Football Fans Cheer Rams’ Second Coming to St. Louis

From the Statehouse to corner taverns, football fans in Missouri were ready to embrace the Rams after learning Wednesday the NFL had approved the team’s move to St. Louis.

Gov. Mel Carnahan grinned broadly when handed an Associated Press bulletin about the vote during a speech to the Missouri Press Assn. The newspaper publishers applauded when Carnahan announced the news.

Carnahan called the vote a “tremendous victory for St. Louis, the entire state of Missouri and the football fans in St. Louis who truly deserve a team.”

Some of those fans let the reality of the move sink in over a beer at the Missouri Bar and Grill, only a couple of blocks from the domed stadium being built to house the Rams.

Nicholas Harmon said the franchise will help his coffee cart business.

“It’s good for the whole town,” he said. “It all trickles down to all the businesses.”

Officials with the city and FANS Inc., the group that lured the Rams from Anaheim, were ecstatic.

Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. described 10-month negotiations to bring the Rams to St. Louis as “a roller-coaster ride. There have been a lot of ups and downs like a roller coaster, but in the end we finally prevailed.”

Former Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who heads FANS Inc., had high praise for St. Louis football fans.

“These are the most marvelous and patient fans I know of,” he said.

Bosley said he hasn’t realized the Rams’ move is finally done.

“To be honest with you, I have a feeling I’ll wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and finally realize it’s over,” he said. “It just seems like I’ve been walking around all day with lead shoes on.”