FanHouse Fakhir Brown

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The 2008 season was an unmitigated disaster for the Rams. They had their star running back hold out, only to be re-signed and get injured -- an injury which lingered far too long. They fired their coach after four embarrassing games, won two straight under his replacement, but then dropped their final 10.

It was hard to find a strength on this team. The offense ranked 27th in the league, while the defense was 28th. Then again, Donnie Jones was one of the best punters in the league. So there's that.

There is a rumor going around that the St. Louis Rams are actively trying to trade WR Torry Holt. If they cannot get him dealt soon, they may just release him.

The tip came from the utmost reliable source: a caller to a talk radio show.

Wednesday morning an anonymous tip came to a local sports-talk station saying the Rams had released cornerback Fakhir Brown. The caller knew what he was talking about. The following morning, the same voice called at about the same time and said Linehan was trying to release or trade wide receiver Torry Holt because the two despise each other.

Normally, you scoff when crazy things like this are heard, but when this dysfunctional situation is analyzed, the realization hits you that anything is possible.

Like that excerpt said, it is crazy to believe that kind of rumor ... but you cannot totally dismiss it. Remember, this comes on the heels of Holt rolling over on his coach about the benching of Marc Bulger. This also comes after Holt made comments during the offseason that he wants to bolt St. Louis to join his brother in Carolina.

It would seem if there was a organizational decision to choose either Holt or head coach Scott Linehan, the Rams would chose Holt. Especially since there is a rumor that Linehan could be fired after their game with the Buffalo Bills today.

St. Louis Rams cornerback Fakhir Brown has won an appeal of a failed drug test and will not be suspended for the 2008 season, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting, via PFT.

Brown was suspended for four games during the 2007 season, and another failed drug test would have led to a yearlong suspension. But Brown was at the team's practice facility Monday and is apparently in the clear for 2008.

Brown is the second player known to have won an appeal of a failed drug test recently, following Travis Henry of the Denver Broncos. Although the NFL has a reputation for heavy-handedness in dealing with player discipline, the Brown and Henry cases show that it's still possible for a player to get a fair hearing in front of the commissioner.

Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.

This week I sat down with Brett Knight of RAMblings, a Most Valuable Network column that covers the St. Louis Rams.

Dan Benton: "For many, the Rams offseason expectations were extremely high. How frustrating has it been to watch your team struggle for the first quarter of the season?"

Brett Knight: "Obviously, with so many pundits picking the Rams as a darkhorse playoff team, it's been difficult to watch the team stumble thus far, with no end in sight. But I don't know what's been harder to deal with: all the forces that have been out of our control or all the blown opportunities. It's one thing to watch your offensive line crumble and your Pro Bowl backfield taken out of games by injury - it's tough, sure, but there's really nothing you can do about it. It's a whole different story, though, to sit through the sloppy play this team has been exhibiting this year: penalties, turnovers, blown coverages, missed tackles, awful play-calling. For all the talk of the talent on this team, it's really been a shock to see such a lack of fundamentals. It's been said that the mark of a good team is how it responds to adversity; with that in mind, I'm not sure how to respond to this team."