I had the honor and pleasure of calling into 101 Sportsline with Alvin Reed a weekly sports radio show on 101 ESPN/WXOS in St. Louis. We discuss my impressions of the Rams OTA’s so far and about Aerys Sports.
Here’s the audio clip from our little chat.
Rams General Manager Billy Devaney
With all the insanity swirling around the scandal at Penn State University it’s been hard to focus on the Rams but here goes.
Does the buck stop here? Bleacher Report makes the case: The root of Rams’ problems can be found at the top of the organization in the form of Rams’ GM Billy Devaney.
Check out their Devaney’s top 5 busts in this article. Agree or disagree with their rankings? Who would you add to that list. Sadly, there’s a nice pool to choose from.
Howard Balzer gets you up to date on the latest from Rams Park.
The Rams are running thin at another defensive position – linebackers. Read who’s hurt and who needs to step it up in the games ahead. Ugh.
Why do the football injury gods hate the Rams?
Next up are the Cleveland Browns. Do you think they fear the Rams? Maybe. Okay, probably not. After all, their new head coach is former Rams offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur. He knows the Rams very well. This should be an interesting game on Sunday.
Here is a link to my weekly column on 101ESPN. He Said/She Said: Rams Edition and some of my thoughts on the Penn State scandal. This one was really hard to write for obvious reasons.
Coffee Roasting Grades
Good morning! I’ve dug up the ole coffee roasting grades graphic. You know what that means. I’m functioning on fumes this morning – coffee fumes. It might be a triple cupper today. Instant in the morning, an iced Americano from Starbucks around lunch time and maybe a latte in the afternoon. Hope you guys are more awake and doing better than I am.
At least it’s a beautiful day outside. Might have to harness some of that sunlight to get me through the day.
How big is the loss of Danny Amendola?
It’s looking like they will lose Amendola to elbow surgery pending a second opinion today. I haven’t heard the results yet but I’m convinced he’s hurt enough that I went ahead and dropped him from both my fantasy football teams.
Rams leaders are trying to rally the team
Didn’t it look like the Rams were playing on fumes as well? With all the frustration and disappointment seeping through the entire team who is going to rally them? Howard Balzer takes us through who stepped it up yesterday in the Rams locker room.
Jim Thomas live chat transcript
The Rams beat reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jim Thomas, answers fans questions. I’m sure he’s probably covered a question you may have, too. Check it out.
Here’s the link to my weekly column on 101ESPN – The Five Stages of Rams’ Fans’ Grief. The Rams aren’t dead in the season by any means yet some fans are acting like they are done for already.
Dreary out but quiet as I get my day started. I kept thinking I’d have to wake my son up for school only to realize I could have slept in an extra hour this morning since he’s at camp. Didn’t think I’d miss him so much even though he’s daddy’s boy.
I’ll have to console myself some how. Maybe lunch at one of my favorite Indian buffets will get my mind off of things for a bit. The best way to distract oneself is through a food coma I always say.
Courtesy STLouisRams.com
1) Here are some Rams notes from the H-man himself, Howard Balzer.
Most notable is the fact that the Rams have become the team where cornerbacks come to land on the IR. Count them four now. Jerome Murphy, Dionte Dinkins, Ron Bartell, and now Tim Atchison.
This reminds me of the 2008 Broncos when their RB corps dropped like flies. Michael Pittman, Andre Hall, Ryan Torain, and Peyton Hillis all went down that year. How do I remember? I had three of them on my fantasy team. Good thing I handcuffed my RB’s a lot that year.
And here I thought we had come out of the Giants MNF game relatively unscathed. God speed your recovery gentlemen.
2) Want to know how the Raven fans see the Rams? I’ve done some “Google-ing” and found this.
Again it points out the impact of all the Rams injuries has on their chances of winning this match up on Sunday. Of course, they predict a Ravens victory.
3) Did you ever wonder what NFL ticket prices are around the league? How do they compare to the Edward Jones Dome? It does depend on the visiting teams as some attract greater attention therefore higher prices.
Here’s a look at this week’s match ups and how certain seats price out. The best deal is in Oakland. So those of you who are monetarily conscience need to be a Raiders fans.
If you missed my tweet from yesterday and have some time please check out my article on 101ESPN.com for this week. I have The (Football) Sickness. Do you show signs of these symptoms? I had fun writing this one.
Have a good day, everyone!
Good afternoon, guys.
It’s been an exciting and nerve racking Wednesday morning.
Exciting because today marks the first of hopefully many weekly posts I’ll be writing for the local ESPN website, 101ESPN.com. If you wanted to know what goes on in the mind of the female sports fanatic, look no further. Then again, if you’ve been kind enough to read my stuff here you already have an idea. Haha.
And thank you, by the way, for everyone’s support.
Nerve racking because I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. Found a weird soft lump in the back of my neck and had to get it checked out. They took some x-rays but I’m still waiting to hear back. It’s especially scary because I just heard a friend’s mom had just been diagnosed with lymphoma. We’ll just have to see what happens. Gotta think positive, right?
The news links are bit later in the day but here they are none the less.
1) Joel Thorman of SBNation has a nice little preview of the Rams 2011 season.
Who’s gonna be hot, who’s not, and other things in between. If you’re a real Rams fan there’s nothing in there that should surprise you. It’s just taking the rest of the NFL longer to figure it out. The Rams will have a very good team.
2) Geoff Mosher of The News Journal talks about the new Rams safety and former Eagle, Quintin Mikell.
Mikell wasn’t surprised when the Eagles didn’t reach out to him during the off season.
He had already seen franchise legends – Brian Dawkins, Tra Thomas, Donovan McNabb
, Brian Westbrook – either given their walking papers abruptly or shipped away during his tenure.
Does that remind of you what just happened to Jaguar QB, David Garrard? Quintin Mikell wasn’t quite “Garrarded” but it still has to sting.
Hopefully, he’s got lots of inside info on the Eagles for Sunday’s game. Between Mikell and Spags history/knowledge of the team the Rams should have a leg up.
3) With all the hubbub about which Rams WR’s stayed and which were shown the door out, Howard Balzer takes a closer look at the WR you might have been surprised with – Mark Clayton.
He’s got 6 weeks (while he’s on the PUP list) to get up to speed literally and figuratively. I for one really liked Clayton last year until he blew his patellar tendon. Sam seems to have good chemistry with Clayton as well. Let’s hope they can rediscover that connection come week 7.
If you’re interested here’s the link to my debut on 101ESPN.com. I had a great time writing it. Hope you enjoy it as well.
So I’m doing my usual bedtime routine: brush my teeth, wash my face, check Twitter one last time before I actually put my head down on my memory pillow. This is what I come across:
SJ39 off to Paris
While the rest of the team was building camaraderie and bonding at Lindenwood University, Steven Jackson was obviously absent. And from this tweet he’s not planning to stick around. What’s the deal?
Ok, I get the fact that these workouts were put together at the last minute. I’ll even give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he scheduled his Paris getaway well in advance. But he was in town, why not show up and at least show his face?
To make matters worse, even UFA’s TE Daniel Fells and WR Laurent Robinson were on hand despite not being formally on the team’s roster.
Tony Softli on 101 ESPN says, “SJ was here this week. I talked to him on the phone.” He continues:
Steven works out on his own a lot. You’d like to see him here because of the leadership qualities that he has but he’ll come to camp in better shape than anybody on the team and Coach knows that.
That’s who he is. He’s a warrior.
I don’t have any doubt SJ will be in great physical condition when training camp opens. But that’s not the point. He’s a warrior, huh? Well, right now he’s acting more like a M.I.A. grunt than a captain.
As a team leader, shouldn’t he be at these workouts? In this instance I question his lack of leadership. SJ’s lost out on an opportunity to meet with these news guys, earn their respect, and pass along any little bit of experience he can. Epic fail.
With the 8 year veteran, SJ, missing in action who are they turning to for guidance and direction? The second year QB, Sam Bradford.
Sam made calls to get the offensive players together. He’s been sharing his knowledge of the new McDaniels offensive playbook with current players and the new draftees, Lance Kendricks, Austin Pettis, Greg Salas. He’s taken command of this team during these workouts.
Softli states:
This is a Sam Bradford team. You can see him put his stamp mark on this team right now with the leadership qualities. And everyone is flocking to him. When he says something, it’s like EF Hutton, everybody turns and listens.
It’s real simple. They’re following the leader. They’re following Sam Bradford right now.
Maybe when SJ returns from his Paris vacation he can explain his side of the story. I for one, would love to hear it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of SJ. I’m just disappointed that he hasn’t played a bigger role in helping the team during these workouts.
I think Tony Softli summed it up quite nicely:
While Sam is the face of the franchise, that guy (SJ) is the work horse. I think it’s a great combination of what they have here.
Right now it would seem the team belongs to Sam. And with Josh McDaniels at the helm of this new pass happy offense I wonder if McDaniels will draw in the reins.
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