All those Packers fans in St. Louis? 'It's a joke,' Rams say

[packers11]

All those Packers fans in St. Louis? 'It's a joke,' Rams say

The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — It took the Green Bay Packers to sell out a St. Louis Rams game.


Much of the capacity crowd at the Edward Jones Dome today clearly rooted for the visiting team. Cheeseheads were everywhere and perhaps half of the stadium was clad in Packers’ green and gold, helping the visitors feel right at home in a 33-14 victory.

“It’s a joke,” Rams running back Steven Jackson said. “The whole first level is Green Bay Packers’ fans. It’s a joke. We were at Lambeau Field.”

It likely felt that way to the Rams, who have had three games blacked out on local television because they did not sell out. St. Louis is 1-6 at home and 3-11 overall with two games to go, challenging a 4-12 record in 1998 for the worst season since the team moved to the Midwest in 1995.

The Rams play their home finale on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They anticipate another divided house.

“We know how loyal the Green Bay fans are and I’m sure on Thursday there are going to be a ton of Pittsburgh fans,” quarterback Marc Bulger said. “You know, this year we just haven’t been playing well at home.”

Bulger also recognizes the Packers are having a banner season.

“Their fans are excited,” Bulger said. “You can hear them in the pre-game, all the chatter. It looks like an exciting environment to play for that team, it reminds you of college a lot.”

The Rams lost their first five home games before defeating Atlanta on Dec. 2 and have one more chance to avoid their worst home record since the move. They were 2-6 at home in 1997 and 1998.

The last one-win season at home came in Los Angeles in 1982.

“You’re a little surprised to see more people in your house for the opposing team than for your team but you know it doesn’t make you real happy or real excited,” linebacker Will Witherspoon said. “But you’ve just got to say, ’Hey, I’m in a game.’ It just makes it a road game for us.”

The only time the entire crowd cheered together came after Packers quarterback Brett Favre set the NFL record for career yards passing in the fourth quarter on a 7-yard slant to Donald Driver. The game was stopped briefly and the crowd applauded Favre’s latest record.

Favre’s proximity to the record, needing 184 yards, and the Packers’ storied history easily trumped the home-field advantage.

“Our fans are the best in the world,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “It gives our players a great lift.

“To see the defensive line raising their arms in the air on a big third down, it speaks volumes about the kind of fans we have.”

The situation left some Rams players muttering.

“I mean, you kind of get to the point where some teams are going to travel well,” Witherspoon said. “You just have to say they brought more people to the house than we did.”

[packers11]

I heard multiple times on T.V. the packer fans were chanting

"GO PACK GO"

It was pretty amusing...

[hurleyfan]

I heard multiple times on T.V. the packer fans were chanting

"GO PACK GO"

It was pretty amusing...

It was great to hear the GO PACK GO chant!!

Packer fans travel very well

[GBRulz]

I remember this so well when we clinched the division on Tampa's turf about 10 year ago. To say Trent Dilfer whined about it would be a big understatement.

[packinpatland]

Aren't we proud to be PACKER FANS!!!!!!

[hurleyfan]

I remember this so well when we clinched the division on Tampa's turf about 10 year ago. To say Trent Dilfer whined about it would be a big understatement.

Didn't the Vikes owner (Red somebody) vow never to allow THAT many Packer fans take over his home field in the past?

[packinpatland]

This situation would NEVER happen at Lambeau.

Having said that.........at the PR game, I had really good seats, and was surrounded by Bear fans.............alot of season ticket holders sold out.

[hurleyfan]

This situation would NEVER happen at Lambeau.

Having said that.........at the PR game, I had really good seats, and was surrounded by Bear fans.............alot of season ticket holders sold out.

That's a big surprise!

[packinpatland]

It's a good time to repost this.

THIS is what sat behind me at the PR game. :evil:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s229/packinpatland/BearFan.jpg

[GBRulz]

This situation would NEVER happen at Lambeau.

Having said that.........at the PR game, I had really good seats, and was surrounded by Bear fans.............alot of season ticket holders sold out.

I have to admit, of all the fans around me at that game, the Packer fans were the more annoying ones.

Walking out of the stadium however, totally different situation. I was crabby enough because I didn't have a voice!

[oregonpackfan]

This situation would NEVER happen at Lambeau.

Having said that.........at the PR game, I had really good seats, and was surrounded by Bear fans.............alot of season ticket holders sold out.

I have to admit, of all the fans around me at that game, the Packer fans were the more annoying ones.

Walking out of the stadium however, totally different situation. I was crabby enough because I didn't have a voice!

I too was shocked and disappointed at seeing the large number of Bears fans at that game.

BTW, GBRulz, I hope I was not one of those "annoying" Packer fans. :oops: I did shower once before I left Oregon for Lambeau. :)

[HarveyWallbangers]

You're always going to get Packers fan in Chicago and Bears fans in Green Bay for that rivalry. Pittsburgh and Chicago have had the most fans at Lambeau of the games I've gone to. Usually around 5,000-7,000 Bears fans, and maybe a tad more Steelers fans when I went (of course, GB was 4-12 and the Steelers won the Super Bowl that year). It's nothing like how Green Bay travels, but you get a lot of Bears-Packers friends/family that trade tickets with each other.

[The Leaper]

Having said that.........at the PR game, I had really good seats, and was surrounded by Bear fans.............alot of season ticket holders sold out.

That's OK. Soldier Field will be Lambeau South this weekend.

[packinpatland]

Having said that.........at the PR game, I had really good seats, and was surrounded by Bear fans.............alot of season ticket holders sold out.

That's OK. Soldier Field will be Lambeau South this weekend.

Love the optimism!!!!!! :cow: :cow: :cow: !!!!!!!

[Scott Campbell]

Don't the Milwaukee season ticket holders sell more of their tix? That's a bad situation.

[The Leaper]

Don't the Milwaukee season ticket holders sell more of their tix? That's a bad situation.

I would think the Green Bay crowd with 6 tickets a year are far more likely to sell a couple to pay for their other tickets...or more likely to sell their entire stock for a big profit.

If you had 2 tickets, would you honestly sell either of them? What if you had 6? You probably would be more likely to sell a couple of them.

[Joemailman]

Don't the Milwaukee season ticket holders sell more of their tix? That's a bad situation.

I'm a Milwaukee season ticket holder who also got tickets to the Bear game. There were far more Bear fans at Lambeau than there were Viking fans for the second Milwaukee game.

[CaliforniaCheez]

Back to the good news.


Rams fans Pack it in by selling seats
By Bryan Burwell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/17/2007

All day long, the Edward Jones Dome was full of so much thunder, so much enthusiastic energy. But down on the field that not so long ago hosted the dazzling Greatest Show on Turf, everything was a distorted mess.

Wrong sounds. Wrong colors.

"LET'S GO PACK!!! LET'S GO PACK!!"

Cheeseheads, not Rams horns, were the headgear du jour. Every corner of the place was full of Green Bay Packer green and gold. Signs, painted faces, and all manner of Packers gear, and every bit of full-throated emotional energy had spread throughout the Dome, drowning what faint signs of Rams life remained.

At the end of another Sunday disaster, the hometown Rams trotted off the field like it was another uncomfortable road game, while the Packers left the premises bathed in deafening cheers.

"It's a joke, as simple as that," Rams running back Steven Jackson said, the words spitting out of his mouth in disgusted staccato bursts.

No fewer than 30,000 or so Packer loyalists had invaded the building. And with at least half the house a Packer mob, like rude house guests they rearranged all the furniture, kicked their feet up on the couches and pretty much made themselves right at home.

When someone asked Jackson if at times it felt like he was in Lambeau Field, the disgruntled tailback barely let them finish the question. "We were at Lambeau Field," he snapped. "The whole first level was Green Bay Packer fans. And then we're allowing them to put up signs."

The placards were mostly hand-written love letters to their beloved Pack. But there was one sign that had nothing to do with the Pack, but it cut right to the brutal and unavoidable heart of the matter.

"SILENCE OF THE RAMS."

This is a clear and decisive statement of common fans' dissatisfaction. There was a time when dissatisfaction would have been done with passive hostility: no-shows.

But this is so much worse. No-shows are so 1980s. In the 21st century, the Rams fan issues a stern public decree of displeasure against NFL owners who force PSLs and bad football business plans down their throats with a more practical business solution. Sunday morning, the streets of downtown St. Louis were filled with eager Packer fans, their pockets stuffed with cash, and a large number of street-corner entrepreneurs with their pockets stuffed with ducats they acquired from legions of unhappy season ticket-holders.

************************************************** ***********

Larry McCaren said the during pregame warm ups, when fans don't have to sit in assigned seats but can go down to the rail, was when it was most telling. All the fans at the rail were Packer fans.

I noticed the fans proud of where they were from. Cheeseheads with "Las Vegas" on them. Signs that read "Idaho Packer fans". The Packer Christmas stockings hung from the rail were a nice touch.

[Jerry Tagge]

What's really going to be fun is to see all the green and gold at the spaceship on Sunday. I can't wait to hear all the Bears clowns whine about Packers fans taking over their pathetic spaceship.

That is if there's any Bears clowns left. They've all pretty much jumped off the bandwagon like it's the deck of the Titanic. Pathetic losers one and all.

[The Leaper]

Yep...Soldier Field will be green and gold on Sunday.

[OS PA]

Kind of sad that the day the Packers come to St. Louis is the day I move away from St. Louis. I was on a train heading northing while the Packers were winning!

[MJZiggy]

You couldn't have taken the redeye?

[HarveyWallbangers]

Don't the Milwaukee season ticket holders sell more of their tix? That's a bad situation.

I would think the Green Bay crowd with 6 tickets a year are far more likely to sell a couple to pay for their other tickets...or more likely to sell their entire stock for a big profit.

If you had 2 tickets, would you honestly sell either of them? What if you had 6? You probably would be more likely to sell a couple of them.

I think your logic if fine, but I don't think it's true. Yeah, they only have 2 tickets, but they have to drive a couple of hours (during the rush hour before and after the game) to get to the game, and that seems to get more people to give up tickets--especially in wintery weather. If you had 6 tickets, would the one or two you gave up be for the Bears or Vikings game?

[LL2]

I've been to the the Rams stadium to watch a game a couple years ago. The stadium itself is not great, but they have an area close to the stadium and the Arch that is a cool area to hang out before the game. It's a few streets that has an old town feel with cobble stone streets. All kinds of vendors selling burgers, brats, and beer. I had fun when I went, but it still does not compare to Lambeau Field.