Silent no more, Rams owner Stan Kroenke lately has been talking a blue streak, Jack. On one specific topic, the things Kroenke is saying may be a little off.
Kroenke, who perhaps has been spending too much time with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, recently tried to claim that Kroenke helped former Rams coach Dick Vermeil choose between quarterbacks Will Furrer and Kurt Warner in 1998.
“The kid from Northern Iowa can see,” said Kroenke, who at a the time a minority owner with the Rams. “He’s got vision. It’s like a really good point guard. Some guys have it, some guys don’t. Whether it’s Arena Football that gave it to him or whatever, but he can see.”
Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch can see that Kroenke is perhaps full of something other than champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
Although Vermeil told Thomas that Vermeil doesn’t recall the conversation, former Rams G.M. Charley Armey was unequivocal.
“The decision to keep Kurt Warner was 100 percent Dick Vermeil,” Armey told Thomas. “Everybody was lobbying for other people, including the next year when Trent Green got hurt. Some guys wanted Jeff Hostetler and some guys wanted Jeff George. Dick Vermeil stuck to his guns.”
Vermeil added that Kroenke was “almost timid” regarding the Rams in those days, perhaps in deference to the late Georgia Frontiere, who became majority owner after her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, died in 1979.
Thomas also points out that Kroenke had limited opportunities to evaluate Warner in 1998. He missed the offseason program, because he was playing in NFL Europe. Also, Warner threw a total of four passes in the preseason.
“So apparently either Kroenke is a quick study in terms of what little he may have seen on the practice field,” Thomas writes. “Or he was grinding out practice tape or NFL Europe film in his spare time.”
Regardless of whether Kroenke was secretly engaged with the team at the time, he’s now clearly engaged -- perhaps far more than he ever has been. Which could change everything for the employees in charge of the football operations. If, as it appears, the one-time absentee landlord will be doing more than periodically counting the money, a higher degree of accountability could be descending on the team that has returned to Los Angeles.