Please read this...Forget Los Angeles: Move Rams to Union County
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<p class="p1">Hopefully, by the time you read this, the sun will be shining, a warm breeze will be blowing and the temperature will be 74 degrees. In Gulf Shores, Alabama. (Weather reports early this week might have suggested otherwise.)</p><p class="p1">As you may recall, I'm a bit of a sports fan. I like to follow Major League Baseball (especially that team in St. Louis), the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Southeastern Conference football, college basketball. But not soccer. Sorry, soccer fans. It's a personal thing.</p><p class="p1">Anyway, I've been a fan of the St. Louis Rams since they moved from Los Angeles back whenever it was. Now, the Rams supposedly are looking at moving back to Los Angeles. </p><p class="p1">Now, apparently, the San Diego, formerly Los Angeles, Chargers, and the Oakland, formerly Los Angeles, formerly Oakland, Raiders also are considering a move to LA. </p><p class="p1">The moves by all three teams would involve construction of new stadiums that would cost a bazillion dollars each. We don't have enough money to educate our kids but we can spend vast fortunes on stadiums to help rich guys get richer. Oops, that almost sounds like social commentary. Sorry.</p><p class="p1">It seems that what's happening is that the National Football League wants to have a "presence" once again in Los Angeles. Once again, the bottom line is all about the bottom line.</p><p class="p1">So, I have an idea for the folks who run the NFL. Let's just move every team in the league to Los Angeles. Spend a few more bucks. Build a few more stadiums. Get this done. Never mind about all of those poor folks around the country who invest their time, money and emotions to support a team which might, or might not, be around next year. Or even next week. Just an idea.</p><p class="p1">I know that none of this has anything at all to do with life here in Union County. Unless you consider the idea a fellow traveler on the Journey through Life and I shared a couple of weeks ago.</p><p class="p1">At the time, one of those silly lotteries had a jackpot of something like $297 gazillion. The two of us decided that if we won the lottery, we would buy the Rams and move them to Union County. </p><p class="p1">Of course, we would have to build a new stadium, maybe at the Anna City Park. The stadium would have, oh, maybe 2,000 seats. High school football, and, ugh, soccer games could be played there, too. Junior football league games, too. And there could be cheerleading camps, too. Maybe even the Union County Fair's pet parade. </p><p class="p1">For sure, we will build an open air stadium. Not one of those domed debacles. If you're going to watch a football game, you have to be outside. No matter how bad the weather might be. </p><p class="p1">This is coming from experience. Sitting in freezing rain at Alton High School and Southern Illinois University Carbondale football games. Sitting in absolutely unseasonably bitter cold in October watching the University of Illinois play the University of Minnesota in college football. Enduring ice-cold plastic seats at the old Busch Stadium in St. Louis watching the football cardinals play the Kansas City Chiefs. </p><p class="p1">Bottom line: if you are going to be watching football, you've got to be outdoors and you've got to be miserable.</p><p class="p1">Once we get the Rams moved to Union County, we'll have to decide what to call them. Anna Rams? Anna-Jonesboro Rams? Union County Rams? Southern Illinois Rams? Who knows?</p><p class="p1">Enough fantasy football for one week. As you can probably tell, the cold and snow have frozen the little bit of gray matter which is suspended between my earholes. </p><p class="p1">By the way, I am still planning to address Abraham Lincoln's height and bird identification issues. Stay tuned. We'll get there. Someday.</p>