Spags dropped everything to meet with Ron Bartell...

Per Jim Thomas

Quote:

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Cornerback Ron Bartell didn’t want to make a free agency decision without meeting the new head coach in St. Louis. The reception he got at that meeting with Steve Spagnuolo a few weeks ago helped tell him that the Rams would be a fit.

“I came in and they were very busy, but I was impressed with the way he just dropped everything to make time,” Bartell said Wednesday at a press conference to announce his official signing with the Rams. “We just struck up and had a great conversation. Actually right in the middle of the weight room, we spoke for about 15 or 20 minutes. Then, he took me around and introduced me to the rest of the staff. That was big for me.”

That initial rapport with Spagnuolo couldn’t have hurt. Bartell signed a lucrative contract that could max out at $28 million over four years if certain incentives are met. But league sources told the Post-Dispatch that the New Orleans offer was even better.

Some other excerpts from Bartell’s press conference:

* On a growing sense of optimism at Rams Park: “I’m just happy to be here. We’ve struggled a lot in the past but I have a really good feeling that things are about to turn around with the staff that we have and with the management that they’ve brought in and some of the guys that we’re bringing in.”

* On playing for a defensive-oriented head coach: “That made quite a difference, especially a defensive guy with his background. The things that he did in New York, I thought they were pretty spectacular. Especially, when they played the Patriots in the Super Bowl _ a team that everybody thought was invincible _ and they dismantled them. How could you not want to play for a guy like that?”
* On how he plans to spend his newly-earned money: “The only thing I’m going to do is buy my parents a house and get them out of the neighborhood that they’ve staying in (in Detroit). That’s about it.”

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The more I hear about Spags, the more I like him! This guy is ready to take a franchise and get it straight, thank goodness it is ours!

That's really good of him to do a bit of recruiting on Bartell, treating him like any other free agent that they would have brought in. And as Ron said, it made him feel good about playing for Spags and was impressed at how he dropped everything to spend that time with him.