Guess the correct score & win $10,000 ROD dollars or be the closest to the exact score & win $5,000 Rod Dollars. All entries must be posted before the game begins. Good Luck !

Rams - 21

Frisco Fucks - 20

RIP

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Anyone headed to the KC game? I'm taking my son who is going to the military in January and he's a big KC fan. Don't know how I let that happen?!?! Anyways, heading to Arrowhead and would like some advice and maybe see if anyone here is planning to go.

NFL needs to 'seriously' look into grass-turf debate​

RENTON, Wash. -- Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and safety Quandre Diggs on Wednesday said they'd like to see a close reexamination of whether NFL stadiums should exclusively use natural grass.

The ongoing conversation about the safety of playing on artificial turf versus natural grass has been raised anew after Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf and Los Angeles Chargers cornerback J.C. Jackson suffered knee injuries during Sunday's game at SoFi Stadium, both on noncontact plays.

SoFi Stadium, home of the Chargers and the Rams, uses an artificial surface.

"I think we definitely need to look at this really seriously in the offseason again," Carroll said when asked about the grass-turf debate. "It's been a discussion before. We've got to do what's right, and we've got to do what's safest for the players and we've got to make those choices. I would pound on the drum for that."

Fourteen of the NFL's 30 stadiums use an artificial surface, including the Seahawks' Lumen Field. In September 2020, NFL Players Association president JC Tretter called for all teams to use grass fields to reduce the risk of injury to players. Tretter cited NFL injury data from 2012 to 2018 that showed a 28% higher rate of noncontact lower-extremity injuries on artificial turf as compared to grass.

"I know that there's numbers and there's studies," Carroll said. "You've got to figure out who the study comes from and who's paying for it. There's a lot of stuff here that we've got to figure out. We've got to do the right thing, but we definitely need to keep looking at it, because every now and then, it just feels like something is up, too many guys going down when they're not even touching anybody. So we'll see. The turfs are way better than they used to be and all that kind of stuff, but we've just got to see."

Jackson will miss the rest of the season after rupturing the patellar tendon in his right knee on Sunday.

Metcalf suffered a much less severe injury to his left patellar tendon that won't require surgery. Carroll said Metcalf was feeling "a little better" on Wednesday and was at the Seahawks' morning walk-through but that he wouldn't take part in their afternoon practice. Metcalf's status for Sunday's home game against the New York Giants remains up in the air.

Tretter's 2020 call for all teams to use natural grass came after San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan complained about the artificial turf at MetLife Stadium, where standout Niners defensive end Nick Bosa had recently suffered a season-ending knee injury while playing against the New York Jets.

Diggs cited those injuries and the ones on Sunday at SoFi Stadium while expressing his dislike for artificial turf, which he said is firmer and has less give than grass.

"So you see that and you just kind of wonder why can't we have natural grass everywhere," Diggs said. "I love playing in San Francisco and things like that where it's grass and you just go out there and you just go play. Hopefully, we're doing some research on it and seeing what we can do to make things better."

Diggs said grass is "so much better" but acknowledged that players suffer injuries on grass, as well, including his own dislocated ankle and broken fibula last season at the Arizona Cardinals' State Farm Stadium. Diggs said there is variance between the turfs at different stadiums, describing SoFi Stadium's as slick and Lumen Field's as "fine" but "a little more sticky than others." He said his foot got stuck in the turf on a missed tackle two weeks ago in a home game against the Cardinals.

"I know it's hard to upkeep grass, but at the end of the day, we've got to do what's best for this billion-dollar industry, and I think the players are a big part of that," Diggs said. "So maybe we can take some ideas from the players."

Sure most of us are familiar with the Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine

not saying you've all read it , but you've at least seen it , it used to be on ever news stand

Before Fangoria there was Famous Monsters of Filmland, and we’ve learned this week that the James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman-founded magazine is now in the hands of Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor! Taylor, a big time horror fan, has acquired the Famous Monsters brand, and he’s got big plans for the brand’s future in this here horror space.

Rolling Stone reports that in addition to Corey Taylor relaunching the Famous Monsters magazine, he also plans on exploring several other avenues with the brand as well.

“Our job is to build a foundation to bring Famous Monsters into the modern age, while also honouring the legacy that came before,” Taylor tells Rolling Stone. “It’s the whole reason that we were fans to begin with. It was the first real place where we, as horror nerds, could feel safe and feel connected feel like we weren’t alone. The internet has made it easy for us to connect, so I want to kind of make this another viable place for them to come.”

He continues, “I’ve been writing my own scripts now for the last five, six years. And I’m trying to get some of my stuff into production right now. There’s a handful that are very, very close. So anything that I put out is instantly going to get the Famous Monsters logo on it, just to build that brand recognition…I @#$%& hate that term ‘brand,’ but that’s what it is.”

The interview with Rolling Stone also teases that Corey Taylor is looking to make toys under the Famous Monsters umbrella, and also establish a convention presence for the brand.

Past issues of the magazine will also be digitized for re-release on the internet.

Stay tuned for more on all things Famous Monsters of Filmland.




Just some IOWA boys having fun on the farm ,

notice , not one of them staring at a cell phone

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Sorry no link yet but a couple of buddies with inside info saying its a done deal? It was on sirius and one of my buddies said they said go trade for Hunt or pick him up because this is a done deal. Let' see.

The stats don't lie. Stafford is the highest pressured QB in the league at 33%.

We have 3 times as many sacks at this point as last year.

We are 10 ppg down from last year.

And I could go on there are even more negative metrics.

I believe it is the OL and mostly their fault. We need to get Laremy Tunsil from Houston and here's why.

Last year's OL had Whit and no injuries. This season Noteboom has given up 5 sacks and 16 pressures already. Whit gave up 5 sacks in an entire season and 20 pressures. Noteboom is definitely one of the major issues. We don't know if Jackson can hold up he is an UDFA playing the most important position on the line.

Laremy Tunsil is a top 5 LT he shores up a huge problem we move Jackson into the other problem on the line LG where Edwards is no better than Noteboom and Stafford will have the time he needs. We can acquire every top OLB but if we don't score more points we will never win games.

He has one more year signed through 2023. His current base is little over 1m -that is super tradeable - Houston coverted his salary to bonus this year reducing his base and next year his salary is 18.5m. This is a predicated on Houston wanting to let arguably their best player go.

I know some will say we paid for Noteboom, we did but unfortunately he is not working out and we need to come to terms with it look at the stats I provided of him vs Whit he is a disaster and with 3 years in the system there should be zero excuses by now and he is not cutting it.

Tough decisions need to made Noteboom vs Tunsil - OLB vs OL but like I will say again if you don't fix the OL all those defensive pressures won't matter.

Thursday Night Football: Baltimore (4-3) at Tampa Bay (3-4)​

The Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers come into their "Thursday Night Football" matchup leading their respective divisions. Both center their offense around former MVP quarterbacks and were projected to be among the NFL's elite teams.

So why do both teams feel like they're running on seven cylinders?

The Ravens (4-3) have yet to win back-to-back games all season. They've blown double-digit leads in each of their three losses and nearly did so again against the Browns, needing an offensive pass interference call, a false start, then a key field goal block to secure a 23-20 victory at home.

At least Baltimore was able to put up points. The Bucs, with Tom Brady under center, have scored 23 points or more just once this season, a 41-31 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4. In the last nine quarters of play, they've produced just one offensive touchdown, leaving Brady with the worst record (3-4) he's had through seven games at any point in his NFL career.

Something has to give between these two franchises whose talented rosters still offer so much hope. Only one of the six other teams in their divisions (Bengals, AFC North) is over .500; both franchises are still in control of their playoff destiny.

Who will start digging out of their hole first?

Thursday Night Football: Baltimore (4-3) at Tampa Bay (3-4)

Kickoff: Thursday, Oct. 27 at 8:15 p.m. ET
Broadcast Outlet: Amazon Prime Video
Live Stream: fuboTV (only available in Baltimore and Tampa Bay markets)
Spread: Ravens -1.5
Tickets: As low as $108 on SITickets.com*

Three Things to Watch

1. Can the Buccaneers' offense get going?

Any way you look at it, Brady is off to the worst start of his NFL career. Eight touchdown passes through seven games project to just 19 over the course of a full season; that would be his lowest output since 2001, when Brady first replaced Drew Bledsoe in New England. His 6.6 yards per pass attempt are tied for the second-lowest average of Brady's career while the Bucs' 17.7 points per game are second to last in the NFC. Only the Rams (17.3) have done worse.

This downturn is happening despite Brady still having time to throw in the pocket. He's been sacked just 10 times, the least of all full-time NFL quarterbacks, with just two fumbles lost and one interception. The Bucs' plus-three turnover margin remains an area of strength, although they'll be challenged Thursday night by a Ravens defense that's tied for the NFL lead in takeaways (14).

The theories on what's wrong run the gambit, from Brady's marital troubles being an off-field distraction to the team missing two primary pieces from its previous Super Bowl run: tight end Rob Gronkowski and the infamous Antonio Brown.

"No one feels good about where we're at," Brady said after a 21-3 drubbing from the Panthers, a team that fired their head coach just days earlier. "No one feels good about how we played or what we're doing. We're all in it together, and we have to pull ourselves out of it."

How much of the problem is Brady himself? There are concerns his arm is finally losing some zip at age 45. There's public documentation about his competitive spirit boiling over, from destroying tablets on the sideline to losing top target Mike Evans for a game over a fight against the Saints the quarterback was accused of starting.

I think the answer might be simpler; the Bucs don't know how to run the football. They're dead last in rushing offense, averaging 64.4 yards per game, and haven't totaled more than 75 since a season-opening win against Dallas. Top running back Leonard Fournette looks past his prime, averaging just 3.5 yards per game with only one touchdown on the ground.

Tied for 27th in red-zone efficiency, that's where the lack of offensive weapons is exposed the most. It allows teams to focus on Brady, worried about what even potential pressure could do to his 45-year-old body. Add in a whopping dozen players on the injury report, four of them major offensive pieces (TE Cameron Brate, WRs Evans, Julio Jones, and Russell Gage) and it adds up to a mess an aging Brady can't clean up himself.

Can the Ravens' defense provide an opening? They're ranked 23rd overall and just 26th against the pass. But it's not as if the Bucs' last AFC North opponent, the Steelers, were any better (28th and 29th, respectively). Tampa's offense never got going then, forced to settle for four field goals before a late Brady comeback fell short in a 20-18 defeat two weeks ago.

2. Can Lamar get back to finishing off games for the Ravens?

Entering a contract year, Jackson came out like gangbusters for the Ravens. His first three games felt like a second campaign for MVP in the making: 10 touchdown passes, just two interceptions and 243 rushing yards as the Baltimore offense scored a whopping 99 points.

Since then, Lamar's come back down to earth: three TD passes (none on the ground) compared to four interceptions over the past four games. That includes some key mistakes, including four fourth-quarter turnovers against the Giants and Bills that led to close losses. It's easy to lose second-half leads when you're busy handing off points to the other team, a trend that started in Week 2 (where the Dolphins outscored Baltimore 28-3 in the final period) and hasn't let up.

Without those mistakes, the Ravens would be sitting at 7-0 and the top team in the AFC. To be fair, Jackson's been dealing with a nagging hip injury, although he wasn't listed on the team's injury report this week and wiggled it in front of reporters as a joke to show it's OK. But it's clear this team lives and dies with how he performs at the quarterback position.

Jackson will be helped by the successful return of running back Gus Edwards, who ran for two scores and 66 yards last week in his first game since January 2021 following a devastating triple-whammy injury (ACL/Hamstring/LCL). Can the rushing attack take some pressure off Lamar, allowing them to eat up clock in the fourth quarter if the offense builds an early lead? Also keep an eye on tight end Mark Andrews' status; he was hobbled by a knee injury the past few weeks although he did play against the Browns.

3. A field position game

The Bucs do have a top-10 defense, keeping them in several games that could have gotten out of hand. If they're able to eke out turnovers from Jackson, it could put the game in the hands of one of the few Tampa players doing something right on offense: kicker Ryan Succop. Succop is tied for the league lead with 16 field goals made in 17 attempts.

The Ravens counter, of course, with the best kicker of all time in Justin Tucker. He's gone 14-for-15 this year with a missed extra point, a stat sheet that for him is borderline disastrous considering a career built on perfection. But Tucker remains the best ever on game-winning field goals in regulation or overtime; the Ravens only need to reach midfield to have a chance. That's always worth an extra three points, especially in the difficult road environment of Raymond James Stadium.

Final Analysis

This game feels like a do-or-die moment for Brady and Tampa Bay. But if you can only muster 21 total points against the Panthers and Steelers, teams that have a combined 2-10 record this season against other opponents, how can they be expected to produce against the Ravens? Brady's body language tells a difficult story, the greatest of all time finally meeting his match: Father Time.

While Baltimore has its share of problems, expect Thursday night to be the first time we'll see the Ravens expand on a second-half lead instead of squander it.

Prediction: Ravens 31, Buccaneers 13

Any match-ups catch your eye?

---

Thursday, October 27th, 2022

TNF
Baltimore Ravens at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Sunday, October 30th, 2022

9:30am ET
Denver Broncos at Jacksonville Jaguars

THE EARLY GAMES
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
Las Vegas Raiders at New Orleans Saints
New England Patriots at New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers at Philadelphia Eagles
Miami Dolphins at Detroit Lions
Chicago Bears at Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals at Minnesota Vikings

THE LATE GAMES
Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans
San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams
Washington Commodes at Indianapolis Colts
New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks

SNF
Green Bay Packers at Buffalo Bills

Monday, October 31st, 2022

MNF
Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns

Bye Week: KC, LAC

As previously observed, the slogan above his desk that reads "URGENT ENJOYMENT" is akin to the "MANDATORY FUN" joke of military fame. But he is actually serious. So I believe that our head coach requires our assistance coming up with a better slogan to have over his desk. And just think... If we pull this off then he might be able to go get some stuff to pack in those shelves like oversized tomes that would impress the roving eye or snow globes for sensitive viewers or maybe even the ominously thick binders he used to have, that Demoff probably reappropriated for his salary cap printouts.

Heard on the radio Quinn traded to the Eagles.

Great story about the trade of the Rams for the Colts...err, at least the owners!








In 1972, the owners of the Colts and Rams pulled off a transaction unlike anything seen in professional sports before or since: a complete franchise swap that shifted the fates of both organizations in far-reaching ways.

By Judy Battista | October 26, 2022​

Jim Irsay wasn't yet a teenager when the phone rang at his family's home in Chicago in 1972.
"A deep voice says, 'Hello, is your father there?' " Irsay said, recalling the conversation earlier this year. " 'No, he's not here right now.'
" 'Please tell him Carroll Rosenbloom called.' "
In the history of the NFL, there haven't been too many more consequential phone calls than the one Rosenbloom placed to Jim's father, Robert Irsay. It set off the weirdest, but most significant, trade in NFL -- and maybe pro sports -- history.
No players or coaches switched teams. Nobody had to move. No contracts were amended. Robert Irsay and Rosenbloom simply, monumentally, traded franchises -- the players and coaches, the uniforms and playing fields, the home cities, the histories, all of it -- giving Rosenbloom control of the Los Angeles Rams and Irsay control of the Baltimore Colts, the team his son Jim now runs in Indianapolis.
This year's trade deadline is Nov. 1, but nothing that happens between now and then, no matter who it involves -- nor any of the many transactions that have already taken place -- is likely to ever reshape the league like the swap of franchises that are now worth billions of dollars.
The 50th anniversary of this trade was this summer, but few football fans, even of the Rams and Colts, are likely to know of the intertwined history of the teams, and how an air conditioning executive joined with an owner who was angling for what he felt would be a more supportive market -- and who was motivated by a desire to avoid capital gains taxes -- to create a deal that had no precedent in major pro sports, and still has no equal for strangeness.
Rosenbloom died in 1979 and Irsay died in 1997. The full scope of the events was recaptured through interviews with several people who have intimate knowledge of the situation, including Jim Irsay, and a review of contemporaneous accounts of the trade and its aftermath, including those reported by Sports Illustrated and The New York Times.
The roots of the pact were actually planted a few years earlier, in 1968, when Dan Reeves, who was the owner of the Rams at the time, suggested to Rosenbloom, who was then the owner of the Colts, that Rosenbloom take over the Rams, as Sports Illustrated reported after the franchise swap in 1972. Reeves and Rosenbloom were old friends, and they spoke on the field before their teams played a game late in that 1968 season. Reeves was already ill with the cancer that would take his life three years later, and he told Rosenbloom that day that he did not think his family would keep the team after he died.
"I don't think you belong in Baltimore anymore," Rosenbloom quoted Reeves telling him in that Sports Illustrated article. "If I do go before you do, I hope you will give serious thought to acquiring this franchise."

The Colts beat the Rams in Los Angeles in December of 1968 -- shortly after then-Rams owner Dan Reeves suggested to Carroll Rosenbloom, then owner of the Colts, that Rosenbloom should take over his franchise, according to Rosenbloom's recollection. (Associated Press)
It was several more years before anything happened, but Reeves was right about his friend's waning relationship with Baltimore.
Rosenbloom had made his first fortune in clothing manufacturing -- he was so successful, he retired at 32 to become a gentleman farmer, and later, he would be a financial backer of Broadway shows and movies, as recounted by Sports Illustrated. He became the principal owner of the Colts in 1953 when the NFL awarded Baltimore a franchise. Another old friend, Bert Bell, who had been a coach on the University of Pennsylvania football team when Rosenbloom was a running back for the Quakers, was the NFL commissioner at the time, and Bell encouraged Rosenbloom to buy the team as part of a group of investors. Rosenbloom's share of the team cost $13,000. He asked Baltimoreans to give him five years to build a winner.
Rosenbloom hadn't exactly been looking to buy a sports team, but once he did, he built the Colts into champions -- though it actually took him six years. He engineered a blockbuster trade that, among others, brought a player named Don Shula to the team. He hired coach Weeb Ewbank. He signed a free-agent quarterback named Johnny Unitas. The Colts won the NFL title in 1958 (the victory over the New York Giants in the Championship Game is still called "The Greatest Game Ever Played") and '59, lost Super Bowl III to the Jets after the 1968 season and won Super Bowl V over the Cowboys after the 1970 season.
But there were sources of tension. After the 1969 season, Shula -- by then the Colts' head coach -- left Baltimore for Miami after Dolphins owner Joe Robbie dangled a reported $750,000 and other perks to lure him. Rosenbloom was furious.
Rosenbloom had also soured on the area, as The New York Times recounted in July of 1972, and he felt the Colts were underappreciated. He wasn't happy with Baltimore Memorial Stadium, and he was hurt by criticism from the local press, particularly from a columnist named John Steadman, who had also called Colts games on the radio. Steadman regularly criticized Rosenbloom, for whom he had once worked, in his column. Their relationship was so fractured that Rosenbloom's family has long wondered if Steadman helped to keep Rosenbloom from being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, despite his team's success -- Rosenbloom was the winningest owner in NFL history until he was passed by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft -- and despite his influence on the growth of the league, as an early supporter of revenue sharing and national television contracts, and as someone who played a crucial role in the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
The tipping point for Rosenbloom seemed to come during the 1971 preseason, when three exhibition games there drew an average crowd of just 16,000 fans. He was ready to move the Colts to a new stadium he planned to build in the Maryland suburbs or even to Tampa, Florida -- the modern-day home of the Buccaneers did not yet, at that point, have an NFL team. Rosenbloom eventually went so far as to hold a one-day training camp in Tampa -- including Unitas -- early in 1972. Rosenbloom's dreams of a Florida relocation, though, were dashed by resistance from Pete Rozelle, who succeeded Bell as NFL commissioner in 1960, and other owners.
Meanwhile, Robert Irsay very much did want to own a sports franchise -- any franchise, really.

To this day, the deal struck between Carroll Rosenbloom (left, shown in 1978) and Robert Irsay (right, shown in 1984) remains unparalleled in pro sports history. (Associated Press)
Irsay was an irascible sort. During his eventual stewardship of the Colts, he became known for ear-splitting midgame tirades in which he ordered coaches to bench quarterbacks, and he once fired a coach after a preseason loss, which necessitated a trip to the team bus by a 16-year-old Jim to apologize. Baltimoreans never forgave him for moving the team.
But when Jim describes his father, there is a hint of romanticism, too. He loved Las Vegas, Jim said, particularly playing baccarat. He had very good luck, Jim said, calling him a riverboat gambler, someone who was never afraid to lay it all on the table. That was a good personality for the deal with which he was going to become involved.
"He was very interested in the Montreal Expos in 1968," Jim Irsay said. "Then he came to me and said -- and I was only 11 years old at the time -- he said, 'Do you want the Rams or the Colts?' I said the Rams. I always loved the Rams helmets, and I loved Roman Gabriel and those guys from the '60s."
Reeves, who paid $135,000 with a friend to purchase the then-Cleveland Rams in 1941 (the franchise moved to Los Angeles following the 1945 season), died in April 1971. As he predicted, his heirs looked to sell the team. It was clear almost immediately that Rosenbloom was interested. He was primarily living in New York and Miami by then, and he was looking for a new challenge. He was believed to have already looked into buying the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings. He may have considered buying the New Orleans Saints for his kids. He had even suggested his son could run the Colts, and Rosenbloom would buy the Rams. Rozelle nixed all those ideas -- the NFL rules then prohibited such cross-ownership arrangements.
"People around the league knew that Carroll Rosenbloom had a desire to be the NFL owner in Los Angeles, and he was used to getting what he wanted," said Joe Browne, who spent 50 years working in the league office, including 20 years working for Rozelle. "I would not put him on the list of quiet, self-effacing sports owners."
Rozelle suggested Rosenbloom sell the Colts and then buy the Rams, and there were plenty of suitors who were interested in relieving Rosenbloom of the Colts. But there was a problem Rosenbloom wanted to avoid: the estimated $4.4 million capital gains tax bill Rosenbloom would have faced had he sold the Colts.
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly who came up with the unorthodox idea of a trade, although once Rosenbloom made clear he wanted to own the Rams, it seems likely it was an anonymous accountant or lawyer who devised a way to reverse engineer the desired result.
In the meantime, the Miami Dolphins had fired a personnel executive, Joe Thomas, who had been a key to Joe Robbie's purchase of the Dolphins. Rozelle suggested to Rosenbloom that Thomas might be able to find a buyer for the Colts. He had two: Willard Keland and Clem Ryan, who together agreed to buy the Rams for $19 million and then trade the team to Rosenbloom in exchange for the Colts.
"Commissioner Rozelle was as surprised as anyone when he first learned of the possible franchise trade, but neither he nor others around the league could think of a legit reason to prevent it," Browne said.
The deal hit a snag: Keland and Ryan were short of money. Thomas, then, came up with Irsay -- who, having first worked for his father's heating and air conditioning business, had begun his own company based in Skokie, Illinois -- to make up the difference. Irsay didn't know Rosenbloom, and he didn't know Thomas, Ryan or Keland well, either. They met in a coffee shop in a New York hotel. The others asked Irsay if he had $5 million to clinch the deal. When, ultimately, Keland and Ryan dropped out, Irsay was left with the entire $19 million tab. It was the largest amount ever paid for any professional sports team, topping the $16 million Leonard Tose had paid for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1969.
Now, as one might expect in a story such as this, with many strings being pulled by powerful figures behind closed doors, there are variations in the historical record. The Chicago Tribune reported Irsay was more aggressive in pursuing the deal, defeating Keland in a battle for majority ownership of the Colts. There is also the claim by another potential owner, Hugh Culverhouse, that a "handshake deal" to purchase the Rams from the Reeves estate for $17 million (as he later told The New York Times) was usurped by the Rosenbloom-Irsay arrangement. (Culverhouse eventually became the owner of the expansion Buccaneers.) But the events described above, which were also detailed in Sports Illustrated, align with Jim Irsay's recollections.
"He showed up to buy 30 percent of the team or so, and the other investors bailed, so he said, 'I'll take 100 percent,' and he put everything he had into it," Jim Irsay said. "He had sold the Robert Irsay Company for $5 million. My mom had to go to the bank to sign the check for everything he had. She always reminded him of that."


Pioli: Why Robert Irsay traded ownership rights of Rams over to Colts in '72


Irsay had been indifferent about which team he bought -- he just wanted a team, and now he had one, plus a few million dollars in cash that was part of the deal.
"He wasn't a big L.A. guy, really," Jim Irsay said. "He lived in Chicago. It was a lot easier to get to Baltimore."
The trade was a good fit for Rosenbloom, too. When he owned the Colts, Rosenbloom would leave his home in either New York or Miami to go to Baltimore on a Friday and watch practice. He would usually return to his New York home after the game on Sunday. In Los Angeles, Rosenbloom had the beach, the city and the team all in one place. His life was mostly easier, although leaving behind the players and staff, some of whom Rosenbloom had hoped to bring to Los Angeles with him, was difficult.
The deal closed in the summer of 1972, and Rosenbloom's family flew to meet him in Los Angeles. There had been a lot of churn in Robert Irsay's life then. He had sold his company and assumed control of the Colts. His daughter, Roberta, had been killed in a car accident the year before. But there was optimism for the Colts. He vowed that the Colts would remain in Baltimore, and that he and the city would work together to build a new stadium. For a then-12-year-old Jim Irsay, his first training camp, held in Golden, Colorado, was like a dream.
"I sat down as a 12-year-old at the training table, and Johnny Unitas tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Son, move your ass,' " Irsay recalled. "Thankfully, they accepted me as one of them, as a younger brother. I ended up in the inner circles of the league. They'd be saying, 'When you're an owner, just remember ...' The first time I learned to drive I was 14 at training camp. So many firsts. That was a special time."
The trade hardly solved the teams' challenges or ended the drama.
In Los Angeles, Rosenbloom had barely touched down before there was a problem. Gabriel had to be carried off the practice field during warm-ups with a collapsed lung.
The Rams finished the '72 campaign with just six wins but rebounded to become a postseason fixture, compiling a 66-19-1 regular-season record and making the playoffs in every year between 1973 and '78. Then, in April of 1979, Rosenbloom died, drowning in the ocean off Miami Beach. His widow, Georgia, an actress whom he'd met during a party hosted by Joseph Kennedy at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach, took over the team -- firing her stepson in the process -- and became the very rare woman in the testosterone-fueled league.

"It is the greatest, biggest trade in the history of sports."-- Jim Irsay

Click to expand...

Before his death, Rosenbloom had planned to move the team from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to Anaheim Stadium in neighboring Orange County, because it was nearly impossible to sell out enough of the enormous Coliseum to prevent Rams games from being blacked out locally, and because Orange County was experiencing a population boom. The Rams played one more season at the Coliseum, reaching Super Bowl XIV, then Georgia -- who eventually remarried and took on Frontiere as her last name -- went ahead with the move in 1980, making her supremely unpopular with Angelenos who wanted the team to stay. Two years later, the Oakland Raiders moved into the Los Angeles Coliseum, dividing the Rams' traditional fan base. Al Davis, then the Raiders' owner, and Rosenbloom had been friends. Had Rosenbloom been alive for the Rams' move to Anaheim, would Davis have been so quick to challenge the Rams in Los Angeles?
Frontiere's devotion to the team was so great that she became known as Madame Ram. Like her late husband, she cared deeply for the players. Well before it became widely accepted that it is essential to take care of the whole person, Frontiere brought in a yoga instructor, a financial advisor, a nutritionist and a psychiatrist to help players.
Then, in 1995, with the team struggling, the fan base dwindling and no new taxpayer-funded stadium on the way, Frontiere moved the Rams to her hometown of St. Louis, with the assist of her new minority partner, Stan Kroenke. There, they finally won the first Super Bowl in franchise history. When Frontiere died in 2008, her children -- unable to manage the enormous tax burden -- sold the family's stake in the Rams to Kroenke. And in a full-circle moment, Kroenke enraged St. Louis in 2016 by moving the Rams back to Los Angeles, where they won another Super Bowl last season in their own stadium.
The elder Irsay, confronted with some of the same stadium issues that prompted Rosenbloom to want out of Baltimore, executed a middle-of-the-night move to Indianapolis in 1984.
The Colts, like the Rams, left heartbroken fans in their wake. And like the Rams, they won a Super Bowl for their new city and have a gleaming, modern stadium – parallel fates set in motion with a bizarre business deal 50 years ago.
"It is," Irsay said, "the greatest, biggest trade in the history of sports."
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This is the million dollar question which position makes the most sense to instantly help the team?

LT - you get a Tunsil if available and that is a better Whit - you kick Jackson inside to LG and the run game improves and same with pass pro.

G - not a lot of heavy hitters out there but a major upgrade helps with pass pro but we still have an untested in Jackson at LT

RB - several options out there but I have never been the believer it is the RBs fault. Without a better OL I doubt a RB makes a substantial difference - maybe CMC because of versatility but not sure how he would fair on this team. I remember when Gurley had both a great and bad OL with a bad OL he was ineffective.

Lastly an OLB - there are several really good options but will they help us? Pass rush, sacks and pressures will increase and they will solidify the D against better teams as witnessed by last year's playoffs/Superbowl - the caveat last year is Whit.

My thoughts we can get another RB inexpensively if we want one. There is no G that is a massive upgrade so again if we want one we can get it inexpensively.

Here is the question - do we ride with Jackson and wait for Edwards, Shelton to come back? Was that combo ever good enough and with Jackson at LT will it be good enough. The only name out there is Tunsil and it is a low percentage that he would be available but if so I think we choose him over an OLB. This way we solidify the OL the ppg instantly improves the run game improves etc. All of us want an OLB me included, but an OLB doesn't help us score points and that is the name of the game and it is definitely not our skill players that is holding us back. Please remember we had to come from behind in the SF playoff game and Superbowl and we were able to do it because the OL was stable.

What are your thoughts?

Sacks are important. Pressuring the QB is important. But how does it equate to win-loss record?

Here are the top 10 teams in sacks and how they have fared record-wise.

Dallas 7 GP, 29 Sacks, 5-2 record
San Fran 7 GP, 24 Sacks, 3-4 record
Denver 7 GP, 22 Sacks, 2-5 record
Tampa 7 GP, 22 Sacks, 3-4 record
N.England 7 GP, 21 Sacks, 3-4 record
Baltimore 7 GP, 20 Sacks, 4-3 record
Buffalo, 6 GP, 19 Sacks, 5-1 record
K.C., 7 GP, 19 Sacks, 5-2 record
Washington 7 GP, 19 Sacks, 3-4 record

The Rams have 12 sacks (#25) and are #32 in QB pressures, #31 in QB knock downs. Terrible right? Except they have the lowest depth of target against (5.9 yards) and the lowest air yards per completion. Clearly, offenses are hurried because they get the ball out quickly and not very far downfield. The Rams have given up the least number of first downs passing (59) and the second lowest number of first downs rushing (32). So what's more important, sacks or first downs? It's a philosophy. The Rams have given up 300 yards per game, which is top 5 in the NFL, despite having a very low number of sacks. Seems, to me, like the defense is playing pretty good. They're #8 vs the pass (without a lot of negative yards from sacks) and #9 yards per game vs the run. The way offenses are playing the Rams D, acquiring an edge rusher won't change the sacks numbers very much IMHO.

half of Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment

we all grew up watching Rankin and Bass

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer , Frosy The Snowman , Santa Clause is Coming To Town , and many many more

he was 87



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It would be great to hear something about why he isn’t getting more PT. He was supposed to be an athletic freak ready to kick the door in.

I haven’t seen anything to explain his absence on D. Anyone have information about this from the team or a reliable source????

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I personally appreciate this move. Kudos.

Its been a rough start to the 2022 season. A lot of injuries, and some players off to disappointing starts.

There are some players who are playing at a high level, but were expected to do so (Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, for example).

Four players, however, jump out at me as having exceeded expectations thus far, so I thought they deserved a nod:

A.J. Jackson
He is a singular bright spot on an OL that has been decimated by injuries and has had a disastrous start. After filling in at OG, he's now being counted on to replace Joe Noteboom at LT. He looked the part last Sunday, so hopefully he can solidify that key spot. Not bad for an undrafted player.

Ben Skowronek
He has achieved a bit of a folk hero status by playing the FB spot and throwing some noteworthy blocks. He has also registered 23 receptions on 29 targets (79.3% catch rate - 3rd highest among NFL WRs this year) and a TD run. With Van Jefferson returning, he may not see as many targets going forward, but he deserves credit for his contributions thus far.

Derion Kendrick
The Rams have had some injuries at CB too, and Kendrick got his turn as the "next man up." He may stay up even when some of the others return. He has played with a lot of confidence (a must for the position) and has put up some impressive numbers, including a completion percentage allowed of 53.1%, a passer rating allowed of 84.5, and a missed tackle rate of only 5.3%. Definitely good value from a Day 3 draft pick.

Marquise Copeland
With Bobby Brown, who was supposed to be in the DT rotation, suspended, and Greg Gaines fighting a shoulder injury, Copeland has had to step up (he has 82 snaps so far, compared to 108 all of last season). He's done a nice job, helping the Rams stay strong against the run. Like Skowronek, his role might diminish as the season goes on and players (Brown) return. He's played his role, though, and could fight to stay on the field.

So I have 3 tickets that myself, RAM fan cousin and brother n law were going to. My brother n law has backed out and now I have an extra ticket.

What I would like to do is offer the brother n laws ticket to someone on ROD that has never been to a game. Maybe the ticket prices are just out of reach for you. Well now this one isn’t. I just ask that you are a RAM fan and have never been to a game if you are local or if you are out of the area never been to a game in LA.

Southwest has some really cheap flights into LAX right now, so even if you are out of the area, maybe the Free ticket can help get you to a game cost wise.

If we get several that would like the ticket then maybe mods can do a drawing or something.

GO RAMS.

At 3-3, the Los Angeles Rams are tied for first place in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. The division is very much there for the taking for the defending Super Bowl Champions.

But if the vibes feel off for a team that has a -22 point differential heading into the bye week, perhaps there's some reality to that perception.

As it appears to be a matter of when disgruntled running back Cam Akers gets traded, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk suggested Tuesday that he may not be the only one in the locker room who has been worn down by the intensity of McVay.


The Rams are all over the place. And you throw in this Cam Akers drama and again ... how do I put this delicately ... Cam Akers may not be the last to come to the conclusion that 'I've had enough of this'."

"PFT Live" co-host Chris Simms followed up on the statement, and got a little bit more out of Florio.

"I think the message is starting to become diluted. The whole Sean McVay schtick is starting to wear on some guys, I think. I don't know, but I think that it's starting to wear on some guys. So let's monitor whether or not they can hold it together. This is year six. Let's see. There's a chance Cam Akers will not be the last to want out of LA."

What makes this story so interesting isn't just that some players could look for a change of scenery, but it's that McVay himself has been pretty open about the fact that even though he's only 36 and has already guided the Rams to multiple Super Bowl appearances, he probably isn't going to stay in this job for a length comparable to Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin or John Harbaugh.

McVay and general manager Les Snead did sign extensions through the 2026 season that were finalized in early September, but with an aging roster and very little in 2023 draft capital, you do start to wonder if he would look for an exit ramp if things go south the rest of this season.

He was at an entirely different point of his life, but Bill Cowher retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers just a season after leading them to a title in Super Bowl XL. He left the door open to eventually return to coaching, but has ultimately never left his job as a studio analyst at CBS. It would be hard to fathom McVay never coaching again if he left the Rams, but he's young enough that he could easily do TV for four or five years and then pick his next destination.

Again, as Florio said, it's just something to monitor.

Five biggest surprises of 2022 NFL season thus far: Struggles for Buccaneers, Packers stand out​

Entering this week, the NFL's average margin of victory was just 8.9 points. That's the lowest in NFL history, a boon for the competitiveness of a league whose draft and salary cap are designed to engineer evenness and thwart dynasties.

It is not so great for making predictions.

This season has turned preseason prognostication on its head. One reason: So much of the league is clumped right around the midline. When Sunday began, 10 teams were at 3-3, an even .500. And another 13 teams were one different result away from being .500, for better or worse. Teams that were supposed to be dominant have struggled. Some that were supposed to struggle have soared.

That means a whole lot of wrong. With the season still not even half gone, there is plenty of time for course corrections, but we're not too proud to admit that we are surprised by some of what we've seen. Here are the top five preseason takes that don't match reality.

1) PRESEASON EXPECTATION: The Buccaneers and Packers are leading Super Bowl contenders from the NFC.

REALITY: Their offenses look broken.

Scoring is down in the NFL this season and these two offenses are a good reason why. The most stunning result of the season came on Sunday, when the Buccaneers were lifeless in a 21-3 loss to the Panthers. Carolina, led by interim coach Steve Wilks, had only one win entering the game. Coach Todd Bowles called it a "dark day" for the Bucs and it's hard to argue after losses to the Mitch Trubisky-led Steelers and the Panthers, who had third-string quarterback P.J. Walker and didn't have recently traded running back Christian McCaffrey. That's four losses in their last five games. Slow starts are a consistent problem -- the Bucs have not scored a first quarter touchdown this season -- but the Bucs' issues go well beyond that. Their running game is non-existent (they had just 46 yards rushing against the Panthers) and they are among the worst teams in the league on third down (they converted just 2 of 12 third-down opportunities against the Panthers). This is the first time Tom Brady has had a losing record through his first seven games since 2002, his first full season as a starter, which is not how it's supposed to go with a team that is still largely intact from its Super Bowl season. Bowles hinted at tough questions ahead, saying the Bucs have to find out if the older players can still play and if the younger players are good enough to play. Either way, this is certainly not what Brady could have imagined when he came out of retirement.

The Packers are in at least as bad a spot, having dropped their third in a row, 23-21 to the Washington Commodes. The offense is wildly out of whack -- the Packers ran the ball just 12 times, while Aaron Rodgers attempted 35 passes, despite having a sore thumb and being out of sync with his receivers. Incredibly, they had no third down conversions. It's worth questioning the play-calling, but the other looming issue is whether the Packers will acquire another receiver before the Nov. 1 trade deadline.
For the Bucs, there can be some solace in the fact that in the NFC South, they are still tied for first place. No such comfort for the Packers. They are already behind the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North and they have to go to Buffalo next Sunday. Luckily for both, there is only one 6-0 team in the conference (Philadelphia) and two one-loss teams (New York Giants and Minnesota). Everybody else is clumped together, so they will likely remain in the race throughout the season.

2) PRESEASON EXPECTATION: The NFC East is the worst division in football.

REALITY: The NFC South is the worst division in football.

It's not that we thought the NFC South was going to be deep, not with the Atlanta Falcons bidding farewell to Matt Ryan and the New Orleans Saints without Asshole Face. But there was hope for Baker Mayfield in Carolina, and the Bucs were supposed to be battling for home-field advantages, not wins. Instead, after Week 7 losses by the Bucs, Falcons and Saints, everybody is under .500. That means the Panthers, who have already fired Matt Rhule, are only one game behind the Bucs. And the Falcons are tied for first. One of these teams will win the division and any thinking person would say the Bucs have the edge with Brady. But none of these teams, including the Bucs as detailed above, looks capable right now of making a sustained playoff run.

3) PRESEASON EXPECTATION: Every team in the AFC West is playoff-caliber.

REALITY: Nope.

The Chiefs ran up 44 points against the league's top-ranked defense on Sunday, so they are still the class of the division and it doesn't look any closer now than it did before everybody went on a free-agency frenzy in an attempt to catch them. The Chargers' propensity for falling behind by double digits in the first quarter, as they've done the last three games, is troubling and it came back to bite them Sunday, in a 37-23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Still, the presence of Justin Herbert means the Chargers are never entirely out of a game, as the two earlier comebacks proved. This is mostly a Las Vegas and Denver issue. The Raiders' defense is a problem yet again -- they entered the week 28th in scoring defense, and all four of their losses have been by six points or fewer. Mostly, the team lacks consistency -- that 17-0 lead over the Chiefs looked great, allowing the Chiefs to roar back for a 30-29 victory less so -- which is not surprising considering Las Vegas has an entirely new coaching staff. Before the bye, the offense appeared to start clicking, averaging 30.5 points per game in their previous two games, and that continued in a big way Sunday in a 38-20 victory over the Texans. Best of all for the Raiders is that they play the Saints, Jaguars, Colts and Broncos coming up, perhaps giving them a chance to sneak into the fringes of a wild-card race.

The Broncos, though, are the most mystifying team in the NFL this season. Nobody, absolutely nobody, expected Russell Wilson to struggle as he has adapting to Nathaniel Hackett's offense, even before injuries started to affect him and ultimately keep him off the field Sunday against the Jets. Entering the game, the Broncos were 32nd in the league in scoring, and, including the 16-9 loss to the Jets, they have managed just eight offensive touchdowns. There is no quick fix here, other than greater comprehension of the offense and better execution. But the results have been so poor, the clock management so confounding, that Hackett's future is already a hot topic.

4) PRESEASON EXPECTATION: The New York teams are rebuilding.

REALITY: The New York teams are a combined 11-3.

This was only half wrong. The Jets and Giants are still rebuilding, although the Jets, with more young pieces in place, are further along than the Giants. But in the meantime, they are the two biggest surprises of the season, the Jets leaning heavily on their defense, the Giants relying on defense and the running game. Both teams won nail-biters on Sunday, requiring down-to-the-wire defensive stands to preserve their wins. It's hard to say how long their winning streaks are sustainable. The Giants go to Seattle next week and the injuries are piling up -- right tackle Evan Neal left Sunday's game with a knee injury and tight end Daniel Bellinger with an eye injury. The Jets host the Patriots, but running back Breece Hall has what is likely a serious knee injury, which will place more of the onus on Zach Wilson, who had just 121 passing yards and was under nearly constant duress by the Broncos. But after the two teams tied for the worst record in the NFL over the five seasons from 2017 to 2021, and neither has made the playoffs since 2016 (a wild-card round loss by the Giants), New York is suddenly, unexpectedly, a football town again.

5) PRESEASON EXPECTATION: Pete Carroll can't be serious about going with Geno Smith to replace Russell Wilson.

REALITY: The Seahawks lead the NFC West with Geno Smith running the show.

Smith was last a full-time starter in 2014, but even then, at the start of his career with the Jets, he was never as in command as he looks now for the Seahawks. Entering Sunday's game against the Chargers, he was leading the league with a 73.4 completion percentage, and he has been performing especially well with deep passes and under pressure. In Seattle's Sunday victory, he was 20-of-27 passing for 210 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He got a lot of help from running back Kenneth Walker III (two rushing touchdowns) and a defense that is finally coming together (two takeaways, three sacks). The result is that what appeared to be an awkwardly timed tear-down for Carroll is instead a mid-career renaissance for Smith and a return to the playoff chase for the Seahawks.