Plenty of blame for history of bad football in St. Louis - but don’t blame the fans

Hello, long-suffering St. Louis football fans.

I am here to celebrate your dedication, perseverance and your ability to keep coming back again and again for more punishment. If this really is the last NFL home game in St. Louis, you did your part.

I’m here to buy you a round of beers to thank you for putting up with some of the most mediocre and painful football in the history of mediocre and painful football.

Believe me, the sometimes sorry state of professional football in St. Louis from 1960 through 2015 has absolutely nothing to do with you. You bought the tickets and team gear, braved the cold, sat in the bleachers at old Busch Stadium and bundled up alongside portable heaters outside the dome while tailgating.

With the sixth overall pick of the 1996 draft, the St. Louis Rams select Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips (Phillips’ criminal background should have set off huge warning lights. It didn’t).

You didn’t drop a single pass, miss a single tackle or get burned in pass coverage. You didn’t have any input into the drafts of the St. Louis Cardinals or St. Louis Rams and did not carry the card up to the NFL commissioner with the name of your team’s draft pick (if only we could have!).

With the eighth overall pick of the 1970 draft, the St. Louis Cardinals select Texas A&M running back Larry Stegent (played seven games in the NFL).

No one asked you whether it made more sense to draft future star cornerback Darrelle Revis in 2007 instead of defensive lineman Adam Carriker with the 13th overall pick. (it certainly did, especially since the Jets took Revis with the next pick).

In 1996 when the Rams drafted Phillips sixth overall, the running back they really needed was Eddie George and he went to Houston (now Tennessee) eight picks later. The Rams drafted wide receiver Eddie Kennison 18th overall that year, only to see the next pick — eight-time Pro Bowl receiver Marvin Harrison —blossom in Indianapolis.

With the 19th overall pick of the 1984 draft, the St. Louis Cardinals select University of Tennessee receiver Clyde Duncan (played in 19 NFL games).

Every year for 49 seasons, you tried to pay attention. You bought seats or put aside the yardwork or other family duties to camp in front of your TV every Sunday, thinking this might be the year. This might be the game when your team gets things turned around.

You knew the inevitability of what was coming, but you watched anyway.

Your reward?

Two professional football teams have called St. Louis home and their combined record in 49 seasons is 326-394-15.

The Cardinals (you always referred to them as the Big Red) had a 186-202-14 record during their tenure here from 1960 through 1987. They played in three playoff games — none at home — and lost them all.

Heading into Thursday’s home game, the Rams are 140-192-1 since coming here in 1995. They have played in five home playoff games (10 overall) and won the Super Bowl during the 1999 season, but also have left a trail of bad drafts, strange coaching and enough off-field intrigue to fill volumes.

With the second pick of the 2009 draft, the St. Louis Rams select Baylor offensive tackle Jason Smith (played in 45 NFL games).

These teams left you a lot of great memories, though.

There was that brief window of success from 1974-76 when the “Cardiac Cardinals” of Jim Hart, Dan Dierdorf, Terry Metcalf, Roger Wehrli, Mel Gray, Jackie Smith and Jim Bakken gave the city a taste of success with NFC East titles in 1974 in 1975 and another solid season in 1976.

You were thrilled when Ottis “O.J.” Anderson burned the hated Dallas Cowboys for 193 yards in his 1979 NFL debut. You high-fived your pals in 1975 when a highly controversial officials ruling gave Big Red receiver Mel Gray a touchdown on “The Catch” against the Redskins.

You didn’t like Big Red owner Bill Bidwill a lot, but were sad when the team packed up and moved to Arizona after the 1987 season.

With the 31st overall pick in the 2000 draft, the St. Louis Rams select Arizona running back Trung Canidate (played in 46 NFL games).

After losing an expansion franchise to Jacksonville, you finally got your wish and the Rams moved here from California in 1995.

Sure it wasn’t great football at first, but it was YOUR football. You patiently waited for a spark and then it happened. The Rams brought coach Dick Vermeil out of retirement and three seasons later, they defeated Tennessee to win the first and only Super Bowl championship by a St. Louis team.

In your mind, you can still recall Mike Jones hauling down Titans receiver Kevin Dyson a few inches from the goal line to preserve the win.

You remember how cold it was for the Super Bowl championship parade, but how warm you feel — even now — remembering the Greatest Show on Turf days. They were amazing times where each trip to the dome resulted in incredible offensive fireworks by unlikely record-setting quarterback Kurt Warner and superstar talent like Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt.

The Rams got back to the Super Bowl again two seasons later and you couldn’t understand why they didn’t run the ball more in an upset loss to the New England Patriots.

Still you stuck with the team and hoped for a turnaround that never came.

This is the Rams’ 12th straight non-winning season and their last playoff game was in 2004.

With the 19th overall pick in the 1977 draft, the St. Louis Cardinals select University of Missouri quarterback Steve Pisarkiewicz (played in 10 NFL games).

You understand why attendance is sparse at the Edward Jones Dome even though the national media doesn’t get it. Rams owner Stan Kroenke wants to move the team to Los Angeles and you’ve been in limbo for nearly a year, watching politicians and NFL owners and committees decide your team’s fate.

You don’t have a vote. You just love pro football and have supported good teams and bad since 1960.

Don’t let the marketing folks fool you. St. Louis isn’t just a baseball town, it’s a football town, too.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Plenty of blame for history of bad football in St. Louis - but don’t blame the fans."