NFL fans in St. Louis are a bit on edge a bit these days, and understandably so. They had their team taken from them.

While the league plans to celebrate the Los Angeles Rams’ return to Southern California — when ESPN was killing time after the Hall of Fame game was canceled Chris Berman excitedly promoted next Saturday’s broadcast of the Rams’ preseason game, the first NFL game in Los Angeles since 1994 — the fans in St. Louis are left behind.

Saturday was a good day for them though. St. Louis Rams offensive tackle Orlando Pace was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He made sure to mention the fans of St. Louis. And when the NFL put the Hall of Fame speeches online, the St. Louis part of Pace’s speech was cut out.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy admitted those parts were left out on the original YouTube upload, and attributed it to a technical error. The speech is on YouTube now, in full, from the NFL’s official account.

The NFL edited out the part of Orlando Pace’s HOF speech where he addresses the fans of St. Louis. https://t.co/g00TyZZBNC — Patrick Karraker (@PatrickKarraker) August 7, 2016





@RandyKarraker @PatrickKarraker NFL Media group says this was a technical error & they are uploading the full version — Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) August 7, 2016





I buy McCarthy’s explanation that it was an honest mistake. The NFL has no reason to deliberately remove Pace’s comments about St. Louis. It’s hard to imagine they’d desire to erase the St. Louis history; it’s not like we don’t remember the Rams playing there less than a year ago.

But of all the things to have been cut out of a Hall of Fame speech …

Even if the mistake was honest, the optics are horrendous. It’s not like Pace’s comments were out of line.

“To the St. Louis Ram fans, I’m so proud to say we brought that city a championship,” Pace said. “Thank you for the support you gave us during that run. No one can ever take that away from you. Thank you.”

The NFL quickly got Pace’s full speech on their YouTube channel. But for St. Louis fans who aren’t too happy with the NFL these days, the omission was just another jab, whether it was accidental or not.

Orlando Pace, right, and his son Justin (AP) More

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

Follow @YahooSchwab