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http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_ca01e148-f305-5cc4-a15f-10a778ee5ef9.html
BOCA RATON, Fla. • Jeff Fisher’s stuff is all packed at Rams Park in Earth City. He packed it himself. He’s done some preliminary house-hunting for a place in the Los Angeles area, but jokingly told a reporter: “I’m not gonna give you any addresses.”
Moving time is here for the Rams, and Fisher and the rest of the Rams’ organization are packing for three destinations.
“So you pack for Oxnard, and then stuff will go in storage for camp, and then stuff will go in storage to come back for Thousand Oaks,” Fisher said Wednesday at the NFC coaches breakfast.
Starting in April, the Rams will spend about nine weeks in Oxnard, northwest of LA, where they will conduct their offseason program and the June practices known as OTAs. Then comes training camp at the University of California-Irvine, south of LA in Orange County, at the end of July.
In September, the team sets up shop for the regular season in the Thousand Oaks area, which is north of LA, but not as far north as Oxnard.
The final days at Rams Park have been strange and surreal, including the irony of bringing in free agents and college draft prospects for visits in Earth City — the team’s daily home for 20 of its 21 years in St. Louis.
“We had three of our ‘top 30’ (draft) visits — these were non-combine players, and so we had ’em in St. Louis,” Fisher said. “So the approach was: ‘You’re experiencing history here.’
“You walk down the halls and there’s nothing left on the walls. Boxes are packed and things are stacked in my office. Coaches’ boards are down and there’s no video to watch.
“So yeah, if they had any questions as to whether we were moving or not, those were answered.”
The Rams’ time in St. Louis is over. Football operations, the last group in the building at Earth City, shuts down this week. The weight room closed Wednesday afternoon.
“Had my last workout at Rams Park,” offensive lineman Rodger Saffold said Wednesday via his certified Twitter account. “Definitely left with a heavy heart.”
Fisher said the visiting players last week might have been told: “This used to be the locker room. You can see the (practice) fields.” But no tour of the place was necessary, as would normally be the case for a potential draft pick or free agent.
Up until last week, a half-dozen or so offensive linemen on the team’s current roster were working out informally at Rams Park.
“Their laundry bags, those mesh bags, were just laying on the floor in the locker room,” Fisher said. “The only way they knew it was there was because their number and their shoes were next to it. There wasn’t even a table left in there to put ’em on.”
While tractor-trailers full of stuff have been steadily shipping everything to Southern California since early March, people actually will be moving at different times all next week. Then, either late on Monday, April 4, or early on Tuesday, April 5, the Rams will hold draft meetings in Oxnard — their first official function in California as the Los Angeles Rams.
Even though there is much work to be done for Fisher and his staff in terms of setting up shop in LA, not to mention preparing for the draft, there is a sense of relief now that the relocation uncertainty is behind them.
“There was a period there, especially toward the end, and then once the season was over, where the uncertainty is potentially crippling,” Fisher said. “Not knowing is harder than even anticipating something coming down the pike.
“Once we all found out, then you roll your sleeves up and make it happen. That’s what we did.”
After working in St. Louis, where you can get almost anywhere in 25 minutes or less, Fisher has stressed to his players that logistics will be much different in Los Angeles. Players need to live close to work — or else they’ll never make it to work on time.
“We’ve told ’em there’s traffic patterns,” Fisher said. “We’ve explained to them the travel distance from a lot of different areas.
“They have a general idea where we’re gonna set up our temporary (facility). ... So you’re gonna want to live somewhere in the vicinity of that temporary facility for three years.”
That’s how long it’s expected to take the Rams to build a permanent practice facility in the LA area.
“And our hope is that the permanent (facility) is also built in the same area so we don’t have to move twice,” Fisher said. “You can’t live in Orange County and train in Thousand Oaks.
“You just can’t. Not with the hours we put in. We have meeting start times that fluctuate during the regular season; meeting end times that fluctuate. So they need to be on time.
“We also had some former players come in and talk about that. Guys that were familiar with LA. So they have been given direction, and they appreciate it.”
BOCA RATON, Fla. • Jeff Fisher’s stuff is all packed at Rams Park in Earth City. He packed it himself. He’s done some preliminary house-hunting for a place in the Los Angeles area, but jokingly told a reporter: “I’m not gonna give you any addresses.”
Moving time is here for the Rams, and Fisher and the rest of the Rams’ organization are packing for three destinations.
“So you pack for Oxnard, and then stuff will go in storage for camp, and then stuff will go in storage to come back for Thousand Oaks,” Fisher said Wednesday at the NFC coaches breakfast.
Starting in April, the Rams will spend about nine weeks in Oxnard, northwest of LA, where they will conduct their offseason program and the June practices known as OTAs. Then comes training camp at the University of California-Irvine, south of LA in Orange County, at the end of July.
In September, the team sets up shop for the regular season in the Thousand Oaks area, which is north of LA, but not as far north as Oxnard.
The final days at Rams Park have been strange and surreal, including the irony of bringing in free agents and college draft prospects for visits in Earth City — the team’s daily home for 20 of its 21 years in St. Louis.
“We had three of our ‘top 30’ (draft) visits — these were non-combine players, and so we had ’em in St. Louis,” Fisher said. “So the approach was: ‘You’re experiencing history here.’
“You walk down the halls and there’s nothing left on the walls. Boxes are packed and things are stacked in my office. Coaches’ boards are down and there’s no video to watch.
“So yeah, if they had any questions as to whether we were moving or not, those were answered.”
The Rams’ time in St. Louis is over. Football operations, the last group in the building at Earth City, shuts down this week. The weight room closed Wednesday afternoon.
“Had my last workout at Rams Park,” offensive lineman Rodger Saffold said Wednesday via his certified Twitter account. “Definitely left with a heavy heart.”
Fisher said the visiting players last week might have been told: “This used to be the locker room. You can see the (practice) fields.” But no tour of the place was necessary, as would normally be the case for a potential draft pick or free agent.
Up until last week, a half-dozen or so offensive linemen on the team’s current roster were working out informally at Rams Park.
“Their laundry bags, those mesh bags, were just laying on the floor in the locker room,” Fisher said. “The only way they knew it was there was because their number and their shoes were next to it. There wasn’t even a table left in there to put ’em on.”
While tractor-trailers full of stuff have been steadily shipping everything to Southern California since early March, people actually will be moving at different times all next week. Then, either late on Monday, April 4, or early on Tuesday, April 5, the Rams will hold draft meetings in Oxnard — their first official function in California as the Los Angeles Rams.
Even though there is much work to be done for Fisher and his staff in terms of setting up shop in LA, not to mention preparing for the draft, there is a sense of relief now that the relocation uncertainty is behind them.
“There was a period there, especially toward the end, and then once the season was over, where the uncertainty is potentially crippling,” Fisher said. “Not knowing is harder than even anticipating something coming down the pike.
“Once we all found out, then you roll your sleeves up and make it happen. That’s what we did.”
After working in St. Louis, where you can get almost anywhere in 25 minutes or less, Fisher has stressed to his players that logistics will be much different in Los Angeles. Players need to live close to work — or else they’ll never make it to work on time.
“We’ve told ’em there’s traffic patterns,” Fisher said. “We’ve explained to them the travel distance from a lot of different areas.
“They have a general idea where we’re gonna set up our temporary (facility). ... So you’re gonna want to live somewhere in the vicinity of that temporary facility for three years.”
That’s how long it’s expected to take the Rams to build a permanent practice facility in the LA area.
“And our hope is that the permanent (facility) is also built in the same area so we don’t have to move twice,” Fisher said. “You can’t live in Orange County and train in Thousand Oaks.
“You just can’t. Not with the hours we put in. We have meeting start times that fluctuate during the regular season; meeting end times that fluctuate. So they need to be on time.
“We also had some former players come in and talk about that. Guys that were familiar with LA. So they have been given direction, and they appreciate it.”
