Aug 20, 2011; St. Louis, MO, USA; A general view as the St. Louis Rams take the field before the game against the Tennessee Titans at the Edward Jones Dome. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

I haven’t talked much about the back and forth between the CVC and the Rams regarding upgrading the Edward Jones Dome recently because the details submitted by the team to the CVC have been under wraps. That is, at least, until Wednesday night. Fox 2 news in St. Louis is reporting that the biggest feature of the Rams’ counter-proposal is that they want to tear out the current roof on the dome and replace it with a retractable roof. We will find out all of the details of the proposal on Monday, but the Rams didn’t include any cost projections in the proposal so we don’t know what this would cost.

I think a retractable roof is a great idea. I’ve been saying for years that the football experience in St. Louis would be far better if we could open up the roof and let some of the elements in. I’m not claiming to know what something like this would cost, but it seems impossible to me that this could actually be a possibility. There is no way the CVC is going to accept this proposal, which means the two sides will go to arbitration on June 15. I guess what I’m saying is, this idea is good in theory, but this thing is far from over and this proposal doesn’t look like it got us any closer.

We are going to find out the rest of the details next week, so there’s no use jumping to conclusions or anything just yet. At least we know something, which is more than we have been able to say for the last several days. We are going to hear plenty more about this situation in the coming weeks and months, so buckle up. It’s going to be a long ride.

In injury news, Illini Mike is still the only player who didn’t practice today, and all signs point to him being unavailable for Sunday. The Rams haven’t officially ruled him out, but it’s safe to say he isn’t going to be available. Eugene Sims was limited today with his oblique, but it sounds like he should be available on Sunday unless he has a setback in the next few days. James Hall was back on the field in full today while dealing with his back injury, so he should be fine against the Eagles. Philadelphia is almost completely healthy, as Vince Young was the only player to miss practice on Thursday as he deals with a knee injury,

For those of you who won’t be able to make it to the Dome on Saturday for the Rams first preseason game of the season, you will be able to watch locally on Fox 2. It was announced today that the game will be televised live locally which is obviously way better than a complete blackout or tape delay.

On the injury front, Al Harris was limited to conditioning drills on Thursday due to a knee injury, and his status for Saturday’s game is in question. James Laurinaitis will likely miss the game with his pec injury, and Michael Hoomanawanui is still dealing with concussion symptoms. Also, Fendi Onobun had a little setback with the groin injury today, but it doesn’t sound overly serious at this point. Spags also said that the starting offense, including Sam Bradford, will open Saturday and likely see about 12 plays or so.