Rams News Recap: July 21

[RamBill]

Rams Rookies Report For Work –PD
The rookies have arrived, and the vets won’t be far behind for the Rams. Which means the team’s 20th season in St. Louis is about to begin.

Jo-Lonn Dunbar Cites Self-Defense in Brawl –PD
NBA player Donte Greene had to be restrained with a taser gun in an early Sunday morning altercation with Rams linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar outside a South Beach nightclub, according to police reports on file with the Miami Beach (Fla.) police department.

Rams Make The “Fine 15″ In Peter King’s Latest MMQB
For those that aren’t regular Monday Morning Quarterback readers, the Fine 15 is Peter King’s personal set of Power Rankings, which typically are much more subjective and vary quite a bit on a weekly basis.
Dunbar Tells Police He Was Just Defending Himself –PD
According to police reports on file with the Miami Beach (Fla.) police department, NBA player Donte Greene had to be restrained with a taser gun in an early-Sunday morning altercation with Rams linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar outside a South Beach nightclub.
Michael Sam’s Jersey Sixth-Best Seller in NFL –Wagoner
It’s pretty common to see a rookie who has never played a game show up on the list of the NFL’s best-selling jerseys before training camp even begins. Many college players simply carry the name-value and fan following that makes proving themselves in the NFL unimportant when it comes to purchasing a jersey.
Rams Camp Preview: Five Positions to Watch –Latsch
The Rams get back to work later this week with the beginning of training camp, so we are taking a look at some things to keep an eye on at Rams Park. We’ve looked at five veterans to watch and five rookies to watch and now here are five position battles to watch during training camp.

Diminutive Austin Ready to Give Rams More –AP
This time last year, diminutive Tavon Austin could brag about never missing a practice, let alone a game.

Gary Pinkell on the Biggest Challenge For Michael Sam –Video

NFC West Training Camp Preview: 3 Things to Watch –NFL.com
Coach Jeff Fisher has “no doubt whatsoever” that Sam Bradford will be ready for Week 1 following November surgery to repair his ACL. After watching Robert Griffin III struggle mightily in his own return last season, Rams fans will be keeping a close eye on Bradford’s movement in the pocket.

5 Key Player Predictions for the St. Louis Rams –TST
The Rams are now entering a season that almost every fan, analyst, opposing team, GM, coach, pundit, etc. is expecting them to challenge for playoff contention, and possibly even the division crown. But to do this there will have to be some good on field play from certain players.

A Blow-by-Blow Account of the Jo-Lonn Dunbar Nightclub Fight –TST
The Rams linebacker was arrested for his part in a nightclub fight over the weekend. What exactly happened though?
Rams No. 45 on Forbes’ Most Valuable List –Wagoner
The St. Louis Rams are among the 50 most valuable franchises in sports, according to Forbes Magazine’s annual franchise valuations.
Morning Ram-blings: Breakout pending? –Wagoner
Training camp is finally, mercifully, almost here, which means we can move back the quiet days of summer lists and whatnot and start getting into real, actual football.

Fox Sports NFL Roundtable: St. Louis Rams –Video

Nick Wagoner on Rams’ ability to hang in “the toughest neighborhood in the NFL” –Radio Interview

Rams COO Kevin Demoff Talks About the Start of Training Camp

 

[RamBill]

Morning Ram-blings: An L.A. stadium?
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/9768/morning-ram-blings-an-l-a-stadium

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- In the years since the Rams and the Raiders departed Los Angeles for St. Louis and Oakland, respectively, there's been almost endless speculation about what it would take to get football back in the City of Angels.

Of course, most of those discussions have been veritable non-starters because the city still offers no clear-cut, upscale home for that team to play in. Which, of course, is one of the primary reasons football left in the first place. But, according to Los Angeles Times NFL writer Sam Farmer, that could be changing in the near future.

Farmer even joined ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd to discuss the story and the chances of the NFL putting together the pieces to finally return football to Los Angeles.

What's most interesting here and the new information available is Farmer's report that the NFL has some owners who like the idea of the league building the stadium in order to put teams in Los Angeles rather than having a team owner handle the cost. In essence, you'd have the NFL owning the stadium and thus able to dictate who becomes the tenant(s). It's something that hasn't been done before which makes it especially intriguing.

Of course, any time a conversation of the NFL and Los Angeles begins, the Rams come up. But it's hard to imagine a scenario where Rams owner Stan Kroenke would want to move into a stadium in which he wouldn't necessarily reap the benefits. It also stands to reason that the NFL could go in any number of other different directions if it built the stadium, up to and including potential expansion franchises.

It's obviously early in the game but certainly an intriguing prospect to discuss.

I.C.Y.M.I.

A roundup of Monday's Rams stories appearing on ESPN.com. ... In the Ram-blings, we began the day with a look at columnist Jeffri Chadiha's belief that the Rams are on the verge of a breakout. ... From there, we delved into Forbes Magazine's rankings of the most valuable franchises in sports with the Rams checking in at No. 45. ... Finally, we examined the surge in jersey sales of defensive end Michael Sam's No. 96 jersey, which is No. 6 in the league at this point.

Elsewhere:

ESPN Business Reporter Darren Rovell breaks down the top 10 jersey sales in the NFL since April 1.

While making the rounds in Bristol on Monday, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel stopped and chatted about Sam's transition to the NFL.

Colts reporter Mike Wells has the news on former coach Tony Dungy saying he would not have selected Sam in the draft.

At stltoday.com, Jim Thomas reports that linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar claimed he was just defending himself in the altercation he was arrested for Sunday morning.