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Significant Investments: 12 Questionable Checks that Stan Kroenke has Written Since Purchasing the St. Louis Rams

By Patrick Karraker

Nov 9, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke on the sidelines prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Rams 31-14. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 9, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke on the sidelines prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Rams 31-14. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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St. Louis Rams Cortland Finnegan
Nov 10, 2013; Indianapolis, IN, USA; St. Louis Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan (31) reacts to a penalty flag being thrown during a game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Cortland Finnegan

After joining the Rams, Jeff Fisher was determined to make a splash as he rebuilt the team’s roster. To do this, he went after one of his best players during his time with the Tennessee Titans, cornerback Cortland Finnegan. Finnegan, who perfectly represented the feistiness–near recklessness–of Fisher’s teams, was 28 years old at the time, and he got the big free agent payday he desired on March 13, 2012, when the Rams gave him a five-year, $50 million-dollar deal.

Finnegan was above-average during his first year with the Rams, returning a 31-yard interception for a touchdown in the season opener and picking off a total of three passes during the course of the season, while also recording 101 total tackles. Finnegan quickly fell off a cliff performance-wise, though, regressing into one of the league’s worst corners by the early part of the 2013 season. After getting lit up by 49ers wide receiver Anquan Boldin in the Rams’ Week 4 loss, Finnegan was sidelined with a thigh injury that some believed to be false, created as a way to clear Finnegan’s head. After missing three games and then returning as the Rams’ nickelback for three weeks, Finnegan was then placed on injured reserve with a previously undisclosed orbital fracture. Finnegan would never play another game for the Rams and was released following the 2013 season.

Though the Rams paid him less than half the money from his five-year deal, Finnegan still got $24 million from the Rams to play in 23 games and start 20. Finnegan’s deal is right up there with the worst mistakes the Rams have made in free agency since coming to St. Louis, and it was the first in a line of bad personnel decisions that the Fisher-Snead administration has made while in charge of the Rams.

Next: 3. Jake Long

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