Free Republic

Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long said he won’t visit President Trump’s White House if his team defeats the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII on Sunday. “No, I’m not going to the White House,” Long said in an interview on Barstool Sports’ podcast Pardon My Take. “Are you kidding me?” Long, who was originally drafted by the St. Louis Rams and is playing in his 10th NFL season, played for the Patriots last season. He was one of several players who skipped the team’s White House visit after New England defeated the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI....

The Philadelphia Eagles have been informed that quarterback Sam Bradford wants to be traded and will not be showing up for their offseason program any longer, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The people of St. Louis weren’t really surprised when, on January 12, the National Football League announced its decision to let E. Stanley Kroenke, the owner of the St. Louis Rams, move his team to Los Angeles. Kroenke had long signaled his intentions, and L.A.’s media market beckoned as the nation’s second largest. Moving the team meant more revenue for the league, and therefore more money in owners’ pockets. And that, as serious football fans know, is the point. The NFL isn’t a charity. It’s a legally sanctioned cartel that strictly limits the number of franchises in order to maximize...

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has proposed legislation that would force sports teams who relocate to a new city to pay back public subsidies received from their former state or town. This legislation is likely influenced by the St. Louis Rams’ recent decision to move to Los Angeles (Sen. McCaskill hails from Missouri). This is a solid idea, especially given what the economic research says about stadium subsidies and given the inability of cities to protect taxpayers from being left in the lurch on these stadium deals. The Rams were lured from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995 by a...

On West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, an overgrown tree obscures a whitewashed, two-story building sandwiched between a radio station and a studio lot. Inside, it's a time warp. The battered carpet is blue, and the rippled wallpaper is bubbling, peeling off. Behind glass is a showcase of dull trophies and yellowed photos from another era. Everything is labeled "Los Angeles Rams." That team, of course, left LA, its home for nearly half a century, for St. Louis after the 1994 season. But on most days since, this nondescript office has remained open, staffed by two people: John Shaw, the...

It's over. The NFL owners voted tonight to allow Stan Kroenke to move the Rams to Los Angeles, ending the team‘s 21-year run in St. Louis. The owners also agreed to let the San Diego Chargers explore a move to the same facility, in suburban Inglewood, which is south of L.A. The Rams will be gone in time for next year's season.

The Chargers made it official Monday night. The AFC West franchise wants out of San Diego, its home since 1961. The Chargers, nearly seven months after breaking off negotiations with San Diego city and county officials, formally submitted relocation documents with the NFL on Monday, the first day of the league’s window for franchises to apply to move. The Rams and Raiders also applied for relocation Monday night, setting up a three-way race for no more than two spots in the Los Angeles-Orange County market that will likely be decided by a vote of the league’s owners next week in...

Don't be surprised if NFL moving trucks show up in Oakland and San Diego next year. According to Texans owner Bob McNair, sending those two teams to Los Angeles is slowly starting to turn into the NFL's most likely relocation scenario. All 32 NFL owners are set to meet in Houston on Jan. 12-13 with one big goal: Figure out who's moving to L.A. To make the move to Los Angeles, a team needs to get approval from 24 of the league's 32 owners, and thanks to a last ditch effort by the city of St. Louis, McNair doesn't see...

The St. Louis Rams have lost four straight games after a 4-3 start, the latest being a desultory 31-7 loss in Cincinnati on Sunday. Just don't try to tell coach Jeff Fisher that his team isn't trying. "Anyone implies that it's an effort issue, they can kiss my ass," Fisher said. "There's no effort problems on this team. That's what happens when teams lose four in a row is people say it's effort. Come to practice, watch this team play and ask any other opponent or opposing coach. It's not an effort issue right now. "It's execution. It's 70 percent...

The San Diego Chargers will file for relocation to Los Angeles when the NFL opens the application window in January, Mark Fabiani told The Mighty 1090 AM radio show. “At this point yes, because there's no sign that the other team or teams are not going to file,” said Fabiani, who serves as the Chargers’ special counsel. “Everyone assumes all three teams will file, and in that case we can't afford to lose our market in Los Angeles and Orange County.”

A now-retired Super Bowl-winning NFL running back went on a Twitter tirade on Saturday after openly gay 2014 draft pick Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on television. Derrick Ward, 33, who was a member of the New York Giants Super Bowl XLII-winning team, didn't hide his disdain for ESPN's decision to air Sam's smooch with boyfriend Vito Cammisano after learning he would become a St. Louis Ram. 'Man U got little kids lookin at the draft,' Ward complained. 'I can't believe ESPN even allowed that to happen.'

Until we have some actual progress involving an NFL team moving to Los Angeles, maybe it's best to stop the breathless speculation about which teams will move there. There won't be a team moving to Los Angeles in 2015. ESPN.com's Adam Schefter said commissioner Roger Goodell told the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams – the three hottest candidates to move to L.A. if that ever happened – that there will be no team in Los Angeles next season.

FULL TITLE: No other team wants to pick up openly gay NFL draft pick Michael Sam after he's cut from the St. Louis Rams Michael Sam was not picked up by any other team Sunday after the NFL's first openly gay draft pick was cut by the St. Louis Rams. Sam's dreams of becoming the first gay NFL player have now been placed on hold. Sam is now free to sign with any NFL practice team. Scroll down for video

DETROIT -- Lions running back Reggie Bush, who has been outspoken about the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, continued his outspoken nature Sunday when he wore a shirt reading "I Can't Breathe" during pregame warm-ups Sunday. Bush wrote the message -- in black ink on his blue shirt -- signifying the last words of Eric Garner, the New York man who died while being placed in a chokehold as he was being arrested. Bush wore the shirt a day after Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose wore an "I Can't Breathe" T-shirt in pregame warm-ups prior to his team's game Saturday night...

The Rams shut out the 'Skins 24-0 today, but St. Louis head coach Jeff Fisher punked Washington before the game even started. Remember when Washington traded up in the 2012 draft to get Robert Griffin III? Oh, Fisher remembers.

Day Deux of Joe Scarborough's campaign against public figures making the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture to falsely suggest that Michael Brown was doing the same during his confrontation with Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. As reported here, yesterday the Morning Joe host took to task the St. Louis Rams players who made the gesture, and the liberal media that has abetted their implicit allegation. Today, while continuing his righteous rant against the Rams, Scarborough also castigated the three congressmen who took to the floor of the House yesterday to make the gesture. No fewer than five times, Scarborough called...

I guess life would be less complicated if we just left sports to be about the games. I get it that a lot of people who watched Sunday’s NFL game between the St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders were angered that Rams players Jared Cook, Kenny Britt, Stedman Bailey, Chris Givens and Tavon Austin made a visual statement about a polarizing social issue. During the introduction of the St. Louis offense, the five players stopped near the tunnel and raised their arms in the universal sign of “I surrender.” It was a statement about the recent grand jury decision not...

Five St. Louis Rams football players came on to the field for the pre-game introductions with their hands raised in the familiar "hands up, don't shoot" pose of protestors demonstrating the decision of the Ferguson grand jury in the Michael Brown shooting case. The political statement has been condemned by the St. Louis Polcie Officers Association, who expressed their displeasure with the Rams organization and demanded the players be sanctioned. The statement deserves to be published in its entirety: From KDSK: "Five members of the Rams entered the field today exhibiting the "hands-up-don't-shoot" pose that has been adopted by protestors...

As Seton Motley, the former MRCer now head of Limited Government said in bringing Joe Scarborough's comments to our attention: "credit when it's due." Because the Morning Joe host had the guts this today to speak truth to MSM power, including people at his own network, over the liberal media's cowardly, misleading coverage of Ferguson. Scarborough tied the media's misinformation to the decision of five members of the St. Louis Rams to take the field last night in a "hands-up, don't shoot" gesture. Said Scarborough: "they might as well have come out with a flying saucer attached to all of...

A few days after Saints tight end Benjamin Watson wrote a moving post about Ferguson and all that's happened there since the shooting death of Michael Brown, a few Rams players gave their own tribute Sunday.