Kroenke breaks his silence: Rams would remain in St. Louis

Bernie Miklasz is the finest sports reporter in St. Louis.  He is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and I shudder to think what the sports coverage in the area would be like without him.  He digs deep and is relentless in breaking the big stories that matter to the St. Louis sports fan.  If you have been a reader of Memory Almost Full for a while, you may recall that Miklasz was the first to break the story that the Rams had hired Steve Spagnuolo as their new head coach, despite the fact that no one else thought it was happening and that several other "sources" had already reported that Dallas assistant Jason Garrett had the job.

I mention this because Miklasz has done it again.  At a time when virtually every Rams' fan in St. Louis was in a serious panic over the silence of Stan Kroenke and what that might mean to the future of the Rams in St. Louis, Miklasz was the one who was able to get "Silent" Stan to open up and put our worries to rest.  Trust me when I say this was no easy feat; Kroenke is notorious for remaining in the shadows and staying out of the spotlight.  The fact that he had not mentioned St. Louis at all in his press release announcing that he intended to to become the majority owner of the Rams created high anxiety all over the region and his subsequent silence during the following week had people virtually certain he was plotting a Rams' move to Los Angeles.  With the draft coming Thursday and the Rams owning the 1st pick overall, it was all a huge rain cloud on what should have been a time when Rams' fans were gearing up for a fresh start and a new era.  With the help of Mr. Miklasz, that cloud has been lifted.

The following is an excerpt from Miklasz's column.  Click anywhere on the excerpt to be taken to the full article:

If Stan Kroenke gains NFL approval in his quest to purchase the Rams, he vows to do everything he can to secure the team's long-term future in St. Louis.

In his first interview since announcing that he'd exercised an option to match businessman Shahid Khan's bid for the available 60 percent of the team, Kroenke broke his customary silence in an attempt to reassure Rams fans of his positive intentions.

"I'm going to attempt to do everything that I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis," Kroenke said in a phone interview Tuesday night. "Just as I did everything that I could to bring the team to St. Louis in 1995. I believe my actions speak for themselves."


Kroenke said, "I'll do my damnedest," to secure the Rams' future in St. Louis.

During our interview, Kroenke's passion was striking. Kroenke doesn't speak out often — but in this instance, his words carried weight.