Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Rams hope to offer respite for Ferguson

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Like many people in the St. Louis area right now, the St. Louis Rams have a helpless feeling when it comes to what's going on in nearby Ferguson.

"Well, you know, there’s a bunch of things going on down in Ferguson," guard Rodger Saffold said. "Those are our neighbors and our neighboring community, so our hearts go out to them and our hearts go out to basically everybody who has been affected by it. So we’re just trying to play a game and try to help people watch football and have a good time."

One such opportunity is coming this Sunday when the Rams are scheduled to host the Oakland Raiders at the Edward Jones Dome. Despite rumors to the contrary, the game is expected to go on as scheduled though the Rams have plans to beef up security in and around the stadium.

That's a direct result of the fallout from the grand jury decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown. That decision has led to unrest in the Ferguson area with buildings burning and businesses being looted. It's all happening less than 15 minutes from Rams Park, where the Rams meet and practice every day.

And although the Rams have been going about their business on the football field, they are quick to point out the events happening in Ferguson should not be ignored.

"You keep a close eye on it," defensive end Chris Long said. "I’d keep a close eye on that situation no matter where it was in America but it happens to be in our backyard. Ferguson is a neighboring community to where a lot of us live and we care a great deal about our community and this country. It’s a big time right now. You just hope something good comes of it. You pray for that community and hope they are able to heal in Ferguson and pray for them and pray everybody can protest peacefully and safely and come out alive."

Yes, what's happening right now goes well beyond the boundaries of a football field. The Rams are well aware of that, as evidenced by the efforts they have made to reach out and help when possible.

Over the summer, the Rams hosted the three Ferguson-area high schools at their training facility. McCluer, McCluer North and McCluer-South Berkeley spent a week practicing at Rams Park and even popped in to a Rams practice to watch for a day during training camp. It was the most spirited practice of the summer as the high school players provided more enthusiasm than the run-of-the-mill training camp workout would normally have.

Long calls that practice the highlight of his camp and noted that he continued following some of the players on social media afterward to keep tabs on how the teams were doing. The Rams also provided free tickets to the teams for a preseason game.

Those were small, simple gestures that went a long way for those kids in a stressful time. Now that those stressful times have resurfaced, the Rams are trying to find more ways to help. They provided more than 2,000 Thanksgiving meals to local families in need earlier this week.

But they also know with the civil unrest still stirring, the best thing they can do is try to become a positive distraction every Sunday.

"I can only go back to when I was a kid and thinking about watching football -- it was a little bit of an escape," center Scott Wells said. "Because when I’m watching the game I wasn’t really thinking about anything else. For that three hours, three and a half hours, I’d like to think it provides a little bit of an escape and hopefully three hours of entertainment."

Earlier this week, Rams coach Jeff Fisher spoke to the team about what's happening in Ferguson, making it clear that staying attuned to what's going on is not only natural but important. He also emphasized that when the time is right, the Rams will do what they can to help out in the community again.

In the meantime, all the Rams can do is try to provide an entertaining diversion.

"The issues at play are 100 times bigger than sports," Long said. "We’re just athletes. If sports can provide a little relief and allow people to kind of come together as a community and watch a game and forget about the tough things that are going on, then I hope that can help out. It would be a big assumption to think that sports can fix everything. But hopefully for three hours it can just kind of help out a little bit."

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