Random Ramsdom: Rams should be able to get something nice with their mileage points

Rams will travel over 26,000 miles in 2023, 4th-most of any team (ramswire)

“Being a West Coast team, the Los Angeles Rams often rack up frequent-flyer miles each year. Most of the teams in the NFL are located in the Central or Eastern time zones, which means the Rams do a lot of traveling when they head out on the road.

This year will be no different.

According to Bill Speros of Bookies.com, the Rams will travel the fourth-most miles of any team in the NFL this season. Their total mileage estimation is 26,332, more than every team besides the Seahawks (31,600), 49ers (29,958) and Dolphins (27,110). The Dolphins will play an international game in Germany, so that’s the reason for their high mileage total, but the Rams, Seahawks and 49ers are all staying stateside throughout the 2023 season.

The Rams’ travel schedule will take them across 34 time zones, too, which is tied for the third-most in the NFL. Only the Seahawks and 49ers will travel across more time zones than the Rams.

In addition to three road games against their NFC West foes, the Rams will also face the Cowboys, Giants, Packers, Ravens, Bengals and Colts on the road. Ideally, they’d get the Giants and Ravens games in back-to-back weeks, therefore allowing them to stay out east rather than traveling back and forth.

The Rams have requested to have road games in similar areas played in back-to-back weeks before, so perhaps they’ll ask for the same this year.”

Los Angeles Rams fellowship program helps formerly incarcerated participant find path forward (nfl.com)

“With the 2023 NFL Draft and the bulk of free agency in the books, football players across the country are looking forward to fresh starts in the coming season.

After making his own fresh start, and having gotten a taste of what it’s like to work with a pro football team, Kenzo Sohoue is hopeful he might someday also have a job in the NFL — landing that kind of gig would be, as he put it, “gold.”

It was not so easy for Sohoue to visualize his goals when he was experiencing incarceration as a young person.

“I didn’t know where my life was going to be,” Sohoue said. “I didn’t know what I was looking at. I could have been either in jail for the rest of my life or dead. I knew that I had to push myself.”

He almost certainly wouldn’t have predicted that he’d one day help the Los Angeles Rams prepare for a home game at SoFi Stadium, one of many experiences Sohoue had while participating in a paid six-month fellowship program with the team.

The Rams Fellows Program was created by the Rams, Bank of America and two Los Angeles-based nonprofit organizations, The Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and The RightWay Foundation, in an effort to “support young adults from under-resourced communities by providing access to mentorship and workforce experience to develop critical job skills, a professional network and career pathways,” according to the team. Candidates who are accepted receive onsite working experiences, a furnished apartment and other types of support.”

Aaron Donald never considered retiring this offseason; Rams DT says he is 100% after having ankle surgery (cbssports)

“For better or worse, Aaron Donald was committed towards playing for the Rams in 2023. Despite an overhaul of the defensive roster and previous thoughts of retirement, Donald never thought of doing anything other than spending his 10th season for the team with which he has carved out a Hall of Fame worthy career.

Donald, who considered walking away from football after winning Super Bowl LVI, said his and the Rams’ tumultuous title defense erased any thoughts of retiring. The 2022 Rams sputtered to a 5-12 record due in large part to a barrage of injuries that included Donald missing six games with an ankle injury that required surgery.

“You never want to end your career the way it was last year,” Donald said. “It never really crossed my mind. Just trying to do everything I can to get myself healthy to be here today.”

Aaron Donald admits 2023 will ‘be different’ but is ready to lead Rams back to prominence (nfl.com)

“It’s going to be different — you just said a bunch of different playmaker’s names,” Donald said when asked about the departures of former teammates Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner and Leonard Floyd. “Obviously, you wish you could play with them my whole career, but it’s not like that. It’s different, but again, the young guys are going to have to step up. That’s me as a leader to get those guys ready and them as professionals to get themselves ready as well. Just got to trust them. A lot of them guys played a lot of football last year, but again, I wasn’t on the field to get to play with them.”

The mighty Rams fell from Super Bowl champs to afterthought in 2022, and management recognized their all-in strategy had caused them to blow a tire. Now, they’re focused less on speeding toward the finish line and more on ensuring the basic framework of the franchise is in better shape for the long haul.

It would be fair to wonder why Donald doesn’t just call it a career instead of signing up for what is expected to be a difficult 2023 season for the Rams.”