Hello from London. I don't think anyone's lying. Alexander has had _ what? _ five surgeries on the same knee. The knee is not going to get any better over the long haul, and that's why he went undrafted. It's not like there was a stampede of teams trying to sign Danario when he got released at the end of the preseason. It has taken nearly half the season before he's getting another chance.

I haven't noticed a trend league-wide. After losing for the first time all season in their "all blues" against Miami the week before, the superstitious head coach decided to try something else.

It has been surprising. Ultimately, I doubt if even Boudreau could have saved Linehan in 2008. Linehan's problems in terms of leadership and credibility ran pretty deep with the players by then.

As I mentioned in Tuesday's Post-Dispatch, Scott Wells isn't yet ready to practice with the team. And once he starts practicing he has to practice for at least two weeks before he can play. So he's a few weeks away. I think Saffold is a little closer to returning, and perhaps could be ready to return shortly after the bye week. It'll be a while before Chris Williams learns the system and is ready to play. I'm curious to see if the combo of Barksdale at LT and Shelley Smith at LG starts again this week against New England. I suspect they will.

I wonder how many empty seats there would be in any NFL city if your team had lost 65 of its previous 80 games over the past five years. That's an average record of 3-13. No playoff berths since 2004 and no winning record since 2003. Seeing lots of Packers fans in the stands just about anywhere in the league is the norm. They follow their team everywhere. Now the question will be, as the team continues to improve _ which I think it will _ do some of those empty seats start getting filled by local fans.

Marriott burger and fries, w/French onion soup.

Yes, this is my 18th season covering the Rams and the first time I have flown on the team charter, with the Post-Dispatch reimbursing the team for the flight of course.

I think the Rams fans that show up are very into their team.

John, I think that's part of the dispute. I think the CVC is claiming that some language in the voluminous lease documents call for the Rams to pay part of the costs. The Rams insist that that was clearly never part of the arrangement.

Hard to tell. It almost seemed as if Jeff Fisher put all the rookies in at the end of the Green Bay game, Isaiah Pead included. Quick would have helped his cause, I think, had he been able to stay in bounds.

Sorry, I cannot tell you that.

Interesting. I'm sure the Rams coaches are looking at all that as we speak. (Or as we type, I should say.) While the Rams players went to the London park to play football with the kids _ Tuesday is their day off, and I think Fisher wanted the players out and about to help shake of jet lag _ the coaches went straight into meeting rooms at the team hotel to continue game-planning.

I'm not going to mention the hotel _ actually it's more like a country estate about 35 minutes' drive from Heathrow Airport. Rolling hills, quaint cottages, cattle grazing, the whole bit. Plus a golf course, on site! But at the end fo the week, the Rams are switching to a downtown London hotel (again, I'm not going to name it), I guess to have a shorter ride Sunday to Wembley Stadium and a quicker ride to the airport Monday morning. They can't leave until Monday morning because of air traffic regulations at Heathrow. Although I flew out with the team and will fly back with them, I'm not staying at the same hotel.

Not many sacks from the DT position lately. But I would think Fred Robbins would've done so in 2010 when he played very effectively (as opposed to last season).

As we sit here now they're in pretty good shape, but the signings of Long and Laurinaitis to long-terms contracts put a considerable dent in that nest egg. But of course, you can always manipulate the roster to free up more room. For example, if RB Steven Jackson doesn't return that frees up $7 million.