Putting any rumors of a move to Los Angeles aside for at least a season, the St. Louis Rams have agreed to convert its Edwards Jones Dome lease from a 30-year term to a year-to-year lease. The Rams can change the lease due to a clause in their original lease agreement, allowing the Rams out of the lease after 20 years if the Edward Jones Dome was not considered one of the top 25 percent of stadiums in the NFL.
Kitty Ratcliff, president of the St. Louis CVS released a statemement Tuesday afternoon.
“While the lease will now run year-to-year, all other lease terms remain the same,” Ratliff said. “We look forward to working with Rams’ management in preparation for the 2015 football season in the Edward Jones Dome.”
The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission could have avoided breaking the lease if they had agreed to renovations on the stadium that would have put it in that top 25 percentile. They refused.
There city of St. Louis unveiled its new stadium proposal for the Rams on Jan. 9, an open-air 64,000-seat multi-use stadium on St. Louis’s north riverfront. Rams owner Stan Kroenke is building his own stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Neither will be ready before 2018 so the Rams are, presumably, in no hurry to make a move.
Washington Redskins bring Fewell into the fold
Former New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell will remain in the NFC East after agreeing to become secondary coach for the Redskins. Fewell steps in for Raheem Morris, who joined the Atlanta Falcons staff as defensive backs coach Monday.
This is Fewell’s fourth stint as a secondary coach. He previously held the position with the St. Louis Rams, the Jacksoville Jaguars and the Chicago Bears. Fewell was the Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator from 2006-09 and was interim coach after then Bills head coach Dick Jauron was fired 10 games into the season.
Fewell was the defensive coordinator for the Giants from 2010-14 and was replaced by former St. Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo last week.
Rob Chudzinski will not leave Colts
Though his name loomed large as teams like the St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers search for offensive coordinators, Indianapolis Colts assistant Rob Chudzinski shut all speculation down by taking a new job with the Colts. Chudzinski will now be the Colts associate head coach.
The Colts were desperate to keep Chudzinski and have denied teams permission to speak with him all through the offseason. Chuddzinksi was the head coach for the Cleveland Browns for a single season in 2013. Chudzinksi has been an offensive coordinator in the NFL twice, first with the Browns from 2007-08 and then the Carolina Panthers from 2011-12.
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Jets hire three more assistant coaches
No team has been busier this week adding coaches than the New Jork Jets. Tuesday new head coach Todd Bowles added three more assistant coaches to his staff. Kevin Patullo moves to the Jets from the Tennessee Titans’ staff to coach quarterbacks. Steve Marshall will coach the offensive line and was a former assistant line coach for the Green Bay Packers.
Former Arizona Cardinals running back Marcel Shipp will get his first NFL coaching experience coaching running backs.
Former NFL Players file appeal in dismissed painkiller suit
Lawyers representing 1,300 former NFL players filed an appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday, to reverse the dismissal of their painkiller lawsuit by a federal judge.
The dismissed lawsuit alleges that the NFL teams disregarded players’ health by illegally dispensing painkillers to injured players. The dismissal came from Judge William Alsup of the U.S. Northern District of California court after Alsup determined that the collective barganing agreement between the NFLPA and the NFL would need to resolve the claims outside of the court system.
The appeal will be heard by a three-judge panel on May 7. The original lawsuit has already spurred an investigation from the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, even causing spot-checks last fall on five NFL teams. Regardless of the appeal’s success, the investigation could get some teams, and especially their doctors, in some serious legal trouble by violating the Controlled Substances Act of 2009.
