Sundays From the Cellar: The 1-15 Opus

Every optimistic NFL fan who watches their team finish a season 1-15 loves to cite the 1989 Dallas Cowboys as the reason why its totally reasonable to assume that things will turn around overnight.  Granted they just lost 93% of their games over one season, but within three years or so you will be well on your way to celebrating a dynasty just like Jerry’s Cowboys.

St. Louis fans even have their own rags to riches story that we can lean on, with the Rams losing 34 games over a three year span featuring names such as Lawrence Phillips, Tony Banks and Amp Lee, only to pull a complete 180 and rack up 37 wins over the next three years, including two Super Bowl appearances and one Super Bowl victory. 

So where do the Rams sit on that spectrum after the final game of 2009?  Let’s just say that this current team is firmly entrenched in the “rags” stage of the familiar tale.

In their 28-6 drubbing at the hands of the decidedly average San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, the Rams produced a franchise worst 109 yards of total offense to put a nice, tidy bow on a franchise-worst 1-15 season.  The lone highlight of the year was a victory over the 2-14 Detroit Lions.  That’s it. 

Total losses in the last three years = an NFL record 42 

As of now, it doesn’t appear that the “riches” portion of fairy tale will be coming in 2010.   

Eagerly Awaiting Mediocrity
For years I’ve watched my friends across the state take pride in the smallest accomplishments when it came to the Kansas City Royals.  And for years I’ve thought to myself – man, it must really suck to follow a team that perennially manages to suck the life out of you as a fan. 

Then I started to take note of some of thoughts that briefly passed through my head while watching the Rams:

“Keith Null threw only three picks this week, two weeks ago he threw five.  Kid might be for real.”

“I’m telling you, Brandon Gibson, Donnie Avery and Danny Amendola might make for a pretty solid receiving core next year”###MORE###
 
At that point it becomes crystal clear…I am the equivalent of a Royals fans in the NFL.  I am starving for mediocrity.  (Yes, Rams fans do have that glorious stretch from ‘99-’01 to celebrate which many other franchises do not have, but in terms of following futility over an extended period, there aren’t many that can compete with this city.  Though it began long before my time, the St. Louis (football) Cardinals were a running joke in the league for the greater part of their 27 year stay before departing for Arizona.  During that three decade period they won exactly zero playoff games.  Zero.)

Suppose the Rams do make significant strides and pull off 7 or 8 wins in 2010, fans would do cartwheels just have a chance to go into Sunday with a legit prospect of winning, or to have some reason to create an atmosphere at the otherwise drab Edward Jones Dome.  It would be such a complete departure from the recent past, that we would be thrilled with utter mediocrity.  There is no better evidence of that than the fact that many are in the process of pumping themselves up at the prospect of the team signing Mike Vick in the offseason to man the QB position, even though he barely played this year and wasn’t all that great at it before he went to prison.  Can’t be much worse.

In less than a decade, Rams fans have gone from being stunned when their team didn’t win a second Super Bowl in three years, to going a full season where the only geniune positive development was the release of Richie Incognito.  (Even Steven Jackson’s success comes at a price.  In this case, beaing beaten down physically so that, by the time this team has acquired enough talent to be competitive, he’ll be be limping around like Edgerrin James in Seattle.)

1-15 and Fearing What’s Next
In the NFL’s parity machine, the one benefit to having your team flounder for 17 weeks is that, come draft day, you won’t have to wait long to see the commish step to the podium to announce the name of your newest savior.  It’s supposed to be a good thing.

When you’ve watched a team put together exactly four winning seasons in 15 years and witnessed their (shocking) potential dynasty taken out at the knees via horrific drafting, the default reaction to earning the #1 overall draft pick is fear.  Not excitement that they will find the next NFL star that will propel them back to the top of the league, not optimism that a series of top picks over the past three years will help them stockpile talent up and down the roster to serve as the basis for a rapid turnaround. 

It is all replaced with a nagging fear that they will commit boatloads of guaranteed money to a player that offers no immediate impact and ultimately will be a drain on a team that can afford no more drains.  Pretty much exactly what happened in 2009 with #2 pick Jason Smith.

Some may see a talent like Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh – the presumed #1 pick – and think he’s a sure-fire NFL stud that not even the most inept franchise can screw up.  Rams fans worry that somehow when he slides into that blue and gold uniform, his once-in-a-decade talent will morph into the second coming of Jimmy Kennedy, Damione Lewis, Tye Hill or Adam Carriker, otherwise known as Rams first round draft picks who have had zero impact on the franchise aside from crippling team resources.

While we are excited that our team has the pick of any college player in the land, we are also truly frightened that said player will be a bust of epic proportions, not because of the player himself mind you, rather because of the franchise that is drafting him.

Pessimism has become the default state of mind.

The Worst Reaction of Them All
In the process of having our aspirations beaten down to the point where all we are hoping for is the team to simply stay in a game into the second half, the most feared of all fan reactions has begun to seep in.  It is the dreaded emotion that is sub-consciously drilled into the fan base further with each lifeless performance – we are becoming indifferent to it all. 

This past Sunday, the Rams played at home against the team they once viewed as their chief rival, the San Francisco 49ers. They drew a crowd under 50,000 and were blacked out on local TV for the third consecutive home game primarily because everyone knew that the 28-6 whipping was all but inevitable. And the worst part? Hardly anyone in the city cared. 

As a sports fan, it’s sometimes hard to concede that indifference has set in.  Sure there’s always frustration and anger after crappy performances, but at least we still care, don’t we?  When indifference takes over, suddenly we feel like we’re the ones that aren’t performing rather than the team. 

On Sunday, I followed the Rams for about five combined minutes with a brief check in to the radio broadcast (in my defense it was halftime when I was in the car) and a few glances at the gametracker on my phone to confirm what I already knew. I even included the 49ers in a parlay because I was 100% certain that they were going to win handily.  And it didn’t piss me off one bit. Does my steadily decreasing emotion from week-to-week mean I’m a bad fan?  

Loyal supporters across the city are grappling with the same issue. Instead of being angry and bitter, we’ve put up the shield of indifference as our only defense mechanism against one of the worst seasons by a professional sports franchise that we’ve ever had to endure.  And in typical NFL fashion, our natural response to a historically crappy run of football will be sold to the nation as further evidence that this city is “not a football town” and rumors will continue to swirl that the Rams are destined to relocate.  The NFL long ago convinced itself that their teams are entitled to never-ending sellouts and prosperity regardless of what they offer in return. Don’t want to play ball?  They’ll find a city who will.

Finally, It’s Over

The most depressing part of the whole equation may be that, unlike the 1989 Cowboys, the St. Louis Rams don’t have much to build on.  Their star is a dominant running back who was flanked at quarterback by two has-beens (Bulger and Boller) and a never-will-be (Null) and a receiving core that is overflowing with mediocrity. Last year’s #2 overall pick in the draft – Jason Smith – made minimal strides in an injury plagued rookie season.  Their offensive line seemed promising but was undermined by injuries (Jacob Bell; Jason Smith) and penalty machines (Richie Incognito; Alex Barron).

Arguably the best defensive player on the 31st ranked defense, safety OJ Atogwe, is set to become a free agent and if he has any intention on experiencing any measure of success during his career, he will sprint away from Rams Park and never look back. Head coach Steve Spagnuolo managed to remain positive throughout a trying year and is still viewed as a building block for the franchise, but how much rope will be afforded with so many gaping holes to fill on a roster that was so woefully undermanned in 2009?

And that’s the Rams in a 1,600 word nutshell.  After watching the worst three-year stretch in NFL history, fans have no choice but to fear that the primary benefit from their futility (Suh) won’t be enough to bring them back to the mediocre status that is desperately needed to fend off the indifference that we all feel creeping in.  And after spending 17 consecutive Sundays watching (or listening to) our football team claim ownership of the title of “league’s worst”, we are just hoping we will not have to do it all over again in 2010. 

So go the Sundays From the Cellar.

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