The St. Louis Rams Chronicles: Some Possible Explanations for the Evolving Fortunes of the Franchise in 2012

As fans of the St. Louis Rams and just being sports fans in general, we have an unexplainable faith in luck, superstition, curses and the ‘home field advantage’. These are a few of the many possible explanations for the current state of football for this team. I, for one, have this undying belief that Karma is the rule of the day in sports as well as in life. This was center stage this past Sunday when Cortland Finnegan (action) was able to draw a penalty on Josh Morgan (reaction) that greatly reduced any chance for the Washington Redskins had in tying the game. Thus, a positive action (at least for the Rams) produced a negative reaction (shame on you Josh Morgan) that was the difference in the game.

Dec 12, 2011; Seattle, WA, USA; St. Louis Rams kicker Josh Brown (3) during the game against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. Seattle defeated St. Louis 30-13. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-US PRESSWIRE

When Jeff Fisher got the Head Coaching job here, he came in and basically started from scratch with player personnel, a number of players were released or traded. We’ll be looking at one released player that I think is one of the many possible explanations in this change in this new era of Ram football. Drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2003, Josh Brown made a name for himself as a strong legged accuate kicker. Many of us should remember those two game winning kicks for the Seahawks in 2007 that pretty much prevented the Rams from making the playoffs and propeled the Seahawks to play in the Superbowl that year.

So, the following season the Rams figured that to keep from being in the same situation against Seattle again, they signed Brown to what was the highest free-agent contract for a kicker at that time. That turned out great for Brown, but not so much for the Rams. He never turned out to be the difference maker the Front office envisioned him to be. His great moment as a Ram had to be that touchdown pass to Daniel Fells that was the game winner for the only Rams win in 2009. While his statistics as a St. Louis Ram weren’t horrible, kicking only one game winning field goal in four seasons will make his name forgettable.

Good luck to Mr. Brown as he is now a unemployed kicker after being not able to beat out Nick Folk for the New York Jets. Let the continued good Karma grow.