In case you missed it, both of these fellows took verbal swings at "Silent Stan" Kroenke at a Police Foundation luncheon yesterday at America's Center. Here's the whole story from stltoday.com. Rather than analyze what they had to say, it's more interesting to me to think about the position in the timeline of Rams/Dome/Stadium/LA events that these comments are occupying and with what knowledge were they made. 
I have to believe that these extremely well-connected gentlemen, whose iPhones certainly include the numbers of NFL owners and top executives , are working with a fair amount of inside information. If they have been made to believe that Stan is going forward with the LA move no matter what, then they would have no reason to hold back on their comments. Both loyal to St. Louis to the end, Joe and Dan then are free to let Stan have it with both barrels knowing it makes no difference to him, or anyone else, but would get a rise from a crowd. I know both of these gentlemen a bit. And if they thought their comments would hurt the StL-NFL cause, they would most definitely be more restrained.
As to the timing, maybe the luncheon Q&A was just the public opportunity they were presented with to take a shot or two. Of course, the NFL owners are meeting again in October to hear proposals from St. Louis and San Diego on the progress and status of stadium plans. With that in mind, you wonder if Dave Peacock has told his "StL-NFL team", which may include Dierdorf and Buck...both news-maker types...that it wouldn't hurt a thing to jump on the Gateway City bandwagon. Please help further the city's case for an NFL team, Rams or otherwise. And if that means taking a shot at the Rams owner, by indicating that he didn't give the city a fair chance, so be it.
To carry that train of thought another step, one wonders if Peacock hasn't heard something like this from the NFL brass..."Dave, here's the thing. We believe Stan has a workable plan in SoCal, and we're not going to do much to stop him from spending 2 billion of his dollars on a complex in Inglewood and taking his team there. But if you can muster enough resources to get a stadium built in St. Louis, we will shake your hand and do our best to get your city a replacement team." It would be nice if somebody in the St. Louis media would simply ask Joe or Dan if they actually do know something about the future of the NFL in the STL that hasn't come out yet; or are just opinionated St. Louis guys speaking their mind. They may have inside info...but also could be playing along so as to not kill the stadium-building effort. Certainly, both guys know that Stan has no interest in preserving his public relations situation here, or selling Jones Dome tickets. That ship has sailed. They also understand he doesn't care what anyone else thinks; as long as the value of his investment doubles or triples when his team takes up residence in SoCal. He only needs to care what the left-coast crowd thinks.
It appears that one of two things is true. Some sources, national or local, have indicated to Buck and/or Dierdorf that the Rams move is a effectively a "done deal"...or they simply feel uninhibited when in a position to be ungentlemanly while speaking about the Midwest's least favorite multi-billionaire. I suppose we can all pick which we would like to believe.
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