Leaving St. Louis under the premise that the fan base wasn’t supportive or enthusiastic enough for the Rams has left many a Missourian feeling betrayed.
So much so that now, not only are many former Rams fans rooting against the team they once loved in favor of the New England Patriots in this Sunday’s Super Bowl LIII, some are actually suing the team for leaving them behind.
The Rams ditched St. Louis three years ago and moved across the country to Los Angeles after missing the playoffs for 11 straight years as residents of Missouri. But now that they’re back in the Championship game for the first time since Kurt Warner led the way in 2000, not everyone is happy for them, SB Nation reported.
“The Rams going back to the Super Bowl has left a bad taste in St. Louis’s mouth, not only because of the way they left, but because of the way that St. Louisans were portrayed as not supportive of a really bad organization,” marketing director for Hotshots, a chain of Missouri sports bars, Justin Boyd, explained to SB Nation.
What certainly doesn’t help? The Rams’ forgotten city is still paying for the stadium that it built in 1995 to bring the Rams to St. Louis in the first place. And, the Rams’ biggest stars on their Super Bowl-bound roster — Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, and Aaron Donald — were brought on via draft picks racked up after nine straight losing seasons that fans in St. Louis feel were the result of “intentional neglect,” — a suspicion reinforced when Rams COO Kevin Demoff said a four-game losing streak in 2015 helped expedite the team’s relocation aspirations.
That frustration with the team — and specifically Rams owner Stan Kroenke — has translated into four lawsuits tied to the team’s departure from St. Louis. One of which was brought by the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority against the Rams, the NFL and the 31 other NFL teams and their owners alleging breach of contract and fraud, among other things.
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