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The Los Angeles Rams trailed 13-7 at Los Angeles Coliseum on Sunday, and Robert Murillo, a season ticketholder, said he was worried. Not about the score.
“Every time I turn on the radio,” Murillo told USA TODAY Sports, “I hear the Chargers promoting themselves.”
That would be the Los Angeles Chargers — sorry, San Diego — and Sunday heightened the battle for L.A.’s NFL fans. It also created a challenge for an intrepid reporter (yours truly) intent on seeing two games played almost simultaneously 12 miles apart.
The day started at StubHub Center in Carson, where the Chargers, making their regular-season debut in Los Angeles, played the Miami Dolphins. But the early action was in the parking lot.
In a city of 6.5 million cars, the Bolt Bus that pulled into the parking lot at StubHub Center is a oneand-only. Once a school bus, it has Chargers seat covers, a Chargers helmet painted on the ceiling, a Chargers flag atop the roof, Chargers stickers everywhere and BOLT BUS license plate.
For the last three seasons, during Chargers home games, it has been parked at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. But now it’ll be in Carson, the bus relocating with the team, and arriving early Sunday for the Chargers’ regular-season debut.
“I’ve been a life-long Chargers fans since birth,” said Bart Hancock, 56, the owner and driver of the Bolt Bus and a resident of Orange County. “It was a lemon when I bought it. Now it just purrs.”
But Hancock squawked at the parking prices — $75 a game, compared with the $40 he paid in San Diego.
“It’s a greedy, greedy sport,” he said. “The owner wants every last shekel they can get. That’s
why they left San Diego.”
But suddenly Hancock discovered something more reprehensible than the parking prices — a giant Miami Dolphins flag.
“That is a monster,” he exclaimed. “Oh, my God. They’re taking over.”
Los Angeles Dolphins, anyone? Truth is, the Chargers fans had them outnumbered, especially in a stretch called “Thunder Alley.” It’s reserved for six trailing groups and, oddly enough, was put together by a guy who fought to keep the Chargers in San Diego.
Brian Bahr, also known as “Brian Bolt,” helped coordinate the tailgaters once the Chargers announced they were leaving San Diego for Los Angeles.
He said he could drive five hours to watch the Arizona Cardinals or drive eight hours to watch the San Francisco 49ers. “But I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money on another team,” he said.
And this way he could continue to wear his traditional game-day head wear — a hard hat with Chargers bolt stickers.
But there was also a distinctive L.A. feel to the game — latearriving fans, hundreds still outside the entry gates midway through the fourth quarter. But virtually all made it by the time the Chargers went ahead 10-3 in the second quarter — and the Rams were looking for a spark.
The Chargers were off and running, and so was the intrepid reporter — for Memorial Coliseum. For more football and a little food, perhaps too late.
Options at the StubHub: Angus beef brisket sandwich and pulled pork sandwich for $18 apiece. At the Coliseum: Angus burger for $15 and a foot-long hotdog for $10.
Pressbox: tacos and burritos for free. (You’re welcome, boss.)
The Coliseum looked twothirds full, and Blake Dimas and Ricky Mulock — both 21 and drinking beer — happily claimed what could be considered some of the worst seats in the house. They were sitting in the top row, behind one of the end zones.
“It’s not the worst seat,” Dimas contended. “It’s the best view.”
He said he got free tickets from his brother and invited Mulock.
“Neither of us are football fans,” he said. “He likes UFC, and I like baseball.”
Down on the Coliseum concourse was Robert Murillo, the Rams season ticketholder who contemplated how the Rams’ stay in St. Louis from 1995 to 2015 might impact the fight for L.A.’s football fans.
“Unfortunately, we lost a generation of fans,” said Murillo, 65. “We’ll be OK, but we need a go-line.”
A go-line as in what ensued multiple times during the game, with the stadium.
“Whose house?” came the cry over the P.A. speaker. “Rams house,” fans roared back.
Don’t tell that to Richard Garcia, a truck driver who arrived at the Rams’ house wearing a Raiders T-shirt. He lifted his shirt, revealing a Raiders tattoo on his chest.
“I like the Rams and I like the Chargers,” he said, grinning. “The Rams are good trucks, and the Chargers are good cars.”
So how’d L.A.’s NFL doubleheader work out?
The Chargers lost to the Dolphins 19-17. The Rams lost to the Washington Redskins 27-20.
And the free tacos and burritos in the press box at the Coliseum?
The day’s lone victory.