January 13th.
After 21 seasons in St. Louis, the NFL announces the Rams will play in Los Angeles for 2016 and beyond.
Years of plotting by owner Stan Kroenke have paid off. He instantly doubles (at least) the team’s valuation, moves into a glamorous media market ripe with opportunity and gains approval to build/occupy a new stadium that will rival Dallas’ as the ‘crown jewel’ of the NFL.
He doesn’t leave graciously and thank St. Louis for their support over the past two decades, though.
He tosses a molotov cocktail through the front door on the way out.
Worse? It’s not like we didn’t see it coming.
The days of being able to orchestrate the move of a billion dollar sports franchise and have everyone wake up to the taillights of moving trucks on the horizon are long gone. And even though we were hopeful that Dave Peacock and his band of buddies would keep the Rams in St. Louis, deep down, we probably knew that #STLNFL was a speed bump in Kroenke’s path to LA.
Really rich people tend to get what they want.
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Candidly, I wish all this didn’t hurt.
I wish that when I saw Frank Cusumano run a clip of Jeff Fisher taking a dig at St. Louis fans, I didn’t get pissed off. I wish ‘Legends of the Dome’ was a cool celebration of the Bob n’ Weave era instead of a way too late funeral. I wish that I could watch Hard Knocks. I wish that stories about Rams Park didn’t sound like set design notes for The Walking Dead:
“But the goalposts and blocking sleds are gone. Weeds are creeping across the once-manicured grass fields. Small bushes are popping up where the line of scrimmage used to be. The small hill overlooking the area, where excited fans once jammed to watch camp sessions, is smothered with vegetation, some of it high enough to cover Tavon Austin. Outside the fence, the unkempt perimeter grounds scream abandonment.”
But as the NFL opens training camps this week, it does.
It hurts.
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Football is too big to totally ignore the Rams.
I know that their move is going to be in my face all season long. And I’ve been trying to gird myself accordingly. Mainly by consuming more Cardinals baseball. What I’m about to say sounds crazy, but I don’t think it’s crazy:
The 2016 season might be the single most important one the Cardinals have ever had.
Most seasons are what they are. We hope they’re great and successful and bring championships. But if they don’t, they don’t. This year, though, the Cardinals have the added heft of having to try and also serve as a distraction to the biggest sports story in America. A story that – candidly – paints our city as a loser.
They have to help all of us remember that St. Louis is a good town with good fans.
(Side: I’m sure that the seasons during and after WWII were much more important to people as a distraction. Please know that I’m being overly dramatic and that – OF COURSE – the moving of a football team doesn’t cause even a fraction of the heartache as the loss of a loved one during a time of war… )
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The Cardinals are the alpha and omega when it comes to St. Louis pride. Maybe A-B could stake a claim back in the day, but no longer. Hell, when St. Louisans travel around the world, a vast majority of us take a Cardinals shirt or cap… just so everyone knows we’re part of something special.
Silly? Maybe.
But admit it – it’s true. If you aren’t that person, you know that person.
We have immense pride in baseball – Cardinals baseball – and with the Rams so eager to get out of town, the hope was that the Cardinals would rise up and make all of us forget about the Rams deep into October. We’d look up when they were already at their customary 1-4 mark and feel OK about things.
Stick it, Kroenke… we’re a city of champions! Right?
Not exactly.
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It’s not over.
There’s still a chance that the Cardinals get in the playoffs on a Wild Card and make a run to championship #12.
But as training camps start to dominate every sports media outlet from ESPN to Deadspin to Sports Illustrated, St. Louis fans really only have the Cardinals to concentrate on to keep our minds off of Rams football.
So far during the first week of training camps, not so good.
Enjoy last night's fireworks, courtesy of @scheb08.https://t.co/v0yYgfMt6T
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 3, 2016
We need you, Cardinals.
More now, than ever.
Photo: KTVI
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