The Rams are headed back to Los Angeles. Forgive me for not being excited.
I know, I know. A new state of the art $1.7 billion stadium will be a spectacular home for the Rams, good for Los Angeles, and probably host Super Bowls and more someday.
I just can’t get over the past.
I keep thinking about the people of St. Louis. The task force that worked tirelessly to meet every demand of Rams Owner Stan Kroenke, only for the Missouri native to turn his back on them.
I feel for the fans that kept showing up to cheer the Rams over two decades in St. Louis, even though the teams were rarely successful.
I keep imagining the tears of the kids who only know the Rams in St. Louis. Kids that idolized Kurt Warner and Isaac Bruce and now Todd Gurley.
Sports aren’t supposed to be this way.
The games and teams we love are supposed to unify us, not desert us.
I also fear for the future.
The Chargers have until March to decide whether they want to try to stay in San Diego and work out a new stadium deal or join the Rams in Inglewood.
Are San Diego fans the next ones to be betrayed?
Or will it be Oakland fans when Raiders Owner Mark Davis strikes a deal with San Antonio or elsewhere now that his L.A. dreams have been dashed.
Sadly, this has happened before. Baltimore, Cleveland, and Seattle are just a few of the cities that know the pain of losing a major league franchise.
And after Tuesday, I’m sure it will happen again.
These owners can’t help themselves.
They are billionaires in the search of a few extra millions. Never mind the dad who spent his paycheck to take his kids to a game or the city that rolled out an expensive red carpet not so many years ago.
At the announcement Tuesday night in Houston, Kroenke and the NFL celebrated the move. Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross proclaiming that, “everybody won.”
Do you think St. Louis won, Mr. Ross?
“Well, somebody has to lose,” Ross said matter of factly, in reply to the obvious question.
The Rams move to L.A. means Kroenke, Ross and the rest of the NFL owners won Tuesday. It is the fans that lost.
