Todd Gurley released

[payote75]

I am trying to keep level head through all this. When Snead said last year he doesn't regret contract and he had to be rewarded for wt he did for the rams the work he put in where he helped take us it's also as if Snead knew he deserved the money past tense. Let's face it running backs do get crapped on they have a limited life span they play out rookie deal then can get franchised then by the time contract rolls around nobody will pony up and teams move on. And unfortunately there will be 10 more years of that with new CBA.
Now business is business and I get it Snead's contract hurt us but he said clearly he had to be paid and rewarded for his efforts. I find it hard to believe everyone in the rams building was blind when giving him a physical. Perhaps it could of been structured better but that falls on Demoff no?

In any event I hope other players aren't deterred by this and in fact look at it as the rams organisation took care of their player early when they did not have to, knowing full well they were basing it on previous work and accomplishments not really future.

My point, unfortunately it is a business and heart can't get in the way rams might have rewarded him bit differently he still saw 34.5 million of that contract so they did do right by him but now they have a business to run to put the best product out there they can. I hope other players free agents see it that way as well.

Donald Ramsey I get the friend aspect but can't hold it against the organization you want to all be together be brothers family then take less money to keep the team together. We all know that's not the case there's a cap and unless you want to play with a team of 8 people keep it shut.

Funny players want the brotherhood they want to win above all they want their money but then at the table is anyone going to think about their teammates or winning no they have to think about there real families which is understandable. So while we all want to see everyone stay it's out of our power there is a cap and players know it so what would you have teams do??? Either take less so team remains competitive or back up the brinks truck Jalen and then wonder why others can't get paid or have to be released.

Simple formula really and I know someone will mention players association but I didn't say play for free I said figure it out if you want your "boys" on the team or go for the money but keep your mouth shut otherwise. Ideally let's pay everyone Stan has the money but again there's a cap and even if there wasn't the player still has to warrant the money. Simply cannot over pay on the fact that it's your "boy".

Gurley did a lot for us he deserved it. Guys like Fowler everyone knows how much I wanted us to trade for him but are we going to compare who meant more to our franchise?

Sad day but like above poster said there still is many positives to this team going forward.

 

[RamFan503]

Let's get Jonathan taylor with that second round pick @!!

??? Can he carry the rock?

 

[Karate61]

Sonofa!!

~ JoJo
~ Dante
~ Wade P

OMG. I didn't know Fowler was out of play already. I missed that and just looked up he's gone to the Falcons. Man, have the Rams cleaned house or what?

 

[iamme33]

The Dickerson trade felt a lot like this move. Very similar, like a fucking knife to the heart.

Bettis pissed me off because the Rams were so goddamn stupid. But we didn't have him long enough for me to have that same connection to the player.

if my memory is right bettis had completely quit on the rams so there just wasn't anything else for the rams to do.

 

[OldSchool]

Wrong comedian for that quote. Should be Bill Engval.

Yeah that was the first pic I found.

 

[Loyal]

It won't ever make sense especially with the June 1 designation. I'll be less angry like I was eventually when she traded away Eric Dickerson. But this move will never make sense. The smart thing to do was use him and abuse him for a year and then cut him or trade him at the deadline to get something and take the cap savings next year. This is stupid and I'll never change my mind about that part of it. I will get less angry but will never be ok with this.

You need to get with the program. ~ Snead-with-a-toupee

 

[OldSchool]

View: https://twitter.com/profootballtalk/status/1240978934235385856?s=21


Just gets better.

 

[thirteen28]

if my memory is right bettis had completely quit on the rams so there just wasn't anything else for the rams to do.

Totally quit on the Rams. Quit like a fucking dog. Half-assed it for the entirety of the 1995 season. He left them no choice to trade him.

 

[jap]

If Gurley had been traded for a first round pick, there would be a much different reaction that now. But he would still be gone. Don't get why so many are so upset.

They have been sorely spoiled by Les and his tendency for blockbuster wheelin' & dealin' where the Horns often appear to come out ahead. This is nothing more than an old fashion salary dump.

The Gurley Man received a huge mega contract, especially for an RB. However, when healthy, he is one of the rare feature backs who deserved it - long with primetime Adrian Peterson, Eric "the Great" Dickerson, Barry Sanders, etc. When healthy, he runs, receives, and blocks at high levels. He is a threat to reach paydirt on any given play from any part of the field.

Whatever his physical woes actually are, they knocked him off the that high plateau and made his salary excessive. A healthy Gurley Express! probably would have catapulted the Horns to their second Super Bowl win. While still good and effective, he appears to be damaged goods, and the Leprechaun & Co. decided to reboot the RB units, as they are currently doing with other team units.

I love the Gurley Man, but optimizing return on investment realities rule. We just have to brace ourselves for an extra special effort whenever he faces off against our Horns.

 

[RamFan503]

Totally quit on the Rams. Quit like a fucking dog. Half-assed it for the entirety of the 1995 season. He left them no choice to trade him.

It was unprofessional for sure. But then again, so was how this organization was being run. I don't give a pass to either party.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Too much talk of what Gurley did in the past. Harsh realities of last year:

-Never had a play for over 25 yds
-lost most of his explosiveness
-sulked on the sidelines half the time
-hard to remember him being a difference maker in a game
-knee is obviously shot

Lets face it.

-Great player for 3 years and awesome to watch
-Terrible timing and structure regarding his contract. Totally blew out the market at the time and wasn’t necessary. Especially for the RB position.
-Knee injury may have been more mental than physical and McVay didn’t feel like dealing with that drama for another year.

Sorry he couldn’t stay healthy and retire as a Ram and go to the Hall of Fame but he’s done. Better to cut bait now and see if Henderson has what it takes.

Yeah but in that reality there's no one to blame and its easier to throw stones at the organization, clearly.

 

[thirteen28]

It was unprofessional for sure. But then again, so was how this organization was being run. I don't give a pass to either party.

The Rams front office/ownership certainly sucked donkey balls at the time, and sucked them hard. But I'll never give Quitter Bettis a pass, because in that same season he was sulking like a little bitch, Isaac Bruce caught 119 pass for over 1700 yards and carried himself like a true pro.

 

[SWAdude]

After some thought....

Gurley gets released and signs a one year offer at an average rate for a guy who was the NFLs OPOY two seasons prior.....ONE.......day later? Can't wait to see whom else is offering what?

Damaged goods and he knows it. Took first offer to close out career where it all began.

Hope he passes the physical.

 

[AlphaRam]

After some thought....

Gurley gets released and signs a one year offer at an average rate for a guy who was the NFLs OPOY two seasons prior.....ONE.......day later? Can't wait to see whom else is offering what?

Damaged goods and he knows it. Took first offer to close out career where it all began.

Hope he passes the physical.

Probably the only offer he was gonna get. Rams were obviously in talks with teams for awhile and his agent knew the teams that were interested or not. No one was rushing to sign Gurley, that much is obvious.

 

[So Ram]

The guy tied with Marshall Faulk and two ahead of Steven Jackson and Eric Dickerson in rushing touchdowns is a bust. That's a genius comment wow.

At his COST ?? The Rams just ate crap on his contract. He got fired as he tweeted !!

 

[Jacobarch]

View: https://twitter.com/profootballtalk/status/1240978934235385856?s=21


Just gets better.

Lol I bet he passes tho

 

[Ramrocket]

View: https://twitter.com/profootballtalk/status/1240978934235385856?s=21


Just gets better.

Yeah, I can't see how. We cut him, didn't trade him so he's not coming 'back on our roster'. He was officially off our roster before the payment became due. No obligation whatsoever.

 

[kurtfaulk]

Yeah, I can't see how. We cut him, didn't trade him so he's not coming 'back on our roster'. He was officially off our roster before the payment became due. No obligation whatsoever.

i thought you couldn't cut a player that was injured? or am i wrong?

.

 

[OldSchool]

Yeah, I can't see how. We cut him, didn't trade him so he's not coming 'back on our roster'. He was officially off our roster before the payment became due. No obligation whatsoever.

Nope if he can’t pass a physical we can’t cut him to avoid a bonus especially if there were injury guarantees.

 

[tempests]

if my memory is right bettis had completely quit on the rams so there just wasn't anything else for the rams to do.

https://www.stltoday.com/sports/foo...cle_a62e948c-83df-5528-aa76-9867f2cd682d.html

In January 1995, the Post-Dispatch published a special section detailing the move of the Rams' franchise to St. Louis. A full-page cover illustration depicted the team's top star, Jerome Bettis, running amok through the St. Louis skyline. Larger than life, he seemed about to stiff-arm the Gateway Arch.
Turns out Bettis was just passing through. After one ill-fated season in St. Louis, he was unceremoniously traded to Pittsburgh during the 1996 draft.
"Which was sad because we had a special situation," recalled Todd Lyght, the former Rams cornerback and Bettis' teammate in '95. "We were in a new city. Everybody wanted to get off on the right foot. And here one of our best players has a problem with the coach; and the coach has a problem with one of the best players.
"And he goes to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So that worked out really good for Jerome, which I was glad about. But we lost a lot of games because of it."
If the Marshall Faulk trade in 1999 was one of the best in St. Louis sports history, the Bettis deal three years earlier was one of the worst. And ultimately, it cost coach Rich Brooks and general manager Steve Ortmayer their jobs.
Bettis was a Pro Bowler his first two seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, topping 1,000 yards both seasons. But Bettis got on Brooks' bad side with a training camp holdout. He didn't miss any regular-season games before finally reporting — without the new contract he wanted — but Brooks still took it personally.

Fifteen years later, it still rankles Bettis, one of the friendliest pro athletes you'll ever meet.
"It was a frustrating season because I came in after a holdout, and it was something that me and management were dealing with," Bettis told the Post-Dispatch last week. "But Brooks held it against me as if I did something to him ...
"Each week he would pull me out of the football game after I performed fairly well. He would yank me. He did that the majority of the season until I hurt my foot."
Yes, in the middle of all this, Bettis suffered a nagging foot injury, which lingered for much of the '95 season. But the foot was the least of Bettis' problems.
"I'll never forget, we were playing the Atlanta Falcons (in November)," he said. "I had a 41-yard run, and after that run, he pulled me. I didn't play the rest of the game. I'm thinking to myself, 'What is going on?' "
Bettis finished with just nine carries for 61 yards in a 31-6 loss to Atlanta.
"It was so disheartening, because at that time I knew that he had something personally against me," Bettis said. "And then, I guess he started saying that I was a negative influence in the locker room, and that was the furthest from the truth. So that was a frustrating time in my career."

Throughout that season Bettis never let on to the media that the situation was getting to him. But his teammates could tell.

"It was a tough situation," Lyght said. "He's our leading rusher. He comes back. He doesn't get a contract. It is a business, so you've got to take care of the business side of it. When that happened, all of the emotional and personal stuff got caught up between him and the coach — Coach Brooks — and it was beyond repair."
Late in the season, things deteriorated to the point where Bettis actually took himself out of a game in the Meadowlands against the New York Jets.
"He'd put me in a play, take me out, put me in," Bettis said. "And my head wasn't into the game. I missed a protection and got the quarterback sacked. And I'll never forget. I came out to the sideline and I told our running back coach (Johnny Roland) that I couldn't go back in the game.
"That's when I had really hit my breaking point because it had got to me — to the point where I wasn't 100-percent focused on the game. And when you're in that position, not only will you hurt yourself, more importantly you're more harm to other players."
Bettis had averaged 305 carries during his first two seasons but had only 183 in 1995. He finished with only 637 yards, which stood as the lowest rushing total of his 13-year career until he gained 368 yards for Pittsburgh in 2005, his final year in the league.
A few weeks after the season ended, Bettis told the Rams that he wanted a commitment to be their feature back in 1996. No can do, the Rams replied. The Rams told Bettis they would like him to play some fullback in '96. No can do, Bettis replied.

Ortmayer and Brooks coveted Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, and when the Rams acquired the No. 6 overall pick in the '96 draft by trading defensive tackle Sean Gilbert to Washington, they were in position to get Phillips.
John Shaw, the Rams' president at the time, had conversations with owner Georgia Frontiere and minority owner Stan Kroenke the night before the draft.
"Georgia was nervous about drafting him," Shaw said in a recent interview. "She didn't want to draft him because of the incident obviously that he had in college."
At the time, Phillips was in the middle of a one-year probation for misdemeanor assault of his former girlfriend.
Shaw and Kroenke felt that the Rams already had a Pro Bowl running back in Bettis. With so many other needs, why use a high pick on another back?
"But Rich was pretty soured on Jerome at that point, which was a shame," Shaw said. "Jerome was a really good player, and just had a bad year. But our ownership ultimately deferred to the head coach and the general manager. As you know, we made a very bad decision. What did Jerome have, about 8,000, 10,000 yards after we traded him?"
To be exact, he had 10,571 rushing yards as a Steeler, not to mention 78 touchdowns.
On draft day most observers expected Phillips to go higher than No. 6 overall. With that in mind, the Rams also were considering another running back, Tim Biakabutuka. But with teams apparently shying away because of Phillips' off-the-field problems, he was still on the board when the Rams picked at No. 6. They wasted little time drafting him, and after the pick wasted even less time trading Bettis and a third-round pick to the Steelers for a second-round pick in that draft and a fourth-rounder in '97.

"That just tells you how difficult this is at times," Shaw said. "Phillips looked to everybody like he was going to be a spectacular back. Jerome had already proven himself, and it was kind of controversial in my mind to trade a Pro Bowl back for what we got for him. It's just unfortunate."
Well, it wasn't for Bettis, who thrived immediately in Pittsburgh. Bettis didn't even have to wait long to exact revenge on the Rams, because the teams met in Game 9 in '96. Bettis rushed for 129 yards and two touchdowns against the Rams, leading the Steelers to a 42-6 victory. Criticized by Brooks and Ortmayer after the trade for lacking big-play potential, Bettis ripped off a 50-yard TD run against his old team.
"He ran with a lot of passion, and a lot of anger," Lyght said. "I can tell you, there was a point in time where I was looking at guys' faces in our (defensive) huddle and they were done tackling him, and we were only into the third quarter."
It could have been much worse for the Rams but coach Bill Cowher pulled Bettis late in the third quarter. Bettis lobbied unsuccessfully to get back into the game.
"I wanted to really pound 'em, because Rich Brooks when they traded me, he said he wanted a game-breaker. That's why they wanted to get Lawrence Phillips," Bettis said. "Those things go to your heart when a guy says that. I'll never forget after the game, Brooks said, 'Oh, even I could've ran through those holes.' Kind of like that. And really not trying to give me the credit."

Bettis' memory was pretty good. Brooks' exact postgame quote about the 50-yard run was: "I could be a breakaway runner through that hole. I mean, let's be honest. He had a huge hole, and he took it to the house."
Brooks did not say hello or shake Bettis' hand after the game, but Kroenke visited Bettis in the Steelers' locker room. "He congratulated me, and that was impressive," Bettis said.
Phillips lasted only two seasons with the Rams, rushing for 633 yards in '96 and 632 yards in '97 — both slightly less than Bettis' 637 yards in '95. Bettis, meanwhile, topped 1,000 yards rushing in each of his first six seasons in Pittsburgh.
"I had a ball," Bettis said. "It was the best place I could've ever went to because they love running with a big running back. It was great for me."
As for St. Louis?
"I think it turned out well for the Rams because they realized they had made a mistake, so they got rid of him (Brooks) and they bring in Dick Vermeil, and they win a Super Bowl," Bettis said.
With Faulk as their feature back. There would have been no trade for Faulk in '99 without the trade that sent Bettis to Pittsburgh. Now both players are finalists for the Hall of Fame, with voting to take place Saturday.
If Bettis doesn't get in Saturday, Shaw said, "He won't have to wait long. He is also a Hall of Fame player, and one of the most terrific guys that I've ever dealt with since I've been around the league. He's a terrific guy."