[Elvis]

Tuesday's chat should be pretty interesting:

http://sports.live.stltoday.com/Event/N ... Jim_Thomas

[LoyalRam]

Yes....I Like how long will it take to change the Rams page, to the NFL page..and the Rams forum destroyed

[dieterbrock]

Wonder if he's updated his odds on Rams to LA yet

[max]

Wonder if he's updated his odds on Rams to LA yet

I think he has it as 59/41 Rams leaving now.

[aeneas1]

missed it, anyone catch it?

edit: never mind, thought it was going to be a live radio spot that evaporated, now i see that it's a internet chat, gonna have a look-see...

[aeneas1]

Q - Do you think that the Rams #1 on field priority would be to find the Todd Gurley of wide receivers in this years draft?
JT - Quarterback, quarterback, quarterback.

yep, the rams need to fix the qb position, keenum does not fix the qb position.

Q - Caveat of no human loss or injuries, here is hoping that when the big one hits California the epicenter is Mr. K's new NFL stadium in 2019 before it opens, but after he has paid his $2 Billion in costs.

JT - Funny you should mention that. My brother Stephan, a long-time P-D employee now retired, says he has this vision of a strong, but extremely isolated earthquake hitting the Inglewood stadium site about 8 hours before kickoff on opening day in 2019. Nobody gets hurt, because no one is at the stadium. But the stadium is completely destroyed.

beautiful.

Q - What is the over/under on the number of stabbing victims in the Inglewood parking lot at the first LA Rams/49ers game?

JT - Now, now.

beautiful 2.


Q - Is it bad that I want the rams to go 0-16 for the rest of eternity?

JT - Understandable.

rams fire todd heiwtt and he's then quoted as saying "To be honest, I'm praying they lose every game next year...", jock strap picker-upper insults ensue.

rams fire st. louis and we get the same 0-16 stuff from st. louisans, but woe is me ensues. funny how that works.

[Stranger]

The immaturity is hard to watch.

[Hacksaw]

No kidding. The have to puff themselves up to avoid the reality that they a a 3rd rate market filled with corrupt and morally/financially broke politicians. The citizen apples haven't fallen far from the tree. But how can they help it with such stalwart media men feeding their delusion.

That burning bridge in our rear view mirror is the bridge that leads from Missery,, er,, Missouri.

[Elvis]

Jim, Could you give your insight on why you think the NFL mislead St. Louis into planning for a stadium that no NFL team or even the NFL wanted?
by Dan 11:30 AM yesterday

1.) I don't think the league ever thought St. Louis would get as far along with the project as it did. 2.) The league had to at least give the appearance that it was trying to find a solution in St. Louis, or risk being subject to legal action or taking a PR hit.

When do you think the Dispatch will cease coverage of the Rams?
by John 11:38 AM yesterday

That's something that's still being mulled over at the Post-Dispatch. I can assure you, however, that at least for the near future we will have these weekly chats. Usually on Tuesdays unless there's a conflict. I have a story posted now on Stltoday.com on Todd Gurley being named rookie of the year by the Pro Football Writers. It almost certainly won't be the same volume of Rams coverage, but there will be ongoing Rams coverage for the near future.

So how have the Rams been towards you since the announcement? 21 years of covering them hopefully has earned you some kind of respect with them. Will they give you one on ones if you ask? (I'm sure you have)
by Tom 11:41 AM yesterday

I had a long talk with Kevin Demoff in the hotel lobby in Houston late on the night the vote came down. The PR staff remains helpful. But St. Louis no longer is the primary market for the Rams. The majority of their PR efforts will go towards the needs of the LA market. I get that.


Now that it's all over...at what point did you start figuring they'd leave? Do you think it was Kroenke's plan, from the time he bought his minority share? Do you think Kevin Demoff lied to people? Is there anything that was previously off the record you can tell us? Did the players and coaches know more than we did all along?
by c_good 11:43 AM yesterday

Yes,, I think Kroenke had this in mind when he took over controlling interest in the Rams in 2010. Now, he didn't know for sure that he could make it happen at that time, but I'm sure he viewed it as a long-range goal. There were some inconsistencies in things Kevin Demoff said over the final two, three years of all this. He was put in some bad positions by Kroenke, and didn't always handle things well. And certainly he said some things that were misleading. As for the players and coaches, with the possible exception of Jeff Fisher, I don't think they knew anything more than we did. As for me, the absolute tipping point came on the Saturday before the meeting when Goodell's report stated that the Rams had met the relocation guidelines. I knew it was over at that point. My wife drove me to the airport for the Houston meetings that Monday, and she has developed into quite the Rams fan over the years. Any way, when I got out of the car at Lambert I told her, "You know when I return from this trip, St. Louis won't have an NFL team."


Is the future bleak for the nfl in saint Louis?
by Ruth 12:02 PM yesterday

Yes.
by jthomas 12:02 PM yesterday

[aeneas1]

kinda funny how jim and bernie, and by extension their audience, continue to whine about the great, sound stadium plan that was in place that the nfl callously and maliciously rejected out of hand, whereas jeff gordon stated the following in a recent gordo-zone:

"look, people were barely on board if that with this (stadium) proposal, dave peacock had to cobble this together, a lot of legislatures in the state of missouri objected to the end around that these people did to get to this point, of course the city politicians were barely on board in many cases, so now that you put this together, which was insufficient, you barely got that together, how do you put something together even more attractive, which i believe you would have to do if this thing goes to free agency... there was barely appetite to keep the rams, i can hardly imagine a quest for the raiders going very far at all.. this market, there is some truth in what stan kroenke argued in his relocation paper, you can argue that this is not a city that can support strongly three franchises, that's a huge question going forward... it's hard to make the case to go hard for a team given what's happened in the local economy..."

also, jim and bernie continue to point to personal attacks made by kroenke and the rams in their relocation paper, and presumably elsewhere, as they hit the road, but all i've been able to find is hard, unpleasant stats regarding the st. louis economy and the viability of that market, the same sort of thing khan and others mentioned, did i miss something else?