The Kroenke era begins with a boom. The Georgia curse has been ended.

Surely you jest! Surely you are pulling my leg! Nah! Not true! Are you serious. The Rams defeated the Patriots 36-35 in Boston? NAH!

I want to carefully qualify my remarks. I do not believe the Patriots are the ruling dynasty of the NFL. I do not believe they are a Super Bowl contender this season. Nevertheless, I do expect them to post a winning season. I do not expect the same thing from my Rams.

Still I cannot deny the reports the NFL Network is throwing at me. Evidentially, my 1-15 team just went into New England and scored 36 points against the Patriots. Do you understand that this was the 32nd ranked offense in the NFL last season? This was an offense that had trouble putting 11 points on the scoreboard, and was shutout by the Redskins and the Seahawks, both of whom were bottom 10 teams.

How did you fuckers give up 36 points? Mel Kiper was more right than I though he was, and I thought he was pretty accurate on this question. The New England Patriots have real problems on defense. I haven't seen a lot of things that impressed me this preseason (except Javid Best) but this impresses me.

You mean to tell me that Sam shot 15 for 22 for 189 yards and a pair of touchdowns behind one of the most... er... ah... lines in the league? That is a pretty good QB rating there kid. Keep it up.

I don't know what to say. I guess my guys have gotten better and yours have gotten worse. If I were the Patriots, I would pretty intensely humiliated by this.

Hallelujah the Georgia curse has been lifted! The Kroenke era begins with a bang.

Good job guys.

So the Kroenke era begins...

Last night the NFL Network broadcast limited information on the NFL owners meeting taking place at the Ritz Carlton Buckhead in Atlanta Georgia. They did mention that there was a vote on Stan Kroenke. It was not precisely clear whether he won or not. I immediately looked it up on News.Google.com. The answer was yes, Stan has been approved as the new majority owner of the Rams. The facts of the case are these:

1. The approval vote was unanimous
2. Commissioner Goodell gave Stan a very nice endorsement.
3. Stan will be the 7th Ram owner in 73 years.
4. Many sources are reporting that Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez will still retain some interest in the team
5. Reports conflict, but VanRam states that Kroenke bought nearly all of the remaining 60% of the Rams for the sum of $450 million.
6. It is unlikely Chip Lucia will hold more than token stock in the Rams.
7. Stan has been given a grace-period to divest himself of the Nuggests and the Avalanche.
8. Regrettably, the NFL has not done away with the cross-ownership ban, or given Stan a pass. Rather he has a temporary exemption so that he can get into compliance with the rule.
9. Stan has until December of 2012, or until the end of the world, which ever comes first.
10. NFL Executive Vice President Eric Grubman says the Nuggests and Avalanche will be passed over to John Kroenke, the 30 year old son of Stan and Anne.
11. The spectre of a potential move to Los Angeles was raised immediately by the Atlanta media.
12. Stan said he would never lead the charge out of St. Louis, but he has to remain competitive, and to be competitive he needs revenues.
13. VanRam is reporting that the first item on Stan's agenda is a new Stadium and a return to profitability.
14. Certainly, a return to profitability is a critical aspect of the rebuilding project. You can't keep operating at a loss. You either staunch the bleeding or die at some point.

According to my fading memory, Stan began this trek back in late 1993 and early 1994 when a couple of guys named DeBartolo and Jones has spent Georgia under the table. The Rams were in considerable financial difficulty back then also. Georgia had no real money of her own. She was a Las Vegas Showgirl who had been married 5 times. She had nothing more than the money she inherited from Carroll Rosenbloom. While sizable by ordinary middle class terms, that fortune provided no means to compete with real billionaires like DeBartolo and Jones.

As an erstwhile NFC contender, the Rams needed to spend like the 49ers and Cowboys if they were to have any hope at all of launching a Super Bowl run. Georgia was basically forced to find a partner. Stan made it pretty clear he wanted to buy the whole enchilada outright. Georgia wouldn't sell the Rams outright. Eventually, they struck on a deal in which Stan bought 40%.

The first-refusal right Stan negotiated in that purchase contract made it absolutely clear that he was waiting on line to buy the rest of the team. Yesterday, 15 years of waiting in line came to an end. He could have made this process a year shorter, but with such monumental problems to grab hold of, why rush?

His timing makes sense. He will have approximately 4 calendar years in St. Louis to work out a new stadium deal before he can move to Los Angeles, if no progress is made. It should be noted that Stan could move the team tomorrow. He would simply have to pay penalties for breaking his lease early. No one expects him to do such a thing. The L.A. County stadium, either in Industry or downtown, is not ready yet.

It is unclear just who the progenitor of the move to St. Louis was in 1994. Stan is from St. Louis. Georgia was also from St. Louis. The city of St. Louis itself was beckoning a team. Some say that former President Shaw was the key exponent of the move. It's clear that Georgia finally made the move because she was (is) deeply hated by the people of Los Angeles, who believe she hijacked, then ruined the Rams. Georgia summed it up best when she said "I want to go where I am wanted."

You would be hard-pressed to find a more hated figure in Los Angeles sports history than Georgia Frontiere.

One thing the world must acknowledge: The Rams are now owned by the world's greatest sports Mogul. We'll see if he can return us to old form again.

I have to tell you, this news has had a strangely tranquilizing effect on me. I feel my heart strangely warmed, as John Wesley once did... I feel as if the Babylonian captivity has come to an end. Why do I feel that way? Well, let me tell you about it.

The subject of the first ever episode of PBS Frontline was the seamy, lurid and nasty side of sports. They spent a large block of time dealing with the very strange death of Carroll Rosenbloom. This is a fact not a theory. Check out the documentary.

Carrol was a guy who kept uncomfortably close ties with gambling men in Las Vegas. So close were these connections that he actually hooked up with their ex-wives. That would include Georgia. You see, Georgia was a Showgirl who had been married to a few managers of Las Vegas enterprises during the course of the 1960s and 1970s. You know what that means.

On April 2, 1979, Carrol decided to take a little swim in the Atlantic Ocean, off his private beach in Florida. There, he mysteriously encountered heart problems and drowned. PBS Frontline showed videotape interviews with mobsters who claimed Rosenbloom had been dragged under water by the legs and held down until he drowned. Steve Hartman of L.A. Sports talk fame, frequently claimed he had seen photos skin divers swimming away from location moments after Rosenbloom died. There were many gruesome autopsy photos taken of Carroll. Some of those photos alleged show electrical burn marks on one of his ankles.

Shortly thereafter, Georgia had Carroll's body cremated (something you never do to a Jew), she inherited the team, fired step-son Steve Rosenbloom (who was doing an absolutely fantastic job) and moved the team to Anaheim.

We all believe Georgia had Carroll hit by some of her ex-husband(s)'s associates, not to put to fine a point on it. Steve Rosenbloom always believed the same thing. Still does, according to what I hear.

In any case, the spectre of Carroll Rosenbloom's death/murder has hung over the team for a very long time. Whilst I doubt he would have objected to son Chip running the team, I hope he can rest in peace now that clean hands own the Rams.

Sam Bradford's Natal Chart

Prolog

According to many reports, Georgia Frontiere was a big believer in astrology. According to often re-circulated stories she had her astrology consultant cast natal charts on potential draft picks, and compare them to her chart for Synastry measurements.

Synastry is the pseudo-science that explains how two individuals will relate to each other based on their natal charts. The objective is to come up with a compatibility index, or a romance forecast. Georgia once blew all of the Rams' Eric Dickerson picks by using the Synastry method.

Well... perhaps Synastry works. Perhaps these guys were perfectly compatible with Georgia. They just didn't have minerals for life in the NFL. Maybe Georgia didn't either. Perhaps they were all well-matched in this regard.

In the spirit of Georgia Frontiere, I decided to roll up Sam Bradford's Natal Chart and have look-see at what it says. As we all know, Sam was born on November 8th, 1987 [Jesus Christ! I was 21 years old! I am quite literally old enough to be his papa!] in Oklahoma City Oklahoma.

I do not have an exact birth time, or hospital location. This is typical. It is the standard convention to substitute High-Noon for the birth time. In this way, you have equal error possibilities both up and down. Without a birth time, we cannot compute his houses. We also do not have an accurate take on his Ascendant Sign, or North Node. The moon position can also change. Other than that, everything else should be spot-on.

At least to the extent that any of this stuff is spot-on.

The Scope: Courtesy of Alabe.com

Name: Sam Bradford

November 8 1987

12:00 PM Time Zone is CST

Oklahoma City, OK

Rising Sign is in 21 Degrees Capricorn

You are practical and reserved but very ambitious. An achiever and a hard worker, you respect success. Older looking and very serious as a youth, things lighten up and you relax more as you mature. You have a serious view of the world as being a difficult place to be in. Very envious of those who seem to have an easier life than you have, relaxation and play do not come easily. It is important that you had abundant parental support as a child so that you do not feel lonely and isolated as an adult. Generally, you have a good, earthy sense of humor that can carry you through when times really do get tough. You are purposeful, self-willed, industrious, realistic and responsible.

Sun is in 15 Degrees Scorpio.

Intense and complex by nature, you have extremely strong emotional reactions to most situations. Feelings are often very difficult for you to verbalize. Therefore you have a tendency to be very quiet - - to brood and think a lot. You seldom get overtly angry, but, when you do, you are furious and unforgiving. When you make an emotional commitment, it is total -- you are not attracted to superficial or casual relationships. If you are challenged, you take it as a personal affront and tend to lash out and fight back in a vengeful manner. You love mysteries and the supernatural. A good detective, you love getting to the roots of problems and you enjoy finding out what makes other people tick. You are known to be very willful, very powerful and quite tenacious!

Moon is in 22 Degrees Gemini.

Restless in the extreme, you are easily bored because of your short attention span. Your emotions change rapidly and you love to talk about your feelings. Generally, you have good judgment -- your intellect controls your emotions and you do not overreact emotionally to things. A good jack-of-all-trades, you have many- sided interests and enjoy reasoning things through. With your mental agility and need for physical mobility, you are attracted to traveling and learning about other peoples and cultures. You have vivid powers of emotional self-expression - - you can be a nonstop talker. You love to share your ideas with anyone who will listen.

Mercury is in 27 Degrees Libra.

You are known for not jumping to conclusions about things. You tend to weigh all possible choices very carefully before making a decision. When in the slightest amount of doubt, you will compromise rather than ruffle any feathers. You are a true raconteur of culture and taste -- your ideas and opinions are neat, elegant and refined. A born diplomat, you dislike discord so much that you will go out of your way to make others feel comfortable and at ease. You speak softly and pleasantly.

Venus is in 05 Degrees Sagittarius.

You are very aware of the need to maintain a high sense of morality in a relationship. Your loyalty and interest will remain constant in any relationship (either friendly, personal or business) that is based on fairness, honesty and justice. But you will become greatly hurt and disappointed if the other person takes any but the high road with you. Also, you cannot tolerate anyone being overly emotionally possessive of you. You are known for your friendly, outspoken manner.

Mars is in 19 Degrees Libra.

You are very aware of the need to cooperate with others in order to further any effort. You are usually willing to compromise with others, although you can be quite competitive in a friendly way. Very fair- minded and impartial, you have the ability to sense injustice and the desire to take corrective actions to make proper compensations. You see both sides of issues and questions, but you tend to be undecided or wavering when forced to make choices that might make you vulnerable or unpopular.

Jupiter is in 21 Degrees Aries.

The way that you grow and develop is by being an uncompromising individualist. You have a great need to be yourself and to explore your latent talents and abilities. Do not be afraid to let yourself go and develop self-confidence and pride in your accomplishments. But try not to become so self-centered that you ignore the needs of others. Also, you may have to build up your self-discipline in order to focus your energies properly.

Saturn is in 19 Degrees Sagittarius.

Basically quite conservative, you respect traditional authority figures and are very thankful and supportive of the laws and institutions which govern your life. You learn and accept new ideas only after having very thoroughly examined them. Ideals and abstract concepts are important to you only if they can be used in some practical fashion. You are so practical and so orderly that you have natural skills in planning, administrating and organizing.

Uranus is in 24 Degrees Sagittarius.

You, and most of your peers, have the tendency to think that all ideas, customs and traditions from the past are outmoded and irrelevant. You are attracted to radically new ideas, philosophies and religions that will, hopefully, cause sweeping changes throughout the world.

Neptune is in 05 Degrees Capricorn.

You, and your entire generation, will idealize work, practicality and the ability to attain reasonable goals. But, because you will also stress the need to be selfless and giving, you may find it difficult to attain your goals unless you have lowered your expectations on all fronts.

Pluto is in 10 Degrees Scorpio.

For your entire generation, this is a period of intense research and discovery in areas that were heretofore considered mysterious, remote or taboo. The root causes for many complex occurrences will be unearthed due to the intensity and thoroughness of the search.

N. Node is in 01 Degrees Aries.

You're at your most comfortable when involved in group activities outside of your immediate family circle. You delight in getting involved with others in neighborhood civic or political activities, especially if you can be a part of the leadership of the group. Your zeal and overabundant energy bring out your real creativity when you can work toward tangible results -- things that will immediately benefit those around you. You have a real gift for getting the most out of charity drives and community benefits. Take time out between projects though, because you tire out easily and your effectiveness becomes greatly diminished when your energy is depleted. Also, don't even think of trying to get involved at a peripheral level -- you need a total commitment to feel personally fulfilled. Let others bake the cookies and set up the chairs -- you should be the one to tell everyone what to do and when to do it!