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Per the St. Louis Business Journal in a move that's as telling as you let it be, the St. Louis Rams have re-structured some of their annual contracts to vendors and employees to end in February of 2016 rather than May as was customary with February 15, 2016, standing out as the deadline to submit a relocation bid to the league office.
In the article, one vendor, Perficient, picked up on the change and asked why. They were told it was to coincide with the end of the playing season.
That certainly seems strange.
The league calendar starts March 10. And of course with the combine in late February, the blitz of free agency in early March and the pathway to the 2016 NFL Draft all coming in the space of two months, there's plenty of justification to maintain services through May.
Brian Feldt, the story's author, did contact the Rams for his piece, but the Rams "did not respond to multiple requests for comment."
Perhaps most striking is that the suggestion the contract modification makes is now affecting employees.
A Rams employee who works on an annual contract said it was also changed, and now expires at the end of February 2016.
"To me, right away, it made sense," said the employee, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. "As a business, they have to notify the league in February if they are moving, so why would they want to pay people beyond February? They didn’t say that was why, but I put two and two together."
2015 is going to be an interesting year for the St. Louis Rams.