Allow me summarize.
Rosenbloom won't sell... Rosenbloom won't sell.. Rosenbloom... OK, when he does sell, the Rams have to stay here till 2015. But at least I have his phone number!
How do these two ideas, from the same paragraph, square with one another?
"That doesn't mean that somewhere down the line Rosenbloom won't sell the team..."
"...the fear that someone was once again on the verge of committing franchise grand larceny against this football community should officially be put to bed."
They don't! If you think Rosenbloom could sell the team down the line, why would you think the possibility of losing the team should be put to bed?
I've already painted the scenario. I would have thought Burwell smart enough to figure it out on his own. Seeing otherwise, I may look him up and try to sell him the new Interstate 70 bridge.
No 'For Sale' sign on the Rams
05/21/2008
Simple question: Are the St. Louis Rams for sale?
In the face of an Internet report that said he was shopping the franchise barely four months after the death of his mother and longtime Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, new team chairman and owner Chip Rosenbloom was convinced he'd answered that most essential question with a prepared statement issued by his public relations staff.
"I thought it was pretty clear," Rosenbloom said in an e-mail late Tuesday evening.
Well, no, it wasn't clear.
Perhaps it was the inexperience of a new owner facing his first public brush fire, but Rosenbloom's flurry into the spotlight began with a rather cloudy prepared statement that failed to put out the fire and probably stoked it just a bit more.
"To reply to this article, nothing has changed since my mom's passing ... While we deal with her estate I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the Rams in
That was part of the prepared statement that was issued in the early afternoon in response to a Yahoo Sports.com report that the Rosenbloom and his sister were selling the team and the asking price was between $850 million and $900 million. Yet the trouble with that answer was that it was the wrong answer, like telling me you're 10 feet tall when I ask you what time it is.
Is the team for sale?
But by late Tuesday evening, Rosenbloom responded to e-mails and voice mails and removed any doubt about what many
Now that was clear. Unlike the earlier, vague and easily misinterpreted prepared statement, the new owner left no room for any misunderstanding or inaccurate reading between the lines.
Rosenbloom said he is not shopping the team, and that's precisely what the city deserved. That was the 800-pound elephant that was standing in the middle of the room since the day Rosenbloom took over the franchise. Rosenbloom kept saying that as long as he owns the Rams, they're safe in
So if the team was being shopped, the team's
The Rams have a long history of quickly getting word out when they are victims of faulty reporting. On the record or off, someone will make sure it's clear that a story is false when management wants to clear up any doubts. So it was rather peculiar how they responded Tuesday afternoon when former NFL owner Eddie DeBartolo was quoted by prominent football reporter Mike Silver. On the website Yahoo Sports.com, DeBartolo said he'd spoken with intermediaries who said the asking price was somewhere between $850 million and $900 million. The Rams, oddly, never issued a denial of that basic element of the story. Here's why that little fact was far more relevant than whether the new owner wants to keep the Rams in
If Rosenbloom were to sell the team, a new owner could have different plans about that local stability and less civic loyalty. Just ask the city of
When I originally asked Rosenbloom that question via e-mail and voicemail Tuesday, and he replied that I should check out his prepared statement, I did. It never answered the question. In fact, if it was supposed to douse the fire, it actually fanned the flames with its oddly worded phrases. This is why I hate written statements — they rarely tell you everything. They lack the definitive opportunity that a face-to-face live encounter provides.
By now you've probably seen the original prepared statement, and it proved conclusively why most prepared statements fall short. First of all, it began by confirming all of our anxieties. But it also failed to provide specifics. Was the team being shopped or were people simply assuming that you were going to sell? When you were approached, did you shoo them away like pesky flies or give them that flirtatious, "come hither (and bring your financial statements)" look? Were they legitimate buyers with deep pockets and flawless backgrounds, or frauds with no portfolio?
There were too many questions, not nearly enough answers.
But the new boss took care of that definitively by the end of the evening, and that's exactly what he had to do. This is a city that has bent over backward for this franchise, making everyone involved wildly wealthy beyond most imaginations. In 13 years in
That doesn't mean that somewhere down the line Rosenbloom won't sell the team, but with an airtight lease with the city that guarantees at least eight more years in the Edward Jones Dome — and a clear-cut promise from the new owner — the fear that someone was once again on the verge of committing franchise grand larceny against this football community should officially be put to bed.
Simple question. Simple answer. The team isn't for sale.
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