My Rams Theory

Maybe you have had some of the same thoughts as I'm about to put here. I'm sure I'm not the only conspiracy theorist when it comes to the Rams leaving St. Louis. But lately, as I extremely reluctantly see the Rams steamroll every other NFL team in sight, I can't help but think about all the things that were made to line up for the team to relocate to SoCal. (By the way, I am still officially boycotting the Rams appearances on television, and will be for the foreseeable future, but you can't help but see them on the sports highlights).

So here's what I think was made to happen in order for the team to be enjoying the dispassionate and disinterested fandom of the LA market.

• When "that man" whose name won't be used here (and of course I am not referring to my
  
  hero Mr. Musial) took over controlling interest in the Rams in 2010 from the estate of the late Georgia Frontiere, he already had made up his mind that he would take the team back to SoCal. I believe he also already had the blessing of power brokers at the league office and other owners. He knew of the ridiculous escape clause afforded him by the lease at the Dome and had full intention of exploiting it. (Really nothing new here. Many have expressed this thought before.) 
• Jeff Fisher agreed to become the head coach of the Rams on January 13, 2012. When he did so, he was then told that the team would eventually move back to Los Angeles...an exciting thought for the former star wide
  receiver at Taft high school in the northwest L.A. suburb of Woodland Hills. He was told this
  
  would happen, but that he also must never divulge that he knew so. We all remember how he stumbled and bumbled about not knowing anything about such a possibility when questioned about the rumors. There were a number of things said, by Fisher and others, after the move that seem to bear out that he was aware of the impending move all along. 
• I also believe that Fisher, and his cohorts in crime, GM Les Sneed and President Kevin Demhoff were among the few key employees who knew it would happen but couldn't speak to it under penalty of losing their positions. They all were part of "that man's" master plan and agreed to keep the plan quiet because they were working under an agreement with the boss that included "hush money" and they would be made wealthy as a result.  
  
• Even more disappointing is my belief that all of these guys helped to grease the skids for St. Louis by ensuring that the team would be mediocre at best during the run-up to the move. This would, even though the St. Louis fans didn't cooperate by turning out in admirable numbers anyway, ensure that the league owners would believe St. Louis was incapable of the necessary fan support and therefore they could easily justify the move. Would the plan to move work if the team was winning and the Rams were in the playoff hunt with fans going nuts and filling the Dome? Of course not. This part of the theory becomes more believable when one observes the team that's now hellbent on winning with a similar core of players at key positions but now with a much stronger supporting cast...and certainly a better coach to direct them. Of course they are now trying to be the main attraction in the crowded Los Angeles sports market as they attempt to sell PSLs and season tickets for the new football palace under construction. So winning is now essential to "the plan".  
• Did players intentionally take "I don't care" or "don't get hurt" attitudes on certain game days at
  
  the direction of Fisher? (Remember when Todd Gurley couldn't run for more than 40 yards in a game because nobody could open a hole for him?) Or did Fisher intentionally make bad play calls at key times? Or did Snead intentionally not make proposed deals that could have improved the team at times when it was needed? Or did they intentionally make bad draft picks? Or were players paid to keep their mouths shut about the intention to move and their roles in the losing efforts? 

All of these things are not likely to be true...or able to be proved...but one has to wonder. And, as a conspiracy believer when it comes to "that man", I have thoughts. With the complicity of the NFL commissioner, whose name also won't be mentioned here, and all of the legal and monetary might wealthy owners could muster, St. Louis, its football fans, and poor Dave Peacock, didn't have a chance.

Wait Until Christmas!

I get it. With all of the expectations that came with the revamped roster, many Blues fans were expecting the team to steamroll the opposition and make everyone laugh and smile incessantly this season. With guys like O'Reilly, Maroon, Perron and Bozak coming in; and the infusion of highly-thought-of young guys Thomas, Kyrou, and Blais, (not to mention certain suspects being gone), we had ultra-high hopes. And with good reason.

Obviously, things have not gone as most expected so far. But, come on, are we really all going to call the psychologist, down a bottle of Xanax, and jump on the panic wagon already? The fan forums are lit up with looney-toons-demands and opinions. Fire the #!@% coach. Trade this $#@! guy, or that blankety-blank guy. Blow up the team!! And that's the mild stuff!

When somebody asks me, "What's wrong with the Blues"? Or says, "They're going down the tubes." If it's still early in the season, I usually respond with.."Wait until Christmas." The Blues will play 35 of their 82 games before Christmas. That leaves 47 games in which to get the steamroller cranked up. If we get to the end of the calendar year, and things are in bad shape, then we can start looking for the panic button. But even then it could be too early to say the season is in trouble. As an example of that, take last season.

At Christmas-time last year the Blues had 48 points in the standings and were in 6th place overall in the NHL. They trailed only Nashville at the time in the Central division. We all know how things went after Christmas with the team finishing out of the playoffs. So just as things can go badly like that, there are many examples I could cite of teams figuring it out, getting healthy, making a key deal or something else, to spur them on to a strong run to the post-season. The 2019 trade deadline happens on February 25th. The Blues will play 20 games after the deadline this season. Many teams have made a key move at the deadline and chugged from nowhere into the playoffs. And, as we all know and are constantly reminded, once you get into the playoffs, anything can happen.

Last year's eventual Stanley Cup champions hadn't hit their stride yet by Christmas. We all knew that the Washington Capitals were a good team. But they were tied for second place in their own division with Columbus at that time. Somehow I think the holidays, especially for teams laden with veterans, is the time of year where the adrenaline starts flowing and the urge to lift The Cup kicks in. Until then it's a scramble to figure out strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, it's true that points lost early in the season can't be won back. But a good team will figure it out at some point. And my observations tell me that point is usually around the end of the calendar year when there's still plenty of time to recover.

If we go back to the days before the season began, the one thing everybody seemed to be concerned about was how the goaltending would be. Well, that hasn't been the problem. Jake Allen, and in one game back-up Chad Johnson, have been fine. We sure can't blame any of the losses so far squarely on Allen. He's kept them in a few of the games that could have been blowouts. What has been concerning so far is the lack of strong play by several of the veterans on the team. But veterans being veterans, and with a track record to reference, you have to believe they will come back to the norm sometime soon.

I've been around the rink for a lot of years now. I've seen teams collapse, and I've seen them come out of the dungeon to be excellent. Let's hope our guys figure it out soon and turn into the team most expected them to be. "Wait until Christmas!" 

Tips for Aspiring Broadcasters- Vol. 1

In teaching mass communications, particularly sports broadcasting, I spent a lot of time on the basics with young people who wanted to become the next Bob Costas, Joe Buck or Doc Emrick. I've decided to share some of those basics here. A lot of this may seem very rudimentary; and it is. But, unless one conquers the basics, one can't move on to being one of the big-name guys.

Tip 1- Do Your Homework

When doing a quality sports broadcast, preparation is the key element. And knowing the players, coaches, and anyone else whose name may come up during the broadcast, requires a lot of research and homework. At the highest levels of broadcasting, much of this work is done for you; especially stats and background information on the players. But if you don't get the pronunciation right on every last one of the people playing, coaching, managing, supervising, umpiring, officiating etc., you are doing them, their families who care about them, and everybody watching or listening a disservice. What is the most personal and prideful thing anyone has? Of course, it's their name. Get it right. You're expected by everyone listening or watching to do so. How can you be sure? By speaking directly to that person, or someone who knows that person, in most cases. Sometimes it's fairly easy, others not so much. But it must be done. If you get a name wrong, not only are you doing a disservice, you are also giving yourself the chance to be thought of as uninformed or not qualified to call the game. The fastest way to sounding unprofessional is by blowing someone's name.

Many of my former students thought all you had to do was show up a half-hour before the game, set up the equipment, grab a program, and describe what you see into the microphone. Well, of course, that fills up the air with some sort of description of the event, but not a professional one. Sports listeners and viewers know what is professional quality. And it's a lot more than that.

At the lowest levels of broadcasting...which usually is local or internet radio of high school and college sports, the legwork on everything...stats, pronunciations, game charts, scorebooks, equipment set-up, making sure all the technical problems that may come up are solved ahead of time...all of these things fall on the primary broadcaster doing the game. There is usually no glamour involved in preparation...but it's absolutely necessary in order to do a credible job.

One day at KMOX, I was talking about sportscasting with Jack Buck. (Yeah, I was lucky enough to do that.) At the time I was attempting to pursue play-by-play as the focus of my career and had already done several years of high school and college football, basketball and baseball. Mr. Buck said something I will never forget--"Tom, if you can do a professional job at the high school and college level, there's no reason you can't do one at the highest level too." And, of course, he was right. With all of the responsibility and extra effort involved in producing a quality broadcast in local radio, collegiate radio or TV, or low-level minor league sports, if the broadcaster can do it well, he/she will have a much easier time of it going up the ladder. The key there is maintaining the work ethic as one does so.


An example of that work ethic in practice would be Aaron Goldsmith (another Jack Buck disciple). Aaron was an intern broadcaster with the Gateway Grizzlies in 2007. It was evident from the first time I met him that Aaron knew that it took a lot of nose-to-the-grindstone effort to get where he wanted to go. He always sought information from me, Grizzlies lead broadcaster Joe Pott, and the other people around him who had been in the business longer than him. He also put in much extra time getting his game notes together, getting stories about the players, making sure he had extra icing on the cake. After his year with the Grizzlies, Aaron shot up the ranks in baseball broadcasting. In 2013 he was hired as one of the radio voices of the Seattle Mariners where he still works today. Aaron got that it wouldn't be a walk in the park. It took work and, or course his talent too, to get to the major leagues. The glamour and money of calling games on the regional or national level is certainly great. But it takes a lot of serious homework invested into the game broadcasts to get there.

If you're not willing to do the requisite homework, legwork, whatever you want to call it, don't bother to try broadcasting sports for a career...unless you're a former professional athlete. They get a pass.

Soccer Coming to StL?

Well, this time it looks serious...and, I think, probable. St. Louis voters turned down the effort to publicly fund...or at least partially fund...a new soccer stadium for the effort to bring an MLS team to the city last spring. That seemed to effectively kill the idea.

But hold on. Jim Kavanaugh, World Wide Technology CEO and former pro player himself, circled the wagons, got the huge-money Taylor family of Enterprise holdings involved, and the likelihood of seeing pro soccer in the Gateway City seems to have dramatically improved...almost overnight.

If I'm the commissioner of MLS, and of course I'm not. Don Garber is. I look at this effort and say.."How can we not add this city's group to our league?" If they want the financial impact of Enterprise, not only locally...but in their league's advertising portfolio...and surely they do, they can't ignore what's going on here. Plus, you have the only ownership group led and dominated by women in the entire MLS. Carolyn Kindle Betz, (pictured) and several other female members of the Taylor family, are leading the charge.


And more importantly, this ownership is asking for very little in the way of public sector cooperation, or dollars. They need the state to deed the land for the new stadium, just west of Union Station, over to the city, which will then lease it to the team. And the city of St. Louis, without much of a commitment otherwise, will receive significant dollars from a small tax added to purchases made at games. Ownership is making the big commitment...and everyone else just needs to go along for the ride.

The announcement of the new group's efforts, not insignificantly, was also geared toward bringing the minority community on board with the new team as well. Having the press conference at the Matthews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club headquarters was a public-relations bombshell...and another piece of the pie that Garber and company can't possibly look past. The city is diverse. The city has been divided. The city needs something like this to help gel it back into a city full of people all pulling on the rope in the same direction.

Nashville and Cincinnati have recently been announced as teams 25 and 26 in a four-team expansion with two more to be announced fairly soon. Without knowing much about the other cities vying for an expansion team, (Detroit and Sacramento are candidates) I have to feel like they were just broadsided big-time by the this announcement.

Can having a pro soccer team fix all the problems our city and region has? Of course not. But this is about the best news we've had in a long time that might start us down a path toward significant healing.