St. Louis Sports Online

 

 Mike Huss

"The Fuss
According to Huss"

St. Louis Sports Online
lead columnist and host of "Sportstalk" on WGNU AM-920 (8:00-9:00 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays)

And Now...for the Rest of the Story...

April 16, 1999

With the Rams April 15th trade for Indianapolis' Marshall Faulk, I discovered an interesting parallel to Tax Day. Just like the I R S, our Male Sheep are very concerned about changing their image with their paying customers. St. Louis' N F L franchise is making an attempt this off season to lure warm bodies (and their wallets) back into those many thousand empty seats at the Trans World Dome. The acquisition of the running back from San Diego State is the latest step.

Faulk's numbers are impressive. A three time Pro Bowler, the 26 year old running back has rushed for 5,320 yards and has compiled 2,084 receiving yards in his five NFL seasons. Four of those five seasons, Faulk rushed for over 1,000 yards. In return, the Rams really did not give up a large amount: one of their two #2 Draft Picks, and their Number #5 in the 1999 Draft.

Plus, this trade to St. Louis should not create a culture shock for Faulk. Think about it: he is leaving one lousy Midwestern NFL team that plays its home games in a dome to another lousy Midwestern NFL team that plays its home games in a dome.

The sports fans of this town have always been receptive when the home teams make any effort to improve. The St. Louis sports faithful will generally support any such team; even to the point of giving that team the benefit of the doubt. When talking about the Rams though, the football fans in the Gateway City are looking for anything positive to embrace.

The Faulk trade, the signings of Trent Green, Adam Timmerman, Todd Collins, Devin Bush, and the others, as well as maintaining their 1999 Number One Draft Pick (#6 overall) have illustrated that the Rams are bullish and appear sincere in improving their product. From a marketing standpoint, these signings hopefully have stopped the bleeding for now with their PSL faithful.

More importantly, for the first time since arriving in the Gateway City, the Rams may finally have a player to put a face to their franchise. When you mention the St. Louis Cardinals, Mark Mc Gwire comes to mind, and before him Ozzie Smith. When you mention the St. Louis Blues, Al Mac Innis comes to mind, as did Brett Hull before him.

The only player who the Rams could boast during their St. Louis tenure is Isaac Bruce. It is not encouraging to identify your most visible player as the fellow limping on the sidelines in street clothes, for 75% of the regular season.

Hopefully, Faulk could fill this role. One small issue, though, Marshall Faulk wants a contract extension; and he wants one badly and he wants one now. Dick Vermeil and the Rams brass indicated that they are receptive to that idea. Local T V talking heads have assured us that a long term Faulk contract should be a slam dunk.

But let's not forget that we are talking about the Rams. This is an organization which has displayed over the past four season that rhetoric is more important than substance. An organization which has overreacted to free agency. An organization which has won only 22 games (or a .343 winning percentage) in the past four seasons. An organization whose coach not only has won less than 10 regular season games in his two year tenure, but alluded that he would, if presented the opportunity, consider a return of Lawrence Phillips.

So, Faulk wants to re-negotiate. It may not be as easy as everyone thinks or hopes.

Conrad Brunner of the Indianapolis Star/News writes: "major trades rarely are a simple matter, and this one certainly was not. The Colts had a number of reasons for pulling the trigger on Thursday's deal, but the most compelling involved money. Faulk wanted a lot more than he was making, and the franchise was not in a position to make him happy".

"He demanded a trade, but made it clear to the Colts that he would not report to training camp without a new contract. This is now a problem for the Rams to address""

When asked about the trade, Colts owner Jim Irsay said: "We knew Marshall was not coming to camp, but a bigger factor was the money issue. The move had several key ingredients: We (the Colts) were already over the salary cap this year and we will be immensely over the cap next year. Plus Marshall will be going into his sixth season."

OK, OK, I know what your saying. These are all quotes from the Indianapolis area. Sour grapes, right? Jealousy. Envy They do not want to admit they made a mistake, right?

Well, ESPN's Chris Mortensen, a well known NFL insider made these remarks on the Faulk trade: "If you'd told me a week ago, I'd have been surprised by this deal. As soon as we all realized that (the Colts) were willing to move Faulk, we checked into it: that is about what (other NFL) teams felt about his value".

"There was not a good market for Marshall Faulk, which tells you the market doesn't trust him either."

"Knowing Bill Polian (Colts' President), I believe that he was absolutely convinced Marshall Faulk was going to miss training camp. And Bill's history with running backs who miss training camp is that they tend to get hurt and are not productive. I also don't think that the Colts staff was convinced that Faulk could duplicate last season".

Just like completing your 1040 Form, let's go straight to the bottom line

It is now painfully obvious that the Rams' mission is to sign Marshall Faulk. Bluntly, it MUST be done, period-and Marshall Faulk knows it.

The New Running Back knows that the Rams are looking for someone to jump start and become the poster boy of this franchise. He knows that the team has loads of cash at their disposal. The New Running Back knows that the St. Louis Franchise had problems in the past signing the likes of Jerome Bettis, Orlando Pace, Ryan Mc Neil and Mark Rypien: and their fans know it.

If I am Marshall Faulk's agent ,I have to be smiling. I can hear the agent's argument now: "If the Rams can give a part time starter like Trent Green a big multi-million dollar contract, just think what my Pro Bowl client is worth". Can we file for an extension??

So welcome to St. Louis Mr. Faulk, and Happy Tax Day, Everyone.

Just like the I R S, the Rams are trying to address their image problem.
Just like the I R S, someone eventually has to pay up.

St. Louis Sports Online