ST. LOUIS – Approaching nine NFL seasons without the Rams in St. Louis, tensions between the league and some locals remain palpable.
Michelle Smallmon, a St. Louis-raised ESPN Radio personality, strongly defended her decision to distance herself from the Rams franchise on Friday when a caller challenged her to reconsider her football loyalties on the airwaves.
Smallmon is a co-host for “Unsportsmanlike,” a national weekday morning show for ESPN Radio that also airs on TV channels ESPN2 and ESPNU. As the new NFL season approaches, she’s been vocal about her hopes to support a new football team.
Knowing this, one avid listener had a bone to pick with Smallmon. A man named Gus called into the show questioned why she would drop ties with the Rams franchise.
Gus asked, verbatim: “I just want to know, why is Michelle even switching teams? She’s still got the Rams organization. Yeah, they moved cities. She don’t even live in St. Louis. She’s an Illinois girl. She’s been saying it all ever since she’s been on the show. So why even switch organizations? Not like they took your team and turned them into the Baltimore Ravens like they did the Cleveland Browns. So what’s what’s the beef here?”
Smallmon delivered a passionate response that caught widespread attention on social media platform X, nearly half a million views as of Saturday afternoon.
First, she acknowledged that she is from Belleville, Illinois in the Metro East area of the St. Louis region, justifying her longtime personal attachment to the Rams.
Then, Smallmon kept Gus involved in the conversation, asking him: “Do you understand what Stan Kroenke and the NFL did to my city in the wake of the Rams leaving to go to LA? Are you aware of how this went down at all?”
Smallmon escalates the conversation by comparing her relationship with the Rams and owner Stan Kroenke to having a toxic relationship with an ex-spouse, describing that still supporting the Rams would be like staying with someone who publicly humiliated and harmed their former partner.
“If that person cheated on you and went all over social media saying, ‘Gus is the worst. Gus is disgusting. No one will ever be able to have a successful marriage with Gus and no one should even try. I’m so glad that I got away from Gus and you should be pumped for me that I got away, too.’ And then your ex goes on and marries somebody else, are you going to get back together with that person?”
Smallmon said she was also upset about local jobs loss and adverse economic impacts in the St. Louis region from Rams departure.
“You don’t want to go back to the ex that did you dirty. You got to turn the page,” said Smallmon.
In her quest to support a new team, Smallmon expressed her desire to be part of a new NFL community because she misses the camaraderie and passion of being a sports fan.
“To be a part of something that’s bigger than yourself, and be a part of a community that cares about something, I miss caring about sports in the way that I used to. So I want to join another franchise.”
Smallmon’s candid reflection, at the very least, brought national attention to deep resentments that still exist for some St. Louis sports fans with the Rams franchise and NFL.
