Another Big Move

The St. Louis Rams are the gracious hosts to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night, but you’ll have to forgive them if there’s nothing to eat or drink in the building. They might be moving soon.

Of course, this gets said of the Rams way too frequently. They’ve been America’s guests for most of their life as a pro football franchise.

From Cleveland to Los Angeles to L.A.’s outskirts in Anaheim to St. Louis, 21 years ago. And now? Possibly bound for L.A. again in 2016.

Once the high-flying Greatest Show on Turf and a Super Bowl champion, the Rams last made the playoffs following the 2004 season, and they were a paltry 8-8 when they did that. They haven’t had a winning record since 2003. And with the threats to move absent a new or massively-improved stadium, attendance is down and so is the general mood of players and fans.

“You see the headlines,” said linebacker James Laurinaitis. “You cannot listen to the radio, you cannot look at the newspaper. Heck, you go on social media, you see someone retweeted something and it comes across, but the bottom line is nobody is going to know until this thing is at the end. I think for everybody’s sake, I think everybody is getting kind of fatigued about it in the public.”

The NFL, which used to fight relocation passionately, wants two teams in L.A. and the race is among the Rams, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. Only St. Louis has put forth a truly viable stadium offer. And that gets consideration by the city fathers on Friday. So the game could be over right after the game is over.

Every team wants to move the football. The trick is not to put it on a truck and take it 2,000 miles every 20 years.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .