ST. LOUIS (AP) – St. Louis football fans don’t have the 49ers or Seahawks to hate anymore. They have a new nemesis: Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL executives who helped take away the team.
It wasn’t exactly moving trucks sneaking the Colts out of Baltimore or moving the Browns from Cleveland, but Tuesday’s decision to relocate the Rams to Los Angeles left Missouri’s biggest city with bruised feelings, millions of dollars of unpaid debt from the current stadium and the distinction of losing two NFL teams in three decades.
Yet, it also united the oft-at-odds community – mostly in their disdain for the billionaire Missouri native who took away their team.
Consider Thursday night’s hockey game. St. Louis Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III joined Blues owner Tom Stillman for a ceremonial pre-game puck drop. The public address announcer proclaimed St. Louis “the best sports city in America.” A thunderous ovation for the show of community support quickly turned into an anti-Kroenke chant.
Terry Cook, a 34-year-old Blues fan, was among those yelling “Kroenke sucks!” He figured St. Louis never really had a chance once Kroenke decided to head west.