ST. LOUIS — I've spent the last 24 hours or so since the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl trying to remind myself that it really doesn't matter that much.
In the grand scheme of life, Stan Kroenke and his merry band of deserters don't deserve to take up a significant amount of time in my mind.
But sports make you feel emotions for weird things. And the Rams' exodus from St. Louis amplified those feelings. Because it wasn't just about sports anymore. It was about right and wrong.
We know we're in the right, but none of that matters. Nobody really wants to listen to us anymore. The billionaire won. That shouldn't surprise anyone. This is America after all. The billionaire tends to win quite often if you've been paying attention.
Stan Kroenke got his team in LA. He got his outrageous stadium. He got the bump in franchise value. He got to host a Super Bowl and NFC Championship in the same year. And then he got his championship. A pretty good lesson in the "life isn't fair" department, I'd say.
But wait, Corey, didn't we get that nice $790 million check?
I'm not here to rain on the lawsuit. It was ultimately successful in its goal (for the lawyers as well as the city and county). And it went lightyears beyond what was thought possible when it was first launched. But seeing what happened on Sunday made that check seem pretty darn insignificant.
Going forward with a trial wouldn't have gotten St. Louis a team. But man if it wouldn't have at least been fun.
Instead, we're left with whatever remains of that $790 million after the lawyers take their cut, and that remaining amount will be haggled about by everybody and their cousin with any kind of political influence in the region.
The NFL isn't coming back here. We're not going to get another moment like we got thanks to the Greatest Show on Turf. That's it. Hope you remember it.
We got cheated out of seeing Aaron Donald become one of the greatest defensive players in the history of football. He would have been one of our town's most legendary athletes of all time.
And can you imagine if a St. Louis Rams team had gone all-in on a Super Bowl like these LA Rams did? We would've had a heyday.
But that's the way it goes.
We lost and Stan Kroenke won. It's time to move on.
Let's focus on demanding the money we did get from the Rams' shady move to LA be used in a positive manner. There's still going to be enough there after the lawyers take their cut to create an enduring impact on something in St. Louis.
I don't know what that something is yet, but we need to make it count.
From now on I'm going to try my best to refrain from making easy Kroenke jokes on Twitter and finding ways to clown the Rams' LA "fan base" going forward. It's all done and over with, in my mind.
The bad guys won. And like in life, sometimes that happens.
Now just make sure Kroenke doesn't try to pawn the Lombardi Trophy for a quick buck.
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