[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... f2a6f.html

BenFred: Who is Grubman fooling?

By Ben Frederickson

The worst thing about guys like Eric Grubman is that they feel the need to fight what, to the rest of the world, is obvious.

The NFL's executive vice president should just shrug and admit it — yeah, the relocation game that ended with the St. Louis Rams moving to Inglewood, Calif., was rigged from the start, and I did my part, OK?

That's how Jerry Jones rolls. St. Louis football fans probably despise the Dallas owner, but at least the billionaire doesn't pretend to be something he's not. He wears his power and his greed on his sleeve like a pair of platinum cufflinks. His desire to influence the Rams' return trip to Los Angeles was as clear as the picture on the world's largest high-definition TV at AT&T stadium.

Then there are guys like Grubman. He recently took umbrage at speculation he is in line for a job with the Los Angeles Rams, as if he didn't use his position as the league's point man on relocation — a position some foolishly hoped would require a shred of neutrality — to help steer Stan Kroenke and his team to the league's desired location.

“I was personally insulted by that," Grubman told Post-Dispatch NFL writer Jim Thomas at the Super Bowl. "I don’t like that implication or insinuation. It could not be further from the truth."

So, Grubman says he he won't wind up working for the Rams. Got it. But insulted? Give me a break. How dare anyone assume Grubman ends up on Kroenke's payroll after he, you know, acted like it? He should get a check after all the hard work he put in.

Thanks to Post-Dispatch reporting, ESPN's recent piece on the relocation process and a phone call Grubman made to The Bernie Miklasz Show, we can disregard Grubman's hollow outrage and simply examine his actions.

• Grubman bid for the Inglewood land before Kroenke won it. So, the Chargers hopes to move to Carson, Calif., started in a pretty big hole.

• Chargers owner Dean Spanos and his Carson crew believe Grubman relayed to the Rams some Carson-specific information that helped the Rams beat the Chargers to the punch in terms of announcing their respective stadium plans.

• During the Los Angeles committee's August meeting in Chicago, Grubman took a coffee break while the Carson team presented. When the Rams made their Inglewood pitch, he moved to the front of the room and even cleared up an owner's question.

• In early December, one day before the St. Louis Board of Aldermen's Ways and Means Committee voted on public financing for the St. Louis stadium task force's proposed riverfront stadium, Grubman called into "The Bernie Miklasz Show" on 101 ESPN radio and said, among other things: "St. Louis will surely fall short of having a compelling proposal that would attract the Rams."

Remember, this wasn't Jones flexing his mouth and financial muscle for Inglewood, or Carolina owner Jerry Richardson flying from city to city to strong-arm support for Carson.

In the nasty battle for Los Angeles, some thought Grubman would be Switzerland. Those people now think he's Napoleon.

The former Goldman Sachs banker isn't alone, though. The NFL is littered with Grubman types. See Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff. See NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell spent part of his recent "state of the league address" linking the risk of concussions to the risk of ... falling off the couch. It was as laughable as Grubman taking offense to the notion he will wind up on Kroenke's payroll.

That's the problem with selling out for The Shield. You can lie through your teeth, and the money will keep rolling in. But sooner or later, you wind up looking like a shill.

[RamsFanSince82]

Stop whining, St. Louis!

[OldSchool]

We could supply the world with taffy from all the salt in those tears.

[trueblue&gold]

St Louis Media needs to let it go, It just seems like pointless pandering to drive clicks. Nobody outside of the region cares, They act like if they keep writing articles, somehow the nation will see how "unfairly" they were treated and somehow that is going to effect the shield. I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that the country as a whole views the Rams coming back home as a positive rather than what St Louis would like it to be portrayed as.

[snackdaddy]

Lol, they're butthurt. If Grubman was being biased, it was what was best for the league. It was time for a team in LA. Inglewood was clearly the superior venue. Grubman and Goodell both knew it. Now the media in the Loo is butthurt. Riling up the population against the NFL ain't gonna help them get another franchise.

[RamsFanSince82]

I remember when Bernie spun the interview he had with Grubman (when Grubman said that STL didn't have a viable stadium plan) and said the interview helped STL and Grubman called him because he wanted to be on Bernie's show.

[BuiltRamTough]

It's a slow death for STL.

[OldSchool]

I'm hoping the media there stops with the pity party. Maybe then the fan base there will be able to move on. But as long as they keep reading stuff like this and hearing it on the radio or tv the melodramatic garbage is going to keep going on at many of the Rams/NFL sites.

[Neil039]

The reality is there will be years of voiced frustrations by the media from St. Louis. Sadly, as another member here stated the likelihood the NFL returns to St. Louis lessons with each rant.

[Elvis]

The reality is there will be years of voiced frustrations by the media from St. Louis. Sadly, as another member here stated the likelihood the NFL returns to St. Louis lessons with each rant.

I agree. Losing the Rams is a big deal in St. Louis, and an emotional one, they won't stop talking about it and feeling it for a long time.

St. Louis' real problem in attracting/keeping a team is it just isn't that attractive of a market compared to what else is available. Look at all of the names coming up with regards to the Raiders shopping around: None of those names are St. Louis...