 OLD HACKER'S KFNS INTERVIEW TRANSCRIBED BY WV
EWE (Dec 6) |
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KFNS: Now
we're going to speak to a gentleman who is an often poster in the Herd message board as
they call themselves or you can find it at Rivals.com, it's the Ram's Online Update, the
Ram's message board, the Herd. And Dave there must have been, as I glanced through it,
probably 400-500 posts since the end of yesterday's game by people from around the world.
Not just St. Louis. A lot of these people post during the game as well to get other fan's
interaction on what they thought of a specific play or the way the game was going and all
kinds of information. And joining us from the HERD message board and one of his posts came
right after the game- "There is a tear in my beer. We are the champs. A long time coming. Way too much for me to digest. Go NFCW champs. Go Rams!" ...and that is a gentleman whose moniker is Old Hacker. His real name is Steve M but we'll call him Old Hacker. Good morning Old Hacker. Hack: Good Morning. Call me Hacker. KFNS: How ya doing? Hack: We're doing great. How could you not be doing great! KFNS: I would think that for the passionate Rams fans who are on the Herd message board this an early Xmas present. Hack: Oh its unbelievable. We're just uh... you take a team who was 4 and 12 and turn it around and it looks like we could easily go, you know, 12-4. KFNS: It certainly could. We've got the opportunity to go 14-2 standing in front of the Rams. And one of the things I wanted to ask you, as somebody who has been a frequent poster at Rivals.com and the Ram's message board.what was the sense of most of the fans leading into the season? We had a feeling and some of the people that followed the team had a feeling like 8-8. You know, we always said lets get to 500, lets see what this team can do with the offseason acquisitions. Was there a stronger feeling amongst the Ram fans who post on the Herd message board? Hack: No. I think at the beginning of the season prior to the preseason games 8-8 was sounding really good. Some guys were saying 10-6 but mostly 8-8. Then when we seen Green come out and play the way he played the first 2 preseason games a lot of guys went up. As a matter of fact I think Randy Karraker said 12-4. And you know things were looking pretty good then uh Green went down and all of a sudden the numbers went way down and of course Warner came on and has just been a godsend. KFNS: One of the things we talked about with the lady from the Cardinal's message board is the amazing amount of people throughout the country and I know in looking at certain posts on the Rivals.com Herd Message board for Ram fans, Old Hacker, people all over the world.I mean it certainly doesn't surprise people maybe that many of the folks, or some of the folks out in Los Angeles or in Southern California have kept up to speed with this team and are interactive as part of the message board but the number of fans throughout the United States in places you wouldn't maybe expect them and over the world that post on the message board. Hack: Oh that is correct. We get a RamUK from England and all over the world they post. A lot of LA people. I often wonder, being an old St. Louis football Cardinal fan, that if the internet had been in place and things were as they are today if more St. Louis people would have followed the Cardinals when they went out to Arizona with Billy Boy. But we're happy to have the Rams. KFNS: I was going to ask you as someone who followed the Cardinals closely and now with the Rams do you think that now Rams fans are more passionate.that the St. Louis fans are more passionate now or have been in the first five years of this franchise or do you think they were back when we had that team in Bush Stadium? Hack: Well, when the Cardinals left I'd say most guys were saying good riddance. I didn't feel like a lot of people were really that interested in keeping them anymore. When the Rams first come here things got started out real good and then went down and as you well know, the St. Louis people, I'm talking about the St. Louis people, kinda lost confidence. But as far as us diehards we're watching football and we love the Rams and we've just become great Ram fans. As a matter of fact some guys were Rams fans and lived in St. Louis and when they came to St. Louis it was like a miracle to them. KFNS: Neat. Old Hacker in terms of going back to last year and the overall opinion of the people on the Herd, what was the overall opinion about Dick Vermeil and the decision of the organization to have him come back as head coach. Hack: Well the thing I saw posted most was that if he didn't win coming out of the box this year that he would be gone. Now this was right after the end of the season. Tony Banks was still our quarterback. We had Gandy. And you know Dick, he was down. The biggest thing on the news at this time was the draft. Even if you watch the other boards, there's San Francisco, right now their biggest talk is about the draft next year. So when you start losing you look for something optimistic to look for and that was the draft. KFNS: Want to remind people we're speaking with Old Hacker, a gentleman named Steve M, a resident here in St. Louis but not the only guy who's involved with this Herd message board here at Rivals.com. They've also got a lot of information and different articles and later in the week we're going to be talking about their own publication, the Herd E-Zine, with all sorts of Rams information. But one thing that you do notice, you brought up the team the 49ers and boy it seems like there's a lot of exchanges between the people on the Herd and the people who may post on the 49er message board and this is the year or the Herd. Hack: Absolutely. No love lost between the Southern California people and the 49ers. There is absolutely no love lost and you can throw Oakland in there also. This is as close to me as you can come to being around a pot-bellied stove at an old general store. And you've got people coming in putting their ideas in,and we talk back and forth, we kick it around and nothing is really ever solved but we enjoy doing it. KFNS: Yeah its amazing to see some of the discussions that go on amongst the Rams fans and as the team has become more and more prominent throughout this season, Old Hacker, we have seen a lot more people jump on board. Like I said probably between 400-500 posts alone just from yesterday's completion of the game in win number 10 and the division till this morning. And it goes on, really, 24 hours a day nonstop. So for that Ram fan who wants information or wants to interact with other passionate Rams fans and learn as much as they can, and maybe learn some stuff they don't want to know, its all there for them. Hack: That is correct. And it's a great way to get great information. A lot of time we have information before it's come on the radio or nationally before it's in the paper. And it's great---if you really want information this is where to go.. As far as getting wrong information, you could post wrong information once but after that you probably wouldn't get too much. KFNS: feedback. Hack: Not at all. KFNS: Well we thank you for being with us. Taking a look at the Rivals.com board for the Rams fans and later in the week as we mentioned we'll be talking about the E-Zine and more specifically maybe about the membership of the Herd which I'm sure is growing and very passionate. And uh do you get the chance to interact at football at the games themselves or out and about with the other posters? Have you had that opportunity? Hack: Oh sure. They come into town, especially the LA people. We've got people from not just LA. We got Kentucky and Maine and those people come into town and they'll make contact and you'll meet them and or even our own local guys who are in different sections at the dome you'll meet them at some point in time and it's great to see the face of the guy that you've been talking to, or more less talking to over the year. KFNS: Do you think Atlanta is the cards for January 30th. Hack: I know it is. KFNS: Well Old Hacker we hope you'll be there and if not we know that you'll be on the board posting at Rivals.com, the Herd, and we'll talk more about the Herd later in the week. Thanks a lot and we'll let you get back to posting. Hack: Thank you. KFNS: You got it. A little look at fans who share their opinion with other fans throughout the world, throughout the US, obviously here in St. Louis on the Cardinals and on the Rams. That's a big number between 400 and 500 people voicing their thoughts, their celebration or at times their disappointment about what's going on. Yeah and its funny that he points out you can. they talk about the rumors and how you can spread bad information on these Internet sites .. A lot of these people like the Herd, they've got their own little group and you're more than welcome to join it but you pretty much play by their rules and if you post something ridiculous on there maybe the first time you get a lot of respons. [But] if people think you're somebody whose coming in with some information they find outthat your information is bad, and you're not gonna get a whole lotta response the second time around. |
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