That'll do, Spags.
That'll do.
On Sunday the St. Louis Rams lost a brutal NFC match-up to the Arizona Cardinals at the Edward Jones Dome 23-20. It was their seventh straight loss to the former St. Louis football franchise at home, and it dragged their overall record to 2-9. The beating ensures that the Rams will have their third straight losing season under head coach Steve Spagnuolo.
Earlier in the day, NFL Countdown on ESPN ran a quick segment that asked the question "Is the STL coaching job more or less appealing than the San Diego Charger job?" Not the kind of comfort Coach Spags wants from the national media. With a road game against a pissed off 49ers team looming before a Monday Night date with the Seahawks that's short on storylines, Coach Spags is a dead man walking.
Most likely he'll be accompanied by General Manager Billy Devaney amongst the ranks of the unemployed. The architect of some astonishingly bad contracts (Jason Brown, Jason Smith) and completely inept drafts, Devaney has taken less heat than Spags but is just as culpable for the culture of losing around Rams Park.
It's time for both of them to leave and start fresh. The rankness of these past three seasons should follow these men upon their exits. They've not only wasted our time, money and enthusiasm, but they've also seriously jeopardized the Rams as a viable St. Louis professional organization. Future employers should make sure that the ideas, ideals and strategies they've employed here in St. Louis do not come with the men upon further hiring. They're dangerous to any company's success.
Sports in 2011, it's simpler than it's ever been. Maybe you think the glut of coverage, litany of media outlets and volume of noise produced makes it harder to focus as a professional organization.
It makes it easier.
The Rams' only objective is to entertain. That's it. What entertains the most is a win. All the things that lead to that win must hold our attention. Worse than being just bad, the Rams are a boring, predictable team with no personality or even storylines that people care about. The conversation you had/will have about the rest of this season will start with, "Man, the Rams suck" and once that's been established... what?
There's nothing. Not an iota of intrigue. An ounce of hope.
We thought we had a franchise QB; do we really have a one year wonder? We thought we had a owner who was going to right the ship; does he even give a shit to show up at a game? We thought we had a long future as Rams fans in St. Louis; is the team becoming the front-runners to fill LA's new stadium?
No answers are forthcoming and the front office and head coach are leading the charge into lethargy. Spags will be at his Monday presser acting like he's acted for the past 2.5+ seasons, bloviating about staying the course and catching some breaks. Devaney will be on a sportstalk radio station reminding people how hard it is to overcome so many injuries. We'll forget about this team until Sunday when they show up and get spanked by San Francisco.
Wash. Rise. Repeat.
Each week the Rams are losing more and more fans. The EJD on Sunday was a graveyard of diehards that have to be questioning if supporting a team that doesn't support entertainment is what they want to spend their money on. And as more and more people choose to stay at home or watch franchise that seems to care, it puts the Rams once step closer to leaving the city.
If they have any hope of staying, they need to release Spagnuolo and Devaney. They need to replace them with people that think differently and work to entertain us. Give us a reason to be passionate. Make us fans again.
Because you and I, we're not fans of plodding, horrible football. But we've had it jammed down our throat for the past three seasons.
Enough is enough.