This Free Agency period has done something none of us has wanted to see: It has changed our Rams forever. We have lived through the days of saying goodbye to Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, and many other names from our most recent glory days.
But now, the last ties to the Rams of yesterday are being cut away faster than they should be. Ike, we don't know if he's gone for good or if he'll be back with us. Money cashed it in today.
Now there are three - Pace, Little, and Holt.
Pace has begun the inevitable age-related slowing of reflexes. Sadly, so have Little and Holt.
It wasn't too many games ago that Reverend Ike and Marshall Faulk ran down the field with a rookie named
Torry Holt. Seriously, Torry was a little kid back in '99. He came onto the field, and instantly became as big a threat as Bruce or Marshall. Then I remember he's been wearing horns for nine years. NINE YEARS! Pretty soon, that little kid will be in his tenth season in the NFL.
I'm not sure which sucks the most - getting older, or all the changes we must live through. Changes like the uniforms, going from blue and yellow, to blue and white, blue and yellow, and now the royal colors of dark blue and regal gold.
Every day we live brings us one day closer to our own deaths. Those we love, honor and respect pass away. Life continues, life goes on. The grief and pain we must endure is our burden to carry. We each have unique memories of those who have touched us. Sometimes those memories may seem rather strange to others - but to the one who holds those memories, they are priceless.
Being a Rams fan has not been easy for us. When our team just plain sucked, we endured ridicule. When we were on top, we were called bandwagon fans. We have never really been respected by other fans. This, too has been something we have had to endure.
Now we have to face saying goodbye to at least one, maybe two, of the men who helped make the Rams the Greatest Show on Turf. It's kind of like watching a high school acquaintance waste away while undergoing chemothereapy. You see their hair fall out, watch them vomit from the treatments, see them lose weight, all because if things go the way the doctors hope, the drugs will kill the cancer and the person may be able to live the rest of their natural life. You wish you could do something to help them, to make it easier on them...and on yourself.
Right now, we can only bear the burden, wait, hope, and if so inclined, pray. As fans, we know what we want our team to be. We overlook the things that are obvious, just because we want things to be the way they were. We don't like change when our experience tells us that change is what tore down the GSOT. Yet, when we look at the condition of the Rams over the last 3 years, we are forced to admit something must change. We just don't want it to be at the expense of those we admire and respect.
If we learn to accept the things we cannot change, we still have to bear the burden, but somehow, the load is easier to carry. Somehow, those memories that are unique to us carry us through.
And knowing that we are all dealing with this as a family (after all, isn't that what a clan is?) somehow tells me that we will get through this and things will get better.