separate them? I dunno I can’t help it much.

wv wrote:

Its interesting to me that Fisher wants a
passing co-ordinator. Does that mean
that he doesn’t think Boras is up to the task
of making the passing game go?
What exactly does it mean?
Is he just trying to give Boras some help?

My opinion?

It means that he wants DF to learn the Rams system instead of coming onboard and teaching everyone, coaches and players, the WCO he was used to running. There are of course a lot of advantages to doing it like that.

Coordinators regularly rely on someone else to work up the running game. For example, Boras did that with Cigz, and if memory serves Hanifan did that with Martz. Near as I can tell, this version would just reverse the usual hierarchy. It basically makes DF the coordinator, but they (sounds like) would do it by having him become part of the system they already have in place.

Johnny Hekker says goodbye to St. Louis with class

http://fox2now.com/2016/01/15/johnny-hekker-says-goodbye-to-st-louis-with-class

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI)- Leave it to one of the players who did a lot on the field for the now former St. Louis Rams and in the community here to say goodbye to fans here with class.

Punter Johnny Hekker, who has earned All-Pro status and has also been active in local charitable efforts to fight cancer, bid St. Louis supporters farewell in a Reddit post Thursday. In part it read:

“…many of you are caught with strong feelings of betrayal, hatred, and helplessness for what has become of the team so many of you know and love. I am deeply sorry for what has gone on and just wanted to let you know that from my teammates and myself, we are incredibly grateful for all of the support you have given us over the years. I know I will miss the dome and all of the blue and gold wearing inhabitants; you all are some of the best fans in football. Your support off of the field via social media, public interaction, overall engagement and inclusion of us into the St. Louis community was above and beyond anything we could have hoped for. I made many friends in St. Louis that I will miss dearly. The midwest will always have a special place in my heart and the gateway city is the one to thank. Although I could never embrace some STL traditions, (Imos and gooey butter cake) there are still many things that people in the lou have taught me, showed me, and let me experience that I will never forget.”

Hekker said he hoped the team could win back support from some fans here, even though he recognized that for some it would never happen.

After a Friday afternoon press conference/pep rally welcoming the Rams back to the Los Angeles market, Head Coach Jeff Fisher told ESPN that the move was bittersweet and recognized that fans in St. Louis “had no say in this,” and went through “a lot of tough times.”

A behind-the-scenes look at a Rams’ proposal the NFL couldn’t refuse

Sam Farmer and Nathan Fenno

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-nfl-la-tick-tock-20160117-story.html#nt=outfit

The National Football League’s return to Los Angeles began behind closed doors — with a coin flip.

The St. Louis Rams won the right to go first, and their owner and a top executive made their pitch in a hotel ballroom, outlining plans for a multibillion-dollar stadium in Inglewood.

Next came the backers of the Carson stadium proposal — the owners of the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders. Recruited to oversee that project was Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger, who spoke of his love for the NFL and his branding expertise and reminded the 32 owners that, as head of ESPN’s parent company, he had paid them all plenty of money over the years.

After Iger left, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones pushed back his swivel chair and stood to address the room.

“He said he paid us. Last time I checked, that money is coming from Disney shareholders, not him,” Jones said, touching off laughter.

The moment of levity was a bad omen for the Carson project.

For 11 hours on Tuesday, the owners of America’s most profitable sports league — with $10 billion a year in revenue — were cloistered in a suburban hotel, just a half-hour from the small airport and their parked private jets.

Their mission: to pick the teams and stadium that would bring professional football back to L.A. after a 21-year hiatus.

Since the Rams and Raiders left Southern California following the 1994 season, multiple sites have been proposed for the NFL’s return. They included downtown L.A., Anaheim, Irvine, the City of Industry. The Rose Bowl, the Coliseum and even Chavez Ravine. Every proposal failed.

Things changed when Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought 60 acres of land next to the former Hollywood Park racetrack and last year announced he planned to build a stadium. He didn’t commit to returning the Rams to L.A. from St. Louis. But the implications were clear.

Six weeks later, a competing proposal emerged: The Chargers and Raiders wanted to construct a stadium on the site of a former landfill in Carson.

In between the two proposals, the NFL created a committee of six owners to evaluate stadium options in L.A. and oversee any possible relocation. NFL owners met repeatedly to hear proposals on the two L.A. projects as well as those in the three home markets trying to keep their teams.

San Diego and St. Louis eventually assembled stadium proposals that included hundreds of millions of dollars in public financing, although San Diego’s hinged on a public vote later this year.

By the time they gathered in Houston on Tuesday, the owners were impatient for a deal. Four of the six owners on the L.A. committee had teams in the playoffs and another was in the midst of a coaching search.

The league set aside two days for the meeting, but most of the owners wanted to resolve it in one. Nevertheless, the league had reserved hotel space in Dallas for the following week just in case.

The details of the dramatic daylong session were pieced together from interviews with multiple owners, team executives and league officials, most speaking on the condition that they not be identified when describing confidential negotiations.

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The Rams opened their presentation with 30 renderings showing the sleek, low-slung stadium and surrounding development they wanted to build in Inglewood.

Kevin Demoff, the chief operating officer, said this would be much more than a stadium for one or two teams; the campus could house other NFL business ventures, such as NFL Network and NFL.com. Kroenke also spoke about his passion for the multibillion-dollar project.

The team’s pitch closed with excerpts from two stories by Times columnist Bill Plaschke pleading for the Rams to return to L.A.

The Carson backers began with brief comments by Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis. Then Iger talked about how he grew to appreciate the stadium’s location.

In a corner of the ballroom, league staff had installed a computer and printer to generate paper ballots of new resolutions.

When it came time to begin voting, the owners had to resolve an important matter: Would it be a secret ballot?

Ordinarily, secret ballots are reserved for the most sensitive votes that owners cast — the selection of a new commissioner and the site of a Super Bowl. By a show of hands, they voted, 19-13, to keep this one secret.

The mood was tense even though a consensus had been building among the owners in recent weeks for a hybrid option: pairing the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood and leaving the Raiders in Oakland.

The room was mostly quiet; many owners communicated by text message. Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, a member of the L.A. committee who supported Carson and orchestrated Iger’s involvement in the project, said little throughout the day.

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At one point, Iger ventured down from the fourth-floor ballroom to the third floor, where more than 200 media members were stationed, to get a cup of coffee. Dozens of reporters swarmed him. Someone jokingly asked, “Don’t you wish there was coffee on the fourth floor?”

Before the full membership voted, the L.A. committee recommended the Carson project by a 5-1 margin. In the end, the endorsement did not affect the outcome.

Momentum was building for Inglewood. After two ballots, Inglewood was only three votes short of the 24 needed for approval. Owners saw a path toward a resolution — no one in the room wanted to stand in the way of a project clearly preferred by the majority of owners.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ushered the three owners seeking relocation into a private negotiation that lasted about an hour.

Sensing the end was near, Jones had beer and wine delivered to the ballroom for the remaining 29 owners. The tension seemed to have ebbed.

By the time Goodell and the three owners returned to the ballroom, the Raiders had agreed to withdraw their bid to move to L.A.

What would prove to be the final vote was taken on a proposal to pair the Rams and a team to be determined in Inglewood. It passed by a 30-2 margin. The two owners who opposed the compromise remain a mystery.

The agreement — which gave the Chargers a one-year option to join the Rams in L.A. and the Raiders an identical right if the Chargers decline — was an option league staff had discussed for at least six months.

The resolution’s 939 words barred the Rams from selling personal seat licenses, suites or naming rights to the Inglewood stadium until February 2017 unless a second team joins them beforehand.

Minutes after the final vote, Goodell stood at a lectern before rows of reporters and a forest of television cameras. His eyes were tired, his voice weary.

“It was a difficult decision for ownership,” Goodell said. “But we also realized that this was our opportunity.”

Agamemnon wrote:

I heard this on the radio. kroenke was the reason St. Louis didn’t get an expansion team. He wouldn’t pay the guy who had the stadium lease what he wanted. StL stalls and the Jags are born. I am not sure who was right. But that was bad on somebody. All I remembered was StL blew it.

That’s interesting.

Hey PA, I moved your slater link to a thread where IMO it will be more visible. This one:

http://theramshuddle.com/topic/audio-farr-on-the-move-on-playing-for-the-rams/

mfranke wrote:

Sorry to pretty much repeat the same thing I just posted at Rampagers:

I’ve got nothing but relentless negativity that would not be good for this or any other list or forum.
This team and this league have proven utterly unworthy of anyone’s support, in St. Louis or otherwise.
As for me, my fall weekends are going to be a lot different from now on.

To me, city and team are inseparable. I became a Rams fan in the name of proving that St. Louis was a good football town.
You know what? I was right.

–Mike

Well you will be missed. Thanks for the years worth of this. Remember the old zine? Back then, I was posting your reports in the zine. This goes that far back. We had some debates over the years but they were always cordial and respectful. You were an indelible part of the online St. Louis Rams experience. Plus, cool avatar.

May you always have fair winds and following seas.

from off the net

==

Elvis

Media Event at the Forum

Just got back, not a ton to report but watch it if you can. I’m sure my first attempt to Periscope was terrible as we were in doors.

Haven’t been to the Forum in a long time. It’s not an arena any more, pretty nice inside.

Not a huge crowd but it was lively. And they put on a show for the cameras.

Mayor Butts spoke.

Stan Kronke spoke.

Kevin Demoff spoke.

Jim Everett, Jackie Slater and Tom Mack were there. So were Jeff Fisher and Les Snead.

A couple highlights i remember:

Before it started, Jackie Slater came over and threw a couple jerseys into the crowd.

Kroenke got a huge warm welcome, no mention of St. Louis, all L.A. Rams coming home rhetoric. I think Kroenke said Jeff Fisher got emotional about coaching the Rams in L.A.

A reporter asked Demoff about appealing to the people in L.A. who aren’t already fans of the team and he said the first thing we do is win, i’m looking at your Jeff and Les. I think i heard him say afterwards there wouldn’t be any re branding or new uniforms until 2019.

It’s kind of unusual for Kroenke to be so public and to play to the fans and the crowd, really kind of whipped us up, put his name and face all over the NFL’s return to Los Angeles. And then Demoff said how they were looking forward to sharing L.A. with another team. Felt a little like good cop, bad cop.

This town is ours, but come join us.

Everyone appealed to and embraced the history of the Rams, like i said, really no mention of St. Louis.

Afterwards Jim Everett and Kevin Demoff came over to the fans and spent a lot of time chatting, taking pictures, signing autographs.

Lots of planes flying over the Forum, nobody tell Tom Ridge about this.

I saw Jackie Slater walking to his car as i was walking to mine and i waved.

He said, “How you doing?”

I said, “Good, how ’bout you?”

He said, “Good.”

I said, “These are good times.”

He said, “Yes they are, i really hope the Rams can get rolling in L.A.”

And then we got in our cars.

Here’s Jim Everett working the crowd…

Elvis