Line of Scrimmage: Are Rams' Days In St. Louis Numbered?
Football Betting Lines
06/01/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The checkered history of NFL football in St. Louis, Missouri, actually dates all the way back to 1923.
It was in that season that the league's first team to represent the Gateway City - the St. Louis All-Stars - went 1-4-2 under head coach/owner Ollie Kraehe before collapsing after one year due to financial difficulties.
Eleven years later, the city was back on the NFL map, albeit briefly, when the formerly-independent St. Louis Gunners replaced the defunct Cincinnati Reds for the final three games of the league schedule before fading back into obscurity.
The St. Louis Cardinals lasted a bit longer than that, 28 years to be exact, following their move from Chicago (instigated via some colluding between then- commissioner Bert Bell and Bears owner George Halas) in 1960.
But when team owner Bill Bidwill asked St. Louis' civic leaders for a new football-only facility, the city balked, and Bidwill was well on his way to holding dual pariah status in both St. Louis and Arizona.
As usually happens in these cases, the city eventually built that new stadium anyway, luring the Los Angeles Rams to town in 1995 with what is now called the Edward Jones Dome.
The Rams are about to celebrate their 15th season in St. Louis, and during that time have won a Super Bowl, appeared in another, and produced NFL stars like Kurt Warner, Torry Holt, and Marshall Faulk.
The franchise and city have been a credit to the league - the club's 5-27 record of the past two years not withstanding - but don't bet your stimulus check that the Rams will be around to celebrate a 20th year in the shadow of the Arch.
The team's majority owners, Chip Rosenbloom and his sister Lucia Rodriguez, are about to put the Rams up for sale, according to a report in Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Rosenbloom and Rodriguez inherited a 60 percent share of the team when their mother, Georgia Frontiere, passed away last year.
And though the duo would reportedly like to keep the team in St. Louis to shield themselves from a P.R. hit, if there are no local takers for a franchise recently valued at $929 million by Forbes Magazine, Rosenbloom and Rodriguez aren't going to let anyone's sentimentality get in the way of that payday.
All of which leads to one place, easily described by two capital letters: L.A.
The league has been wringing its hands for years over the lack of a franchise in the country's second-largest market, even though a) no viable potential ownership group has stepped forward, b) no viable stadium plan has been presented and c) the citizens of Los Angeles and its surrounding area have long proven themselves to be fairly ambivalent toward NFL football.
There is indeed some irony in the fact that the Rams are on a collision course with the prospect of moving back to a region that they left back in 1994 because nobody there cared too much about them.
But the league and its owners will slip on their collective beer goggles and allow Los Angeles' historical NFL unattractiveness to go unconsidered because of the major financial incentives of moving a team from the nation's 21st- largest television market to its second-largest.
The league's corporate backers, and especially the TV network-types who only experience St. Louis when they fly over it at 30,000 feet, are salivating over the renewed possibility of NFL football in L.A.
Meanwhile, for the legion of Rams fans who are hopeful that the franchise will stay put, the white knight in this situation might just be minority owner Stan Kroenke.
Kroenke, who has owned a 40 percent share of the team since it relocated to St. Louis, is a native of Columbia, Missouri who might not take the Rams' potential move lying down.
By NFL rule, Kroenke can't buy the Rams outright unless he sells off his majority share of the NBA Denver Nuggets and NHL Colorado Avalanche, but it seems logical that if there is a chance to facilitate a sale to local ownership, Kroenke would have a good chance of greasing those wheels.
That said, any new owner is going to have an immediate battle to fight on the stadium front, as the Edward Jones Dome is already viewed as being a bottom- tier NFL facility. Without substantial upgrades to the stadium, the Rams can opt out of their lease in 2014, and in case you hadn't noticed, citizens and government leaders aren't currently enamored of the prospect of ponying up public dollars to subsidize improvements to the weekend homes of billionaires.
Frontiere's children haven't said much of anything on the topic of a potential sale, though Rosenbloom's most recent words should tell you all you need to know.
"The most important thing for me right now is putting a winning team on the field," Rosenbloom told the Post-Dispatch. "And we don't want that goal to be disrupted in any way."
Of course you don't, Chip. Any more losing might cut into your eventual, and inevitable, windfall.
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Pro Football Odds : NFC SOUTH BETTING ODDS
NFL betting action is back! At MySportsbook, all of the pro football odds are posted for the NFC North. Check out how we see the four teams in this cloudy division stacking up this year in the chase for the playoffs! Green Bay Packers (+125) - With QB Aaron Rodgers leading the offense and DC Dom Capers working his magic on defense, the Packers are a real force to be reckoned with.
Virtually nothing changed on this offense for Green Bay from last year to this year, save for the addition of rookie OT Brian Bulaga to the bunch. Expect more huge numbers from the Pack, and a relatively favorable schedule should get them over the hump and into the playoffs once again this season. My NFL Betting Predictions: 11-5, 1st place in NFC North Minnesota Vikings (+130) - There are still too many unknowns about the Vikes this year. There is a huge difference between QB Brett Favre and either Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels under center. Plus, is Favre comes back, is he really going to be able to keep his pick total under double digits again? Depth at running back looked like it might have been an issue with RB Chester Taylor fleeing in free agency, but drafting RB Toby Gerhart should pick up the difference. This defense is still suitable, but with a first place schedule, making the playoffs is going to be very tough regardless of whether #4 comes back or not.
There is a huge difference between QB Brett Favre and either Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels under center. Plus, is Favre comes back, is he really going to be able to keep his pick total under double digits again? Depth at running back looked like it might have been an issue with RB Chester Taylor fleeing in free agency, but drafting RB Toby Gerhart should pick up the difference. This defense is still suitable, but with a first place schedule, making the playoffs is going to be very tough regardless of whether #4 comes back or not. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.
Chicago Bears (+350) - The Bears are probably a bit of an overhyped team once again this year.No, we don't think it is plausible for QB Jay Cutler to have as bad of a season as he did last year, and we do think the additions of RB Chester Taylor and DE Julius Peppers are going to help immensely, but there's still something in the water in the Windy City that we aren't so sure about. Maybe Chicago finds its way to .500... but then again, maybe it doesn't. If Favre comes back, Cutler might be the worst quarterback in this division this year.
Detroit Lions (+1500) - The Lions are probably once again going to be the whipping boys for the rest of the teams in the NFC North, but they aren't just going to roll over and die once again. There is some real talent amassing on this team offensively, as the combination of QB Matt Stafford, RB Jahvid Best, WR Calvin Johnson, and TE Brandon Pettigrew should put a bunch of points on the board if the offensive line can even remotely hold up. The questions really lie on defense, where it feels like DT Ndamukong Suh is going to be trying to stop opposing teams all by himself. This year should show some marked improvement in the Motor City.
The Patriots will make NFL betting fans a lot of money this season, get in early and enjoy the cash.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.