Time for St. Louis to rally around the Cardinals and Blues

It hasn’t even been a full 24 hours but St. Louis has lost football…again. There are many mixed emotions that happen when something is lost. There are a lot of truly great Rams fans that have put up with years of terrible football. Even under the Fisher regime it was tough to watch a pre-historic offense work or whatever you want to call that.

First let me address that I understand the business aspect. I understand there was a loophole in the lease that allowed all of this to happen. St. Louis officials need to hold some blame for not addressing this issue further. The lease that got the Rams to St. Louis was a terrible deal. One that allowed for this to happen.

But, it stinks.

No one. Absolutely no on should be surprised by Rodger Goodell and his antics with the NFL. Loyalty in sports doesn’t exist in the NFL, despite what the office is trying to get you to think when it comes to military members and cancer survivors and fighters. This is because the NFL looks good when they say they’re all about the fans in this instance. They’re not.

Loyalty does not exist in sports.

But, let me get back to Go0dell for a moment. Goodell has lied about concussions, he has covered up concussions, the Ray Rice incident (which a lot of evidence indicates he saw the video), Greg Hardy, Tom Brady and deflated footballs, knowing about the Patriots cheating issues. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Goodell and the NFL are corrupt. It has turned me off of football for the past few years and this is just another tally to add under the grievances of a corrupt commissioner.

Goodell bashed St. Louis’ efforts to maintain the Rams. It was a fool’s hope. Money wins. Stan has money. He won. But, Goodell scoffed at St. Louis, a city that was willing to build a SECOND new stadium in 25 years and throw $400 million dollars away.

I’m fully aware the Rams’ attendance was one of the lowest in the league. But when you have to put up with a decade of poor ownership and bad teams, what is expected? When the Rams were competitive, when the team was ran well the people came. The Rams left LA the first time because of poor attendance. And let’s make this clear: I’ve never been to LA, but I’m sure there are quite a few more things to do than go watch a football game when I’m bored. And when the team is bad (like they have been), I’m probably going to do those things.

But, I’ve digressed too far.

It wasn’t all that long ago St. Louis was named the Best Sports Town in the United States. This is very impressive considering the city lacks an NBA team. Some would say they shouldn’t have got that award because of it. Or, you could say the fans really care about the teams that have.

The Rams were one of those teams.

I’ll be the first one to rip and tear apart your typical Best Fan In Baseball and the romanticizing that comes along with it. But, I can’t deny that attendance has been strong and the fans are passionate about their baseball team. Support for the Blues has been fierce despite the team coming up short in the playoffs time-and-time again.

Now St. Louis needs to rally around the Cardinals and Blues more than ever. Not because of fear of these teams moving (they’re not). But to show that St. Louis truly does care about these franchises. To rally around the troops.

The NFL has come and gone and after this treatment, (you know, Goodell giving Oakland money for doing nothing) why would you want them back? This situation could have been saved if the NFL wanted it to.

I’m never a fan of throwing public funding for rich owners, but maybe St. Louis can look at a different sports franchise if they’re going to spend money. Soccer and the NBA are two that come to mind. Or you know? Toss that money into schools and infrastructure.

St. Louis deserves better than what happened. The sting is that the NFL and Kroenke had to lie several time and give a false hope to the city that deserved so much better.

Kroenke you made your bed. Own it now. Don’t tell the city how painful it was for you. Don’t give us your ties to Missouri. You separated yourself from St. Louis for years. You put together bad management and gave out poor football as a result.

The Blues and the Cardinals will gladly take the support from St. Louis.