Silent Stan's absence a bit puzzling

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Medium-sized Lebowski
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Name
The Dude
Ron Clements
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Steve Spagnuolo always prided himself on doing the right thing when dealing with players ... and his players appreciated how Spagnuolo spoke with them.

If Spagnuolo decided to release a player, he met with that player in person to inform him of the news. It was the one part of the job Spagnuolo dreaded because, as he often said, "this business is about people."

Spagnuolo, and general manager Billy Devaney, were both fired on Monday following a horrible three-year stretch that saw the Rams win only 10 total games.

But when owner Stan Kroenke decided to relieve both his coach and GM of their duties on Sunday, he didn't hop in his jet and fly to St. Louis to do it in person. He had his executive vice president of football operations and chief operations officer, Kevin Demoff, do it for him.

That would be the equivalent of Spagnuolo telling a position coach or coordinator to tell a player he's been cut. It just doesn't seem right. Spagnuolo and Devaney may not have been successful as far as putting a winning product on the field, but if Kroenke believes his own words when he said in his statement that he has "tremendous respect for Steve and Billy as people and football professionals" and wanted to "thank them personally" for their work in St. Louis, then do it in person.

As I left the auditorium at Rams Park following Demoff's 17-minute long press conference, I heard the questions: "Why did Kroenke have Demoff address the media instead of doing it himself? Why couldn't the owner fire Spags and Devaney himself instead of having Demoff do his 'dirty work'?"

Those are both very good questions. And I wish I knew the answers. I do know this - Spagnuolo and Devaney deserved to have the owner look them in the eyes when he told them they needed to clean out their offices.

This business is about people and Kroenke seems to have missed that along the way to building his billion-dollar sports empire.