How the Greatest Show on Turf fell apart as quickly as it was assembled

[Corbin]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBNeKsGzsRI

 

[Flint]

Didn’t make it through the whole vid, the whole thing seemed so preventable, so unnecessary. Long suffering rams fans had finally, FINALLY got something to cheer about and it imploded just like that. The pieces of the gsot came together through intelligence and some luck and it got picked clean by competitors and age, and finished off by jealousy and infighting.
So sad, so disappointing, and right back to being the worst team in football.

 

[PhillyRam]

Bad drafting & poor decisions on not keeping some of their own key FA's by signing them a yr early. Fletcher, Az, Bly & Wistrom, at least a few of these guys could have been locked up a yr earlier on more affordable deals. The inability to get guys to a second contract doomed them. Thus the young core they built, never materialized into a potential dynasty.

Done.

 

[Neil039]

Martz, Armey, and Shaw (Summed up in 4 words)

 

[Corbin]

Martz, Armey, and Shaw (Summed up in 4 words)

You forgot Zygmunt

 

[Classic Rams]

When the Rams fell off, so did I. Was tired of watching the embecilic decisions of the front office re: coaches and players. Their product was awful as we had witnessed and I wasn't going to wallow in the stink. When Fisher came aboard it got a little better, a little more watchable. The Rams seemed to be more competitive before he became stagnant.

 

[badnews]

Zygmunt and Shaw can eat a bag of dicks but Martz was instrumental in giving us those memories.
Armey should have learned to tell Martz no, though.

I consider the era from '99 - '05. Martz, with Faulk, Bruce, Holt, Pace etc... sure, not all of those seasons ended with playoff wins, but until the sad, dysfunctional meltdown between Martz and the FO, the Rams were relevant and not garbage.

Yeah, the golden years were 99-01, but imo the decades immediately before and after 99-05 showed us just how much better a disappointing Martz team was compared to the status quo.

 

[PARAM]

When Fisher came aboard it got a little better, a little more watchable. The Rams seemed to be more competitive before he became stagnant.

Compared to Linehan and Spagnuolo, yes. After 5 playoff years in 6, our high water mark going forward was 8-8 in 2006. Then we became 'excited' about getting to 8-8 but never got there. Fisher's teams were more competetive and watchable compared to the previous 6 seasons but perspective made that improvement, not talent and performance.

Warner's thumb and losing Hakim and Fletcher were the keys to the demise of TGSOT. Larry Marmie was another reason.

 

[BonifayRam]

& then there was the lack of attention in building a solid OL....

 

[Zodi]

Larry Marmie was another reason.

You know those people you subconsciously burn from your memory? Yeah, this guy. I completely forgot how terrible our defense was under that dude.

 

[majrleaged]

You can chock it all up to the ownership. Leaving "bring them to their knees Shaw" in charge. Krikorian came up with that name. Shaw was about keeping players from taking shopping money from Georgia. He let Zygmat the book keeper, take over once Martz lost the SB. The only person who could of kept the GSOT going would have been Vermeil. They were desperate to win for their new city and gave Vermeil power over football operations. When he left, it was business as usual and the Rams were doomed.

 

[majrleaged]

You know those people you subconsciously burn from your memory? Yeah, this guy. I completely forgot how terrible our defense was under that dude.

Friend of Martz. He was terrible in AZ, but he brought him in anyway.

 

[majrleaged]

You can chock it all up to the ownership. Leaving "bring them to their knees Shaw" in charge. Krikorian came up with that name. Shaw was about keeping players from taking shopping money from Georgia. He let Zygmat the book keeper, take over once Martz lost the SB. The only person who could of kept the GSOT going would have been Vermeil. They were desperate to win for their new city and gave Vermeil power over football operations. When he left, it was business as usual and the Rams were doomed.

By the way, don't be surprised when after we win a SB or maybe 2 and really get the city behind the team, if our ownership starts to pull back on the purse strings. So enjoy what we have now. The way the Rams are spending money will not last.

 

[Tano]

You forgot Zygmunt

And Georgia - she was a terrible owner

 

[Merlin]

And Georgia - she was a terrible owner

Yep. It all starts with the owner. Georgia taught us that and boy was that lesson a painful one.

Watched the vid because I had to. But it was tough man. So hard to understand how fucking incapable our front office was back then. It's a damn travesty how quickly they bumbled that window away.

 

[SuperMan28]

The cheaters ended the GSOT. Mahomes ended the cheaters many years later.

Kurt got his revenge in ARZ. That was truly the final dagger in my book. Nearly won the SB with them. That still hurts.

 

[Deac]

Can we please motion for Larry Marmie changed to " He who will not be named", for fear of invoking that defensive ineptitude ever again...

 

[SuperMan28]

Goodness that's one of the greatest and worst sports stories of all time. Never forget that pain.

 

[Flint]

You can chock it all up to the ownership. Leaving "bring them to their knees Shaw" in charge. Krikorian came up with that name. Shaw was about keeping players from taking shopping money from Georgia. He let Zygmat the book keeper, take over once Martz lost the SB. The only person who could of kept the GSOT going would have been Vermeil. They were desperate to win for their new city and gave Vermeil power over football operations. When he left, it was business as usual and the Rams were doomed.

I was excited for this Shad Khan guy to take over, even though I never heard of him he had to be better than what we’d had, then Stan “the assassin” Kroenke was like, “not so fast fellas”, and the rest is history. Hopefully this time it sticks.

 

[Alaskan Ram]

Ah, the "misery loves company" years. Led me to Rams Talk and finally to here. Not sure how our fandom endured all that.... probably because none of us realized how long it would last.