Home sweet home?
The Rams return to Los Angeles, taking on Seattle on Sunday. But will Los Angeles fans embrace their new/old franchise?
Dave Sherman is an ardent NFL fan who can’t wait for the Los Angeles Rams home opener Sunday. That morning, he will don his favorite team’s jersey, slap on a tasteful amount of tribal face paint and lubricate his vocal cords with a cold brew or two in advance of the big occasion.
The thing is, Sherman, who lives in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills, is not a Rams fan. The jersey he will sport is that of the Seattle Seahawks, the war paint varying shades of green, the vocal allegiance to be directed toward the visitors rather than the yellow-and-blue clad Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosts.
Therein, perhaps, lies the rub for the Rams’ much-vaunted return to the City of Angels. Over the two decades-plus since the city’s two teams cut and ran, An- gelenos didn’t forget about the NFL. They just found other teams to support.
“Of course I’m happy that there is football in L.A. again,” said Sherman, 42, a project manager. “But there is a whole generation of people here who have lived without a team all this time. They are not going to suddenly abandon their favorites and become instant Rams fans.”
Los Angeles is a city that loves its sports, but with a couple of fair-
ly significant caveats. There are eight professional sports franchises in the area plus college powerhouses Southern California and UCLA, but to describe the fan base as fickle is far from unkind.
Success, as in championship banners or close to it, leads to packed arenas and declarations of civic-rooted sporting love. Short of that, well, there is plenty else going on to while away the days. L.A. would rather ignore something than be embarrassed by it.
The Rams might be a little short on both quality and star power just now. A dismal defeat in the season opener in San Francisco on Monday night, a 28-0 thumping by the 49ers, did not ex- actly ignite streams of anticipation for the home opener.
“You know, the one thing about Los Angeles is you got to win,” Hall of Fame running back and Rams legend Eric Dickerson told NFL.com. “And what they showed Monday night was an embarrassment.”
Yes, the season is still young. Running back Todd Gurley has the potential for stardom, and No. 1 draft pick Jared Goff eventually will get his chance to prove he is the quarterback the franchise desperately needs.
The Rams did not post a winning record in any of their final 12 seasons in St. Louis, but coach Jeff Fisher is promoting the theory that L.A. fans can play an active part in a fresh, winning era, en- couraging the type of atmosphere usually seen in Seattle, where the famous 12th Man creates a setting that can intimidate visitors.
“We are hoping the (fans) come out, and we are hoping they give the Seattle fans a run for their money,” Fisher said. “We expect it to be loud. We expect them to contribute. They have a chance to contribute to this (success).”
L.A., for all of its enticing charms, has a self-confessed short attention span, and the league’s schedule-makers were not kind. The Rams play only one of their first four games at home and, coupled with one “home” game being set for London in October, have only two Coliseum outings between now and Nov. 6. By the time that rolls around, the playoffs might already be a distant dream.
“It doesn’t help,” said retiree Donald Harris, 65, who attended Rams games before they left L.A. and stuck by the team during the St. Louis years. “There was a lot of excitement when the announcement was made, but it has tapered off a little bit. People need to see something to get them going. A bad team without any stars is not going to get it done.”
In some ways, the Rams are in danger of being haunted by ghosts of the past. The Rams’ final game before leaving after the 1994 season was played before 25,705 fans. A high school game at the same venue a week earlier drew a bigger crowd.
The league is different now, but is the city? Traffic is even worse than back then. The Coliseum is huge but also tough to get to and find parking.
Rams safety T.J. McDonald, who starred at USC, knows how electrifying the Coliseum can get but also how the audience is a beast that needs constant feeding.
“We have got to get them fired up with how we play and by winning games,” McDonald said. “It is on us to do that.”
Los Angeles waited a long time for the Rams to return, more patiently than you might have expected. But now that they’re here, they’re on the clock.