We're rolling toward the end credits of a bad movie. The St. Louis Rams are the NFL version of "A Chorus Line" or "Hudson Hawk". Failed ideas couldn't be fixed by pouring tons of money at the varied problems in these movies, and the Rams are no different.
The script for the Rams 2011 season looked promising. Yet possible failure was anathema to Rams fans. We had "The Cast" for a great NFL story to unfold, right? The director's chair held a guy who turned out to be more Edward Wood than Scorsese. The script for the offense has been written by a young guy who appears to have gotten the job more by implied association to a great New England Patriots quarterback than any real genius of his own. The producer sold his bill of goods to the money man, then tried to salvage what he could by adding to the cast of characters. Now Rams fans yearn for the screen to fade to black, for an end to this season's comic horror show...
I hold no illusion that I hold even a hundredth of the knowledge required to run an NFL franchise, and neither should you. To me, it involves being a high stakes gambler, penultimate teacher, and Genghis Khan. The amount of money involved is staggering, the players egos and fragile bodies complicating a NFL coach's or General Manager's lives every second of every day. The consequences for failure are swift and final. NFL team owner cleave the the team's biggest offender with a dull guillotine, then kick the head unceremoniously to the curb.
There seems to be little doubt that Stan Kroenke is about to make wholesale changes to his team, and rightfully so. To do otherwise would cost him fans and their vasts sums of money so vital to maintaining a successful franchises financial viability. He also knows that fans have a finite threshold for accepting failure, and for the Rams fans I'd say they have reached their limit.
It's time for a new story to be written, and the right players to be in place. Who will being saying "Action" as the next chapter in the Rams saga unfolds, no one really knows. The next version of the St. Louis Rams will be met with unforgiving skepticism. Trust will be measured in "Wins", not at-a-boy hokum. When all is said and done, whoever the Rams have as their new head coach or General manager will be on a short leash. He'll also get my respect until he loses it. God help whoever takes over, because it will not be an easy job.