Sports Illustrated is counting down all 101 (apparently both 0 and 00 count) jersey numbers and naming the best players to wear that numeral of all time. In the list the Rams snagged five spots, with the majority coming from the LA days. The old skool Cardinals snuck one in there too later on down the list.

#28 Marshall Faulk

A key cog of the Rams’ “Greatest Show On Turf,” Faulk played his last game in 2005, ending a career in which he produced 19,154 combined yards from scrimmage. His 6,875 yards receiving are the most by any running back. #

#29 Eric Dickerson

An electrifying open-field runner, Dickerson ran for an NFL-record 2,105 yards in 1984 and gained 1,800 or more rushing yards in three of his first four seasons. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999. #

#74 Merlin Olsen

Before he became an actor and commercial pitchman, Olsen terrorized quarterbacks during his 15-year-career with the Rams and played in 14 straight Pro Bowls. #

#75 Deacon Jones (beating out Mean Joe Greene!)

A sack-master before it became cool, the 6-foot-5 defensive end teamed with tackle Merlin Olsen to give the Rams a “Fearsome” left side of the defensive line. #

#85 Jack Youngblood

Hall of Fame defensive end was a seven-time Pro Bowl pick in 14 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams (1971-84). Tough and durable, he played 201 straight games — and all of Super Bowl XIV despite a broken left leg. #

Dan Dierdorf, of the defunct St. Louis Cardinals, was deemed the best #72

The Hall of Fame right tackle anchored the Cardinals line over his 13 years with the club. He played in six Pro Bowls and following his retirement, he became an announcer with ABC and CBS Sports. #

No Kurt Warner didn’t get #13, that went to Dan Marino. Kurt did get “runner up” status though.

One other name you might recognize: Your mom won #69 because she was big enough to be a linebacker and was a total slut. Snap!

“Hey, we know we suck so bad it hurts, but what if we let you rename our mascot! That help at all? …ok, well we’ve already printed the flyers so we’re doing this thing anyway.” – The St. Louis Rams

After 1,700 submissions the final round of voting has begun with your choices being (hold on to your hat now): Archie, Rammer, Rampage, Ramsey, and Rush.

Somewhere in St. Louis, Fredbird is shaking his head in disgust. You have until Friday the 23rd to go to StLouisRams.com had pick the shiniest turd in that list.

Here, because we know you want to know, 5 better suggestions for the Rams mascot:

5. “Sacked”

4. “Sheep with horns”

3. “Sexual Harassment Doll” – Point out on the doll where the other team touched you.

2. “The Safest Uniform for Sam Bradford”

1. “Power Bottom”

The Mizzou wide-reciever that had a career year in 2009 but was left undrafted last April has found another way to entertain us all that doesn’t involve touchdowns: Insane ramblings on his Twitter stream.

This is way better than watching a Mizzou game. Here are a few examples:

Hmm. Begging for line-sitters is something that NFL players can pull off maybe…

See this is brilliant. Danario has found a way to make the label “Twitter Follower” more demeaning by incorporating the term “bitches” in there.

That’s what she said.

Apparently this was Mr. Alexander’s first trip to South County.

Sounds about right at this point.

The Rams traded for Isaac Bruce today. Don’t get excited, he won’t be playing.

The St. Louis Rams traded with the San Francisco 49ers to acquire Bruce, the team announced today.  The Rams and Bruce will hold a news conference on Wednesday, June 9, at 12:30 p.m. in the Russell Training Center auditorium.

In his accomplished 16-year career, Bruce ranks fifth in the NFL with 1,024 career receptions, one of only six players in NFL history to have 1,000 career receptions.  He ranks second in the NFL with 15,208 career receiving yards.  His 91 career receiving touchdowns rank ninth in the league.

Ok. Cool and glad to see he cared enough to come back, even for a second, but the thing is…right now Bruce is like at least our 3rd best wide receiver. So…and we’re just throwing this out there…maybe don’t retire Isaac? Thoughts? I mean seriously.

Just something to think about. You won’t even be the oldest guy on the team…I hear the Rams are talking to Dan Dierdorf and this guy too who we’re pretty sure is dead.

via St. Louis Rams

Last Wednesday our honorable Mayor Francis Slay, took to his blog and proceeded to, out of nowhere, dick-punch former Rams owner-in-waiting Shahid Khan by backing the “familiar face” of Stan Kroenke.

Two potential new majority owners have emerged. One is a familiar billionaire face [Stan Kroenke] with generally unknown, but demonstrably successful, views. The other [Shahid Khan] is an unfamiliar very, very rich face with widely known, but generally untested, views. I’d pick the tested billionaire owner.

Not sure this does any good what so ever there your Mayor-ness. What is the point of this? You trying to back the probable winner to make sure you get some games in the owners box?

Post Dispatch sports scribe Bernie Miklasz also seemed a little weirded out by the Mayor sudden take on local sports as he quipped in his Saturday “Bernie’s Bits” column:

Perhaps the mayor can give us his views on the pitcher batting eighth in his next blog.

…which apparently the Mayor reads, as later on Saturday, Mayor Slay posted:

Position Players Hitting 9th

Tony La Russa is the only manager in the National League to bat a position player ninth regularly. Other managers, Ned Yost and John Russell come to mind, have done so occasionally.

La Russa’s unorthodox practice drives some sportswriters crazy, but it makes sense to me. With Big Bats hitting third in the lineup (McGwire in 1998, Pujols in 2008, 2009), putting an additional player more likely than a light-hitting pitcher to get on base ahead of the Big Bats seems like a prudent idea. La Russa, who keeps charts about just about everything, is certain of it.

Free Bill Siedhoff.

Well played Mr. Mayor…still have no idea why you would think it was a good idea to back a potential owner and throw more drama in an already crazy situation though.

Oh that’s right, you’re the mayor of St. Louis. You like the crazy.

Sick of those stupid Miller and Coors commericals that plays constantly during the NFL season, mercilessly beating the hell out of a once semi-humorus premise.

Well you have one more season to get through.

Anheuser-Busch’s flagship brand Bud Light will be the official beer sponsor of the National Football League, edging out rival MillerCoors, which said Tuesday it wouldn’t renew its deal.

Anheuser-Busch’s six-year deal, which begins in the 2011 season, is worth more than $1 billion, a person close to the league said Tuesday.

So much for that whole “Inbev will cut the Bud Light marketing money” thing huh?  Also interesting is that with a six year deal starting in 2011, there’s a chance St. Louis might be the home of the NFL beer sponsor, but have no local NFL team to watch.

The good news though is those damn Coors Light commercials with the coach videos are gone after this year as I don’t think you would get access to those videos without being the official sponsor of the NFL. It’s exciting to look forward to…horsies playing football?  …dammit. Bud Light commercials suck now too.

All of this reminds me of a story…I’m an awesome chick magnet that beats up guys that pop their collar and still have their frat letters on their car more than 2 years after graduating from college.

I didn’t say it was a long story.

Maybe you thought the Rams should have picked a wide receiver earlier in the draft to give St. Louis’ newest leading man, Sam Bradford a target for  his first year in the bigs, but ESPN’s Sports Science is here to tell you that the Rams did just fine getting a wide receiver in the fourth round with Mardy Gilyard from the University of Cincinnati.

In this clip from earlier this year, the white guy with that same hair cut every TV host not named Regis has walks you through why Mardy (yup, with a d) is no slouch.

We love this video and really are more excited about Gilyard that we were oh about 5 minutes ago. The guy has some interesting skills and seems like a pretty cool guy at that.

Also, ever since we lost the great Brian Barton, we need a new skinny black guy with dreads around here. If you disagree, you’re a racist. There we said it.

“I can’t wait to get to St. Louis.” – Sam Bradford on ESPN

With the first pick of the NFL amateur draft, the Rams took the quarterback from Oklahoma Sam Bradford. This is the new face of the Rams franchise.

“You have no idea how excited I am just to have the opportunity to come to St. Louis and play my NFL career there,” Bradford said in a conference call. “It’s just a blessing and I can’t wait to get there and get to work.”

St. Louis was 1-15 last season and scored a league-low 175 points. The Rams cut incumbent Marc Bulger in the offseason. The 2008 winner of the Heisman Trophy appeared in only three games in 2009, his junior year, before undergoing right shoulder surgery. His recovery has been so complete that the Rams didn’t hesitate to make him the future face of the franchise.

No surprises here, in the last few weeks, despite their best efforts to hide it, it was pretty clear the Rams were spending their time drawing hearts on their notebook and filling the pages with Mrs. Bradford over and over again. Bernie Miklasz quoted Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo as saying

“We’re fired up. This is a special guy. He’s got all the things you look for in a quarterback.”

A couple of questions remain…

1. He knows we were 1-15 not 15-1 last year right? I mean awesome to see you so excited, but know we are a little more like the fat girl with headgear rather than Kate Beckinsale as far as hot football dates go.

2. When is he going to sign on the dotted line and make this official? All reports so far say not any time soon. We don’t get the diva vibe off of Bradford, but his agent is going to starting at $50 Million and going up from there, so it sure as hell won’t be next week.

3. Is he going to start. The Rams are telling Bernie (via Twitter) that “Bradford is under no pressure to start (immediately).” but when your next best option is A.J. Feeley, that shiny new quarterback in the garage is going to look awfully tempting.

4. Doesn’t Suzy Kolber look awkward in that dress? She’s cute. But girl next store that plays baseball with you cute, not dressed up cute. We’re betting she’s still got something tomboyish going on under there. Maybe he has her pubes in pig tails.

via ESPN

[Editor's Note: Do you know Sam? Do you know someone who knows Sam? Anything?! We'd love to hear from you: tips@punchingkitty.com]

It’s happening. All the signs are there. After the Rams signed only AJ Feeley, and the Redskins trading for McNabb, and yesterday’s news that Marc Bulger has been released, its clear the Rams are going to draft Sam Bradford in a few weeks with the #1 pick in the NFL draft.

Here are a few things to get you started in getting to know St. Louis’ soon-to-be poster child of rich athletes.

For one, he’s not much for Facebook. This appears to be his fan page, but after a few football promo pics, there isn’t much here. He makes up for his lack of posting with an acute ability to make friends though as he is up to nearly 30,000!

Does Bradford have a girlfriend? We aren’t sure, but we did find out his last known girlfriend was apparently one Kelsey Kurtz (here’s her private Facebook page). She’s cute. Bring her to St. Louis Sammy!

We also know Sam Bradford likes Coldplay as we dug up a story on a Sooner message board of someone running in to him at a Coldplay concert. Not sure how we feel about that.

To wrap up our intro to Sam Bradford, we have a video of an interview by the University of Oklahoma TV station (we use the term loosely):

We ran across this the other day and just had to share…