alz wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

Neil Lomax.  Wow, there's a name from the St. Louis sports past.  Used to love watching that guy sling it to Roy Green.

Careful, or I'll drop a Roger Wehrli reference on your head.

Score another 3 hits for Wikipedia.

You live near St. Louis and you had to look up Roger Wehrli?!?
It's a good thing Pierre Laclede had a landing named after him.

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

Careful, or I'll drop a Roger Wehrli reference on your head.

No need.  In the game against Oklahoma, when Gahn McGaffie returned the opening kickoff for a score, it was the first time a Missouri kick returner had returned the opening kickoff for a score since Roger Wehrli in 1967.

Et tu, Fors? Geez-us, people. One of the two best defensive backs in the history of St. Louis football and the only context in which he's remembered on this board is in relation to a college game two weeks ago?

No, sorry.  I thought you were going to make a random Roger Wehrli reference.  My point was that he was in the newspaper as recently as last week, albeit in relation to this play.  I'm very familiar with Wehrli.  Watched him play as a kid and was very happy for him when he finally made it to Canton.

I assume the other defensive back you're talking about was Larry Wilson?

Last edited by forsberg_us (11/02/2010 1:46 pm)

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I thought you were going to make a random Roger Wehrli reference."

As if I were going to run up and down the street repeatedly yelling "Roger Wehrli!!!" at the top of my lungs? Nope. I save that behavior for Steve Pisarciawitz ... Pissarcawits ... Pisarckewicks ... Jim Hart. And the neighbors enjoy the hell out of it!

You often talk about the fair weather Patriot fans and asking them to name the coach before Belichek.  Try asking any football fan to name 5 of the St. Louis Cardinals first round draft picks from around 1976 until they left St. Louis.

It's almost like asking a movie buff to name 5 of the extras who crossed the Red Sea with Charton Heston.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I thought you were going to make a random Roger Wehrli reference."

As if I were going to run up and down the street repeatedly yelling "Roger Wehrli!!!" at the top of my lungs? Nope. I save that behavior for Steve Pisarciawitz ... Pissarcawits ... Pisarckewicks ... Jim Hart. And the neighbors enjoy the hell out of it!

You often talk about the fair weather Patriot fans and asking them to name the coach before Belichek.  Try asking any football fan to name 5 of the St. Louis Cardinals first round draft picks from around 1976 until they left St. Louis.

It's almost like asking a movie buff to name 5 of the extras who crossed the Red Sea with Charton Heston.

I always thought that rationale about St. Louis not supporting football "because it's a baseball town" was hogwash. St. Louis' problem with the football Cardinals was St. Louis isn't a Bill Bidwell town.
It would have been interesting to find out what the team would have been named if Orthwein had followed through on his intention to move the Patriots. "St. Louis Patriots" really doesn't really have the same meaning. It's not an oxymoron like "Utah Jazz," or "Memphis Grizzlies," but nevertheless something of a misnomer.

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I thought you were going to make a random Roger Wehrli reference."

As if I were going to run up and down the street repeatedly yelling "Roger Wehrli!!!" at the top of my lungs? Nope. I save that behavior for Steve Pisarciawitz ... Pissarcawits ... Pisarckewicks ... Jim Hart. And the neighbors enjoy the hell out of it!

You often talk about the fair weather Patriot fans and asking them to name the coach before Belichek.  Try asking any football fan to name 5 of the St. Louis Cardinals first round draft picks from around 1976 until they left St. Louis.

It's almost like asking a movie buff to name 5 of the extras who crossed the Red Sea with Charton Heston.

I always thought that rationale about St. Louis not supporting football "because it's a baseball town" was hogwash. St. Louis' problem with the football Cardinals was St. Louis isn't a Bill Bidwell town.
It would have been interesting to find out what the team would have been named if Orthwein had followed through on his intention to move the Patriots. "St. Louis Patriots" really doesn't really have the same meaning. It's not an oxymoron like "Utah Jazz," or "Memphis Grizzlies," but nevertheless something of a misnomer.

I was just finishing high school around the time the Cardinals left, but my recollection was that the baseball Cardinals were riding a huge wave of recent success and the football Cardinals had become the laughing stock of the NFL thanks in part to drafts that included notable first round picks of Steve Pisarkiewicz (QB- 4 career NFL starts), Kelly Stouffer (QB- 16 career starts, none for the Cardinals), Clyde Duncan (WR- 4 career receptions) and Steve Little (K). 

Little was the most tragic story of all these disasters.  He was the #15 overall pick in the 1998 draft.  For his NFL career, Little made only 13 of 27 field goals and was an astonishingly bad 41 of 51 on extra points.  He also punted, averaging a pitiful 38.5 yards per punt.  After his release in 1980, he got drunk and drove himself into an overpass, rendering himself a quadraplegic.  He died at the age of 43.

Bidwell left for greener (or in the case of Phoenix, sandier) pastures and the promise of a new, football-only stadium that he wasn't going to get from St. Louis.

artie_fufkin wrote:

I always thought that rationale about St. Louis not supporting football "because it's a baseball town" was hogwash. St. Louis' problem with the football Cardinals was St. Louis isn't a Bill Bidwell town.

It wasn't much of a football town until 1999, either. After the newness wore off following the '95 season, football went into the background because of the Cardinals' surge + Mark McGwire in 1997.

I would wager that there is no athlete as popular in a city like Kurt Warner is in St. Louis. The man is deified beyond belief. He could hit Sam Bradford with his car, crowbar Albert Pujols in the knees, piss on Musial's statue, call up Jack Buck's wife and tell her Jack sucked and still be worshipped.

tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

I always thought that rationale about St. Louis not supporting football "because it's a baseball town" was hogwash. St. Louis' problem with the football Cardinals was St. Louis isn't a Bill Bidwell town.

It wasn't much of a football town until 1999, either. After the newness wore off following the '95 season, football went into the background because of the Cardinals' surge + Mark McGwire in 1997.

I would wager that there is no athlete as popular in a city like Kurt Warner is in St. Louis. The man is deified beyond belief. He could hit Sam Bradford with his car, crowbar Albert Pujols in the knees, piss on Musial's statue, call up Jack Buck's wife and tell her Jack sucked and still be worshipped.

Speaking for the rest of the country, Warner's act got pretty tired pretty quickly. The guy-who-went-from-bagging-groceries-to-the-Super-Bowl story was kind of cute, but the Patriots were definitely the people's choice everywhere but St. Louis and Oakland the year they played the Rams in the Super Bowl.
I never liked him that much because every time I heard him interviewed, he managed to work a reference to his religion into at least one answer. But that was back when I paid attention to what professional athletes said.

"missed the playoffs with a 10-4 record in 1976."

I think the Bengals also missed the playoffs with a 10-4 record. TK, that was a year the records were top heavy because of expansion. Tampa was in the AFC West, and Seattle was in the NFC West ... before they moved to the AFC West before they moved to the NFC West.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"missed the playoffs with a 10-4 record in 1976."

I think the Bengals also missed the playoffs with a 10-4 record. TK, that was a year the records were top heavy because of expansion. Tampa was in the AFC West, and Seattle was in the NFC West ... before they moved to the AFC West before they moved to the NFC West.

Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten all about Seattle being in the AFC West.

"it felt to root for a team that could go 80 yards in 70 seconds, so they remember Warner the same way they remember losing their virginity."

An event which also lasted 70 seconds?

tkihshbt wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"missed the playoffs with a 10-4 record in 1976."

I think the Bengals also missed the playoffs with a 10-4 record. TK, that was a year the records were top heavy because of expansion. Tampa was in the AFC West, and Seattle was in the NFC West ... before they moved to the AFC West before they moved to the NFC West.

Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten all about Seattle being in the AFC West.

The NFL did a weird thing with the '76 expansion. The Bucs and the Seahawks didn't play a traditional home-and-away schedule against division opponents. Their first year, they played the 13 other teams in their conference once and each other once, and then swapped conferences and did the same thing the following year. The idea was to balance the schedule so the teams in the respective Western divisions didn't have an advantage when it came to the wild card, of which there was only one at the time.
You'll also notice the oddities in the NFL's geographical categorizations, most notably Tampa in the West. From the time of the merger until relignment when the Texans became the 32nd team, the NFC West had teams in three different time zones, as did the NFC East after the Cardinals moved to Phoenix.
In fairness, other people had trouble reading a map from time to time. MLB apparently thought Atlanta and Cincinnati were in the west, and at one point the NBA thought San Antonio was in the east. And no one got more messed up than the NHL folks who put Philadelphia in a western division with L.A. and Oakland.

forsberg_us wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

"it felt to root for a team that could go 80 yards in 70 seconds, so they remember Warner the same way they remember losing their virginity."

An event which also lasted 70 seconds?

Great stamina.  I was so horny the first time I got close to a naked girl I was lucky I got it out of my pants.

I hope it wasn't your sister.

don.rob11 wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

Great stamina.  I was so horny the first time I got close to a naked girl I was lucky I got it out of my pants.

I hope it wasn't your sister.

Oh my   !

Apparently Don has seen my sister