Football This sounds familar

ChiefsCountry · 09-23-2008, 10:35 AM

From across the state, read these articles about the Lambs. Sounds like the Chiefs of the last few years.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...C?OpenDocument

Rams can't write off troubles as rebuilding
By Bryan Burwell

SEATTLE — This was the worst sort of athletic misery of them all. Utter
hopelessness.

As he stood in front of his locker stall in the Qwest Field visitors' locker
room after yet another Sunday afternoon massacre — this one a 37-13 romp by the
Seattle Seahawks — Rams tackle Orlando Pace slowly shook his head and let out a
sad and dispirited sigh. "Man, I don't know, I just don't know," Pace said as
he grabbed a dress shirt off a coat hook. "This is the worst situation I have
ever been around."

He shrugged those broad shoulders, rolled his sad eyes and frowned with the
helpless expression of someone who had been asked to extract all the sand from
the Sahara with a plastic spoon. Of course the task was much tougher than that.
Someone had just asked him if he knew the solution to the biggest mystery of
all: How do you fix what ails this moribund franchise?

"In all my years (in football) I've never been through something like this,"
Pace said. "This is all new territory to me."

Just a few feet away from Pace was a large, black suede bag from one of the
seven Pro Bowls he has played in. It was a distant remnant of the glory days of
this franchise, when people were talking about the Rams as if they were on the
verge of becoming the NFL's newest dynasty. When someone asked him if he could
still remember those days, Pace frowned again and let out another exasperated
sigh.

"Those years? Those great years?" he said. "That was light-years ago, man.
Light-years."

I wish Chip Rosenbloom could have seen this locker room Sunday. The new owner
should have been there to understand how bad things have gotten. He should have
been there to hear the helplessness in the voices of all those players, who
wish that things have hit rock bottom but know the team is still in free fall.

Today, the only conversation in knowledgeable NFL circles about the Rams is how
really bad this team is, and how it has no chance to get better any time soon.
The 0-3 Rams have won only seven of their last 30 games, and you wish you could
write it off as a franchise in a brief rebuilding downturn.

But if Rosenbloom were here, he'd have to know that there's no amount of
squinting that can distort the uncomfortable truth that this sagging
organization is suffering from a deep football depression.

The more Rosenbloom closely examines this, the more I'm certain he will realize
that the men who have been left in charge — John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt — are
guilty of so much amateur-hour bungling. Shaw's absentee-management
indifference to the day-to-day operations and Zygmunt's unknowledgeable
hands-on meddling in the football side of the business were the lethal
combination that has conspired to leave so many of these players and coaches in
a wretched football hell, forced Scott Linehan into a fate he doesn't deserve
and set the franchise back at least five years.

The company line from the top of the Rams food chain is that this is a
rebuilding process. That of course is a crock, since this is one of the
league's oldest rosters. There are too many older players on the wrong side of
the career arch playing meaningful minutes and not enough talented young ones
being carefully indoctrinated into the system.

If this was a rebuilding situation, why were two of the team's most recent
second-round picks (Brian Leonard and Joe Klopfenstein) on the sidelines almost
the entire game?

If this was a rebuilding situation, why were none of the second- or third-round
picks from 2006 and 2007 on the field Sunday getting significant playing time?
The so-called future of the Rams is a total waste, just one bad draft pick
after another. Klopfenstein doesn't play. Leonard doesn't play. Jon Alston is
long gone. So are Claude Wroten, Dominque Byrd, Jimmy Kennedy, Robert Thomas,
Travis Fisher, Kevin Curtis, Damione Lewis, Anthony Hargrove, Eric Crouch,
Travis Scott and Shaun McDonald.

This is why there are no short-term answers to the Rams' losing ways. The
future never developed because the people who were supposed to be astute judges
of talent failed at their jobs.

Imagine how much different things could have been for the Rams if in 2006, they
had made just two smart, franchise-shifting moves. Instead of taking cornerback
Tye Hill in the first round and tight end Klopfenstein in the second, they
should have snatched up both Antonio Cromartie and Marcus McNeil.

Four picks after Hill was selected by the Rams, Cromartie was snatched up by
the San Diego Chargers. Four picks after Klopfenstein was taken, the Chargers
grabbed offensive tackle McNeil. Cromartie and McNeil are now Pro Bowl players,
while Hill and Klopfenstein are looking like major mistakes.

This is why it's so bad, and why it can and will get worse. And I just wish
Rosenbloom had been here to see just how bad it really is.

ChiefsCountry · 09-23-2008, 10:37 AM

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...B?OpenDocument

Current Rams team is hopeless
By Bernie Miklasz

Not until Sunday, when I had a chance to sit back and watch parts of every NFL
game, did I truly realize just how horrific the Rams are.

Look, I knew the Rams were bad. After years of terrible drafting, appalling
personnel misjudgments and paying small fortunes to players who go in the tank,
the Rams lack talent and playmakers.

But there are more than a few incomplete and undermanned teams in the NFL. So
what's the difference between the Rams and the others? I see other teams
playing with verve and vigor. I see other teams straining and fighting and
buzzing around, trying desperately to make something happen.

Sunday, I saw a poor team, the Miami Dolphins, go into New England and destroy
the Patriots in large part because of a creative coaching staff that went in
with a crazy, fun and let-it-rip game plan that clearly energized the players.

And the Rams?

They're lifeless, helpless, hopeless.

Instead of being listed as underdogs each Sunday, just mark them down as "DOA."

This is the worst team in the history of NFL football in St. Louis.

These 2007-08 Rams of Scott Linehan are more dreadful than the Bob
Hollway-coached Cardinal teams of 1971-72, more discouraging than the Bud
Wilkinson teams of 1978-79. The 1998 Rams went 4-12 and were dull on offense,
but they generally played hard for Dick Vermeil and lost six games by a
touchdown or less. The 1985 Cardinals were a soap opera and a crushing
disappointment at 5-11. That squad was plagued by nasty internal issues,
including drug use and locker-room thefts. But at least the '85 Cardinals
started the season by going 3-1 and showing a pulse. The players on the 2008
Rams team aren't stealing from each other; many of them are just stealing a
paycheck each week.

These Rams are being dominated on both sides of the ball. They aren't remotely
competitive, having been outscored 116-29 in the first three games. They are
31st among the 32 NFL teams in scoring points, and 32nd at preventing them.
Their defense is giving up the most yards in the league. And after the big
signing of alleged franchise back Steven Jackson, the Rams are dead last in the
NFL in yards per rush (3.1) and have had only one running play go for 10 yards
or longer. When this offense reaches the red zone, it's cause for as much
celebration as Lindbergh reaching Paris.

The Rams' current losing streak has stretched to an ugly seven games, and they
have lost these beatings by an average score of 37-14. They're 3-16 in the last
19 games; the average score of the defeats is 31-13. They are 7-23 in the last
30 games, by an average of 16 points. And this is in a league where about half
the games are decided by a touchdown or less.

And if you're expecting Linehan and staff to find a way to get the players
emotionally revved to slay dragons the way the Dolphin coaches did at New
England, well, forget about it.

"Something's vanishing from our competitive state of mind on the field and I
take total responsibility for that, trying to find out what it is, what buttons
we need to push, what lineups that can get it done," Linehan said Monday at
Rams Park. "After three games, I don't know that I have any better answer for
you ... ''

Linehan has no answers.

Uh, so why is Linehan still here?

What is the point of alienating and infuriating customers by keeping him
around?

That's business. What about the humanistic side?

The owner-chairman, Chip Rosenbloom, likes Linehan personally. And Rosenbloom
also respects his late mother's wishes to give Linehan a third season.
Understood.

(An aside: I can only imagine how hard John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt are lobbying
the owner to stay the course and keep the coach they hired. If this team played
nearly as hard as the executives lobbied, they'd be 3-0.)

If Rosenbloom steps back for a moment and really thinks about this, he'll do
the merciful thing and put an end to the suffering. Because this is sad, and
the depression will only deepen. Linehan is drowning. His wife, understandably
distraught, was crying in Seattle at the end of Sunday's 37-13 loss.

What is the benefit, the value, of continuing to allow this coach to endure
needless humiliation?

Why continue to torture Linehan? The coach won't be able to turn this around;
his demise is inevitable.

So why prolong the misery?

blueballs · 09-23-2008, 10:39 AM

An old team ready to quit on Linehan
vs
a young team don't know enough to quit on Herm

KCrockaholic · 09-23-2008, 10:39 AM

wow im starting to think Mizzou could beat the Chiefs and the Rams

**The Franchise** · 09-23-2008, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Four picks after Hill was selected by the Rams, Cromartie was snatched up by the San Diego Chargers. Four picks after Klopfenstein was taken, the Chargers grabbed offensive tackle McNeil. Cromartie and McNeil are now Pro Bowl players, while Hill and Klopfenstein are looking like major mistakes.

Hindsight is 20/20.

**Skip Towne** · 09-23-2008, 11:01 AM

I think Pace is the problem. They should trade him to us for McIntosh.

09-23-2008, 10:35 AM
ChiefsCountry The Insider Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Lake of the Ozarks Casino cash: $-1601248	This sounds familar From across the state, read these articles about the Lambs. Sounds like the Chiefs of the last few years. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...C?OpenDocument Rams can't write off troubles as rebuilding By Bryan Burwell SEATTLE — This was the worst sort of athletic misery of them all. Utter hopelessness. As he stood in front of his locker stall in the Qwest Field visitors' locker room after yet another Sunday afternoon massacre — this one a 37-13 romp by the Seattle Seahawks — Rams tackle Orlando Pace slowly shook his head and let out a sad and dispirited sigh. "Man, I don't know, I just don't know," Pace said as he grabbed a dress shirt off a coat hook. "This is the worst situation I have ever been around." He shrugged those broad shoulders, rolled his sad eyes and frowned with the helpless expression of someone who had been asked to extract all the sand from the Sahara with a plastic spoon. Of course the task was much tougher than that. Someone had just asked him if he knew the solution to the biggest mystery of all: How do you fix what ails this moribund franchise? "In all my years (in football) I've never been through something like this," Pace said. "This is all new territory to me." Just a few feet away from Pace was a large, black suede bag from one of the seven Pro Bowls he has played in. It was a distant remnant of the glory days of this franchise, when people were talking about the Rams as if they were on the verge of becoming the NFL's newest dynasty. When someone asked him if he could still remember those days, Pace frowned again and let out another exasperated sigh. "Those years? Those great years?" he said. "That was light-years ago, man. Light-years." I wish Chip Rosenbloom could have seen this locker room Sunday. The new owner should have been there to understand how bad things have gotten. He should have been there to hear the helplessness in the voices of all those players, who wish that things have hit rock bottom but know the team is still in free fall. Today, the only conversation in knowledgeable NFL circles about the Rams is how really bad this team is, and how it has no chance to get better any time soon. The 0-3 Rams have won only seven of their last 30 games, and you wish you could write it off as a franchise in a brief rebuilding downturn. But if Rosenbloom were here, he'd have to know that there's no amount of squinting that can distort the uncomfortable truth that this sagging organization is suffering from a deep football depression. The more Rosenbloom closely examines this, the more I'm certain he will realize that the men who have been left in charge — John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt — are guilty of so much amateur-hour bungling. Shaw's absentee-management indifference to the day-to-day operations and Zygmunt's unknowledgeable hands-on meddling in the football side of the business were the lethal combination that has conspired to leave so many of these players and coaches in a wretched football hell, forced Scott Linehan into a fate he doesn't deserve and set the franchise back at least five years. The company line from the top of the Rams food chain is that this is a rebuilding process. That of course is a crock, since this is one of the league's oldest rosters. There are too many older players on the wrong side of the career arch playing meaningful minutes and not enough talented young ones being carefully indoctrinated into the system. If this was a rebuilding situation, why were two of the team's most recent second-round picks (Brian Leonard and Joe Klopfenstein) on the sidelines almost the entire game? If this was a rebuilding situation, why were none of the second- or third-round picks from 2006 and 2007 on the field Sunday getting significant playing time? The so-called future of the Rams is a total waste, just one bad draft pick after another. Klopfenstein doesn't play. Leonard doesn't play. Jon Alston is long gone. So are Claude Wroten, Dominque Byrd, Jimmy Kennedy, Robert Thomas, Travis Fisher, Kevin Curtis, Damione Lewis, Anthony Hargrove, Eric Crouch, Travis Scott and Shaun McDonald. This is why there are no short-term answers to the Rams' losing ways. The future never developed because the people who were supposed to be astute judges of talent failed at their jobs. Imagine how much different things could have been for the Rams if in 2006, they had made just two smart, franchise-shifting moves. Instead of taking cornerback Tye Hill in the first round and tight end Klopfenstein in the second, they should have snatched up both Antonio Cromartie and Marcus McNeil. Four picks after Hill was selected by the Rams, Cromartie was snatched up by the San Diego Chargers. Four picks after Klopfenstein was taken, the Chargers grabbed offensive tackle McNeil. Cromartie and McNeil are now Pro Bowl players, while Hill and Klopfenstein are looking like major mistakes. This is why it's so bad, and why it can and will get worse. And I just wish Rosenbloom had been here to see just how bad it really is.
Posts: 52,143

09-23-2008, 10:37 AM	#2
ChiefsCountry The Insider Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Lake of the Ozarks Casino cash: $-1601248	http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...B?OpenDocument Current Rams team is hopeless By Bernie Miklasz Not until Sunday, when I had a chance to sit back and watch parts of every NFL game, did I truly realize just how horrific the Rams are. Look, I knew the Rams were bad. After years of terrible drafting, appalling personnel misjudgments and paying small fortunes to players who go in the tank, the Rams lack talent and playmakers. But there are more than a few incomplete and undermanned teams in the NFL. So what's the difference between the Rams and the others? I see other teams playing with verve and vigor. I see other teams straining and fighting and buzzing around, trying desperately to make something happen. Sunday, I saw a poor team, the Miami Dolphins, go into New England and destroy the Patriots in large part because of a creative coaching staff that went in with a crazy, fun and let-it-rip game plan that clearly energized the players. And the Rams? They're lifeless, helpless, hopeless. Instead of being listed as underdogs each Sunday, just mark them down as "DOA." This is the worst team in the history of NFL football in St. Louis. These 2007-08 Rams of Scott Linehan are more dreadful than the Bob Hollway-coached Cardinal teams of 1971-72, more discouraging than the Bud Wilkinson teams of 1978-79. The 1998 Rams went 4-12 and were dull on offense, but they generally played hard for Dick Vermeil and lost six games by a touchdown or less. The 1985 Cardinals were a soap opera and a crushing disappointment at 5-11. That squad was plagued by nasty internal issues, including drug use and locker-room thefts. But at least the '85 Cardinals started the season by going 3-1 and showing a pulse. The players on the 2008 Rams team aren't stealing from each other; many of them are just stealing a paycheck each week. These Rams are being dominated on both sides of the ball. They aren't remotely competitive, having been outscored 116-29 in the first three games. They are 31st among the 32 NFL teams in scoring points, and 32nd at preventing them. Their defense is giving up the most yards in the league. And after the big signing of alleged franchise back Steven Jackson, the Rams are dead last in the NFL in yards per rush (3.1) and have had only one running play go for 10 yards or longer. When this offense reaches the red zone, it's cause for as much celebration as Lindbergh reaching Paris. The Rams' current losing streak has stretched to an ugly seven games, and they have lost these beatings by an average score of 37-14. They're 3-16 in the last 19 games; the average score of the defeats is 31-13. They are 7-23 in the last 30 games, by an average of 16 points. And this is in a league where about half the games are decided by a touchdown or less. And if you're expecting Linehan and staff to find a way to get the players emotionally revved to slay dragons the way the Dolphin coaches did at New England, well, forget about it. "Something's vanishing from our competitive state of mind on the field and I take total responsibility for that, trying to find out what it is, what buttons we need to push, what lineups that can get it done," Linehan said Monday at Rams Park. "After three games, I don't know that I have any better answer for you ... '' Linehan has no answers. Uh, so why is Linehan still here? What is the point of alienating and infuriating customers by keeping him around? That's business. What about the humanistic side? The owner-chairman, Chip Rosenbloom, likes Linehan personally. And Rosenbloom also respects his late mother's wishes to give Linehan a third season. Understood. (An aside: I can only imagine how hard John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt are lobbying the owner to stay the course and keep the coach they hired. If this team played nearly as hard as the executives lobbied, they'd be 3-0.) If Rosenbloom steps back for a moment and really thinks about this, he'll do the merciful thing and put an end to the suffering. Because this is sad, and the depression will only deepen. Linehan is drowning. His wife, understandably distraught, was crying in Seattle at the end of Sunday's 37-13 loss. What is the benefit, the value, of continuing to allow this coach to endure needless humiliation? Why continue to torture Linehan? The coach won't be able to turn this around; his demise is inevitable. So why prolong the misery?
Posts: 52,143

09-23-2008, 10:39 AM	#3
blueballs Banned Join Date: Feb 2006 Casino cash: $10004900	An old team ready to quit on Linehan vs a young team don't know enough to quit on Herm
Posts: 14,233

09-23-2008, 10:39 AM	#4
KCrockaholic Sarcasm Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Olathe Casino cash: $3312900	wow im starting to think Mizzou could beat the Chiefs and the Rams
Posts: 21,179

09-23-2008, 11:01 AM	#6
Skip Towne Supporter Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: T-Town Casino cash: $10004900	I think Pace is the problem. They should trade him to us for McIntosh.
Posts: 69,689