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NFL turns down Rams on uniforms
By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/07/2008
Plans to have the Rams wear "throwback" uniforms in their 2008 regular-season opener were scuttled when the NFL turned down the club's request.
Multiple sources told the Post-Dispatch that the Rams wanted to wear their 1999 uniforms — the season the team defeated Tennessee in the Super Bowl. New owner Chip Rosenbloom confirmed that those were the plans last week at the NFL owners meetings in Florida.
"There were a number of things that we couldn't get past," Rosenbloom said.
For a variety of reasons, the league requires more than a year of lead time before a team can wear throwbacks. So believe it or not, the Rams' request was made too late under NFL guidelines.
Although disappointed, Rosenbloom said he is not upset with the NFL.
"The league has been really good about a number of things with us," he said. "I think that it was really asking a lot. But we have some other plans for the future."
Rosenbloom still wants the Rams to wear their throwbacks at some point in the future. But he'd like some feedback from Rams fans.
"It'll be interesting to know from the St. Louis fans what uniforms they like best," Rosenbloom said.
There are a variety of options for a franchise that began in 1937, and has called Cleveland, Los Angeles and St. Louis home. The Rams, in fact, are in the unique position of having won NFL championships in all three cities — Cleveland in 1945, Los Angeles in 1951 and St. Louis in '99. Why not wear throwback uniforms over the next several seasons from all three championship clubs? And of course, the white-and-navy blue look from the Fearsome Foursome days of the 1960s and early '70s is another potential look.
Rosenbloom wanted to have the Rams wear the throwbacks for the '08 opener as part of a variety of ways planned to commemorate his late mother, Georgia Frontiere, this coming season. Frontiere died of breast cancer Jan. 18, leaving Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, as majority owners of the club.
Rosenbloom said the team is finalizing plans to have players wear a commemorative patch on their uniform sleeves this season. Discussion continues on ideas for commemorative services for Frontiere in St. Louis — either at the start of the preseason or start of the regular season. The services, Rosenbloom pointed out, will be celebrations of his mother's life, rather than traditional funeral services.
"We're trying to firm everything up on what we're doing," he said. "There are going to be some really good things to memorialize her. But one of the things we're being careful of is asking too much of people. To come to too many things. Or to give too much.
"We're trying to do it the right way. It's more difficult than I anticipated. The things that we're trying to do to make it special ... takes time."
Rosenbloom plans to make his first visit to St. Louis as club owner later this month and will stay through the Rams' draft.
"I'm really interested to see what we're going to be doing," he said.
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