Turning the page

[12intheBox]

Brothers and Sisters,

This is gut wrenching. Logging on to see that many of the posters who I have come to identify as pillars of the Rams fan base are jumping ship. Jumping may not be fair - they were pushed overboard is more like it.

I decided when ING was first announced that I was going to stick w the team no matter what - but that became much harder for me as time went on. When STL put up a fight, and the task force did their thing, I wanted so badly for my hometown to keep the Rams.

But the NFL did their thing - money rules the world - and STL got screwed. I hope STL can sue the league - and win big. It won't make everything right but it could help the city and hurt the league - both of which I'd like to see.

In the meantime, let's look forward. I'd like to encourage as many of you who are on the fence to stick w the Rams. I know that's a big ask after SK shat on you, but remember why we are fans. It's not for the owners - it's for us. For each of us individually and collectively.

We have suffered thru some really bad football. Really really bad football. But we kept coming back. We have seen every kind of way to lose a game there is - but we remained on board.

LA fans - some of them - stuck around for 20 years after being left hanging by this franchise.

Many of my friends think I'm a turncoat for staying on board. That I should be more of a St. Louis fan and less of a Rams, Cards, or Blues fan. But that's just not how it works for me.

It's also a lot easier for me - I've been a TV fan for over a decade. I had PSLs when I was local, but when life called - I packed up and moved away.

I made it a point to get into town to see camp this year - and I can't imagine how hard this is for the fans who were fortunate enough to get to go to camp, who were there for each home game - those fans - the lifeblood of the St Louis Rams fan base - they deserve better than this.

It does piss me off how SK handled it, but I understand. He went all in on the project and treated it like a business move and not a football move. This part of it will be hard for me to overlook - a sports franchise is not just any business - there is a connection that the team shares with its host city and while Stan may have thought he needed to take the scorched earth approach to get his prize, the callous manner in which he maneuvered this project left me feeling alienated.

But instead of punishing myself by giving up something that I love - I'm just going to never shop at Walmart, never give any business in a THF development another dollar, and not buy any team merchandise.

I may fold on that last point as time goes by, but you get my drift.

Sorry to ramble - I hope to see more of you stick around than SK deserves.

 

[Legatron4]

You know what? I've come to grips with it. I want to make the trip to the first game of the season. Which is hopefully a Monday night game vs SF. I loved STL. I met so many great people including a lot of you. I wouldn't even mind going to see a Cardinals game and repping STL gear. The only thing I can't get over is when Stan said "this has been going on since 2002". What the fuck? Seriously? Why would he buy the team saying his intentions were to do anything he could to keep them in STL? Why did he help bring them here in the first place just to attempt to bring them back in 10 years? Fuck that. I want him to sell the team to an owner who actually gives a shit. It makes me sick how he handled it.

Anyway, I'm still a Rams fan. Always will be. Just sucks.

 

[fearsomefour]

LA fans - some of them - stuck around for 20 years after being left hanging by this franchise.

Most of the LA fans I know stayed loyal to the team. Some did not. It took me part of one year to get back on board, just couldn't stay away. I wouldn't buy anything with St. Louis Rams on it, that lasted maybe three years until I realized how silly that was. A few walked away totally from the NFL....at the end of the day it is just entertainment after all.

It's also a lot easier for me - I've been a TV fan for over a decade. I had PSLs when I was local, but when life called - I packed up and moved away

How dare you move from your team (blue font). It is easier when you are not in the city, that is for sure. That identity that comes with being in the city, it is just part of the town. Hard to see that change. It does sort of crack me up when people think this business is so different from other ones however.

 

[Imperial]

12, I'm in your camp as well. I was a Rams fan as a kid, while they were the LA Rams (I thought they had cool helmets), and here I am some 40 years later.

When I turned on Mike & Mike this morning, I was livid. I'm still pissed, but the reality is beginning to set in. I guess my biggest bitch is that SK totally crapped on St. Louis. Hell, I'm not even from the Lou, and it still REALLY pisses me off how he handled it. I own two small businesses myself, and in my rant to my wife, I mentioned the fact that Stan has no integrity, and that I could have never done such a thing to the community. Her reply was "That's why he's a millionaire, and you're not." Well played, my dear...

I suspect by the time the season rolls back around, I'll cheer for my team yet again. All of this makes me realize how much the almighty dollar really does run the show, as much as the NFL tries to convince us otherwise.

 

[RamzFanz]

You know what? I've come to grips with it. I want to make the trip to the first game of the season. Which is hopefully a Monday night game vs SF. I loved STL. I met so many great people including a lot of you. I wouldn't even mind going to see a Cardinals game and repping STL gear. The only thing I can't get over is when Stan said "this has been going on since 2002". What the freak? Seriously? Why would he buy the team saying his intentions were to do anything he could to keep them in STL? Why did he help bring them here in the first place just to attempt to bring them back in 10 years? freak that. I want him to sell the team to an owner who actually gives a crap. It makes me sick how he handled it.

Anyway, I'm still a Rams fan. Always will be. Just sucks.

...and he did it to his home state. That's what makes it so "kiss my ass" to me. His own state and the city of his namesake and he trashed us on the way out. I get the desire to be the king in LA with the biggest stadium and all, "it's good to be the king", as Mel Blanc once said, but by hoseing your own people? Man, the greed is strong in him.

Moving on.

 

[Q729]

...and he did it to his home state. That's what makes it so "kiss my ass" to me. His own state and the city of his namesake and he trashed us on the way out. I get the desire to be the king in LA with the biggest stadium and all, "it's good to be the king", as Mel Blanc once said, but by hoseing your own people? Man, the greed is strong in him.

Moving on.

I think you mean Mel Brooks, unless Bugs or Daffy
Said it too.

 

[551staaa]

I think you mean Mel Brooks, unless Bugs or Daffy
Said it too.

I keep thinking of Bugs doing that scene from History Of The World, and I can't stop laughing.:rolllaugh:

 

[kurtfaulk]

I mentioned the fact that Stan has no integrity, and that I could have never done such a thing to the community. Her reply was "That's why he's a millionaire, and you're not." Well played, my dear...

i've never seen anybody become rich by being a good guy. you have be a real arsehole to get ahead. not saying good guys haven't become rich but it's unlikely. as soon as money gets involved all the bad in people comes to the surface.

.

 

[Dodgersrf]

I'm telling ya. Once those Horns get a firm grip on you, they rarely let go.
I tried, but found myself watching them again once football season came around. I just couldn't move on.

I disliked Georgia more than any person on earth at the time. I found that it really didn't matter. My heart was consumed by all things Rams.

 

[CGI_Ram]

12, I'm in your camp as well. I was a Rams fan as a kid, while they were the LA Rams (I thought they had cool helmets), and here I am some 40 years later.

When I turned on Mike & Mike this morning, I was livid. I'm still pissed, but the reality is beginning to set in. I guess my biggest bitch is that SK totally crapped on St. Louis. Hell, I'm not even from the Lou, and it still REALLY pisses me off how he handled it. I own two small businesses myself, and in my rant to my wife, I mentioned the fact that Stan has no integrity, and that I could have never done such a thing to the community. Her reply was "That's why he's a millionaire, and you're not." Well played, my dear...

I suspect by the time the season rolls back around, I'll cheer for my team yet again. All of this makes me realize how much the almighty dollar really does run the show, as much as the NFL tries to convince us otherwise.

Hell of a post. It speaks to both cities.

 

[RamzFanz]

I think you mean Mel Brooks, unless Bugs or Daffy
Said it too.

I knew I was screwing that up. Thanks.

 

[rams2050]

I am slowly letting go. That is why I've been lurking and barely participating in these forums.

I like to think I have some integrity left in these bones. I have been a Rams' fan since 1964, so it is not easy bidding adieu to the team of my dreams, but it is the total lack of integrity exhibited by SaTAN Krankme and the NFL that is killing what love for the team that I had left.

Let me admit first, though, that I was sort of lacking in integrity myself, I suppose, when the Rams, the team I had loved for most of my life, moved to St. Louis. I saw photos of the empty stadium in LA and I heard the interviews where people said, in essence, "So what?" and I thought, "They don't even want the team." So, I never thought that some of them might be feeling the same 'ripped heart from chest' feeling that is plaguing me now.

Payback is hell, I guess.

But my fandom just adds to the NFL's overall popularity and the owners' immense stashes of cash whether or not I attend another game in my lifetime or buy another single thread of merchandise. I will not watch games and I will not contribute to their TV ratings (even though I don't have a ratings box on my TV). I am done with them, and I am ready to move on in my life.

At least that is how I still feel on this particular day.

Now, if someone swooped in and bought out Krankme and the LA Rams had a new owner, well, all bets would be off. But as it is now, I'm through. The total lack of integrity is disheartening as the NFL's honchos pulled Peacock and his task force first one way and then the other, all the while making those folks spend between $3 and $16 million of money in what was ALWAYS an exercise in futility -- and that they KNEW was an exercise in futility.

I like to think that had I been in the NFL owners' position and able to vote that I would have had the integrity to vote against this deal.

Of course, in doing so I would have been voting against -- at the get-go -- $550 million -- and MAYBE, if Chargers go -- $1.1 billion -- to be neatly divvied up among 32 owners.

Could I actually have gone against my self-interests to this extent? I THINK I could have but one never knows. . . does one?

St. Louis has been treated terribly, and the city does not and did not deserve that. The Dome was, as Jeff Gordon was so fond of saying, a license to 'print money.' No matter what Kroenke and his minions claim, they made a ton of money off of hard-working St. Louisans.

I really don't care if the NFL ever comes back to St. Louis. I hope this entire episode energizes the region to get cracking on its problems, most of which affect other NFL cities to a greater extent than they do St. Louis but which those other cities and teams will never admit to. We have been kicked around enough and it is time for people to realize that the NFL is a corporate fungal growth that feeds on anyone who is smaller and more insignificant than those 32 owners. Concussions and other long-term disabilities? Hell, WE don't care; WE don't suffer from concussions and/or disabilities. Old-time player pensions? Why is that a concern?? WE'VE got all we need and then some. High-dollar seat prices? Let the plebes pay through the nose to further enrich our coffers. $25 beer and $15 hot dogs! Well, then let them eat cake -- when they return to their miserable hovels. THIS is what I see as the NFL's mentality towards those of us who are fans. We may, every 15 years or so, get to enjoy being in the playoffs (unless we're a Cheatriots fan, which is another total gripe of mine -- the level of cheating that is tolerated by the NFL when it comes to their fair-haired boys in the red, white and blue) and we should be happy with that.

But WHAT DOES THAT REALLY GET US? Bragging rights as WHAT? Idiots? Folks who take away from our families and friends to vicariously participate in a rich man's league that views each of us as a disposable commodity? If I leave, there will be 10 more mindless fools ready, willing and able to take my place out in LA (until the losing begins. And as some of you have so aptly noted, the losing will NEVER begin out there. The NFL has waited too long for this and has too much invested in it to look like a fool. The Rams WILL win so that the NFL will look oh-so-smart and wonderful and prescient. The refs will be schooled and the fix will be in. You, my friends, those of you who don't jump ship, are in for one heckuva ride, one that will lead you to the playoffs sooner rather than later and all so the NFL will LOOK GOOD!

Right now, though, I am sick of the NFL and I'm even sick of many of the players for being highly-paid prima donnas with a penchant for banned substances and criminal activities.

And I really, truly wonder if Jeff Fisher hadn't been instructed, by Kroenke, not to try too hard just to keep butts out of those St. Louis seats.

I hope I'm wrong but I would not be one bit surprised if I were right. The level of incompetence displayed by Fisher at varying times was glaringly obvious, even to someone with no NFL credentials at all.

But then, I guess, he isn't a 'winning' coach, so maybe it was just incompetence. We shall soon find out, won't we?

 

[RamFan503]

I think you mean Mel Brooks, unless Bugs or Daffy
Said it too.

I gotta say that when I read @RamzFanz post, I thought Mel Brooks even though it said Blanc. Ththththththat's all folks.

 

[fancents86]

You can still watch the rams and cheer for them without putting money in Stan's and the nfl's pocket. I cancelled my Sunday ticket and will watch purely off of streams and any merch I want I will shop online for used gear. I will also never step foot in that stadium in Inglewood.