arch_genesis wrote:St. Louis has its fair share of athletes that stick around after their playing days are over, Musial being the most prominent one. Someone should do a piece on athletes retiring here. We don't have a lot of black athletes retire here, it would be nice to retain some. It's not the brain drain but I think there is some value St. Louis could extract from having players stick around. Aeneas Williams seems to like it here, I don't think Ozzie ever left and why is Gibson still in Omaha?
One thing here may just be that football players are less likely to retire to their team's city because a football career is so much more volatile. They're less likely to be in one place for a long-time, and even if they are, they don't necessarily have contracts during that time that allow them to really place down roots.
On the other hand, Cardinals and Blues players put down roots in St. Louis a LOT. I think the Blues have the biggest alumni base in their home town of an American NHL team. But hockey doesn't have a huge amount of racial diversity by any means. Baseball has plenty of diversity, but it doesn't have a ton of Black American's. In fact, the recent trade for Jason Heyward gives the Cardinals their first star-caliber Black American player since...? Maybe Ray Lankford, if he qualifies. (He was always my favorite, and I think he's undervalued because he played in a mediocre era of Cardinals baseball. Oh the tangents I'm on!)
Point being that between the Blues and Cardinals, there haven't been a lot of opportunities for a Black players to choose to retire in St. Louis.
The Rams have had D'marco Farr, Orlando Pace, and Aeneas Williams (as you mentioned) choose to retire in St. Louis, or at least retire partially in St. Louis. Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt both went back to their respective hometowns, but they both remain pretty connected to the community here. So the Rams have had some players. EDIT: It seems Faulk may actually reside near San Diego, where he attended college. He does seem to maintain a presence in St. Louis, though, and may still own a residence here.
And like I said, in football, lesser tier players are less likely to put roots down in a new city because they could be cut at any time. So really only the long-term stars are likely to consider it.
EDIT: I refer to these players retiring in St. Louis, but I think your initial conclusion about where they retire in St. Louis is accurate. It's typically out in the County or in St. Charles County. For example, I just double-checked that my statement about Orlando Pace was accurate, and indeed Wikipedia says he resides in Weldon Springs.
