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It is often said that cheerful human beings generally describe a twelve ounce glass containing six ounces of a beverage as "half full".
On the other hand, folks down on their luck have a jaundiced outlook on life, and view that very same glass as "half empty".
So hockey's happy couple, ex-Blues LW Brendan Shanahan and his new fiance, the former Mrs. Craig Janney, will most likely toast each other with half full glasses of champagne.
But St. Louis' mercurial sports talk show host, Kevin Slaten, probably bemoans his recent release from his nightly Channel 30 gig over a half empty glass of beer.
Much of the world is like that--how you look at things depends, at least to some extent, on your frame of mind.
After splitting the first four games of the 1997 NFL season, several aspects of the St. Louis Rams qualify as the St. Louis-area sport scene's quintessential twelve ounce glass that contains six ounces of liquid refreshment.
Are the Rams' glasses half full or half empty? Well, how do YOU feel today?!
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Let's start with Dick Vermeil. The Rams' head coach has been out of the coaching game for 14 years...and at times seems oddly detached during games. That's a half empty glass, right? ButVermeil has a winning track record...lots of experience...and is a definite improvement over Rich Brooks. Half-full? Our view of Vermeil: half full. |
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What about Tony Banks and Lawrence Phillips? On the talent and potential side, Phillips and Banks are like diamonds waiting to be polished. In other words, half full. But the on-the-field performance of both players indicates that their coming-of-age as NFL stars may be a laboriously slow process. In particular, Banks' lack of poise and ineffective decision-making skills...and Phillips' alarmingly poor running instincts, are the stuff that have NFL talent gurus such as Pro Football Weekly's Joel Buchsbaum scratching their helmet-shaped heads. |
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An example of Banks at his best? His fourth-quarter red zone toss to TE Ernie Conwell, completed while under extreme pressure, that led to the Rams only touchdown in their 13-3 victory over the Giants.  Phillips at his on-field worst? Any of a number of Phillips' runs vs. the Giants in which whatever daylight was there for an instant seemed to vanish before he made his decision about where to go. One thing for sure about Lawrence Phillips--as far as elusiveness is concerned, Barry Sanders he ain't.  Banks and Phillips together, at their worst? A second-half audible called by Banks that, apparently, didn't register with Phillips. |
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As a result, a Banks-to-Phillips handoff never made it from QB to RB (Phillips wasn't where Banks expected him to be), and the Giants recovered what at the time seemed to be an all-important fumble. After the play, Banks (in the baseball cap) was seen explaining what happened to Rams RB coach Wilbert Montgomery, while Phillips and Dick Vermeil (back to camera) looked on. Our opinion of Banks? Half empty. Phillips? Half empty, too. |
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And the Rams' offensive line? After the Gams-Giants game, Dick Vermeil's assessment of Jim Hanifan's charges was blunt: "We didn't block anybody." Actually, it only seemed that way...and in the few cases when the Rams' o-linemen seemed to do their job, the team's corps of wide-outs weren't always looking for the ball. But with fourth-round draft pick Ryan Tucker apparently close to active duty (at LG?)...and monster-man Orlando Pace assuming his rightful role as starting LT (with Wayne Gandy sliding over to RT), the o-line's glass, from this angle, looks half full. |
Finally, no discussion of the Rams' offense is complete without mentioning placekicker Jeff Wilkins.
Hey.
Your glass is empty!
(Cheers!)
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