Jalames: Memo's of a Civilized Ape: Ode to the Los Angeles Rams

R.I.P. Los Angeles Rams (1946 - 1994)

Ahh yet another NFL season is almost upon us and one can't help but to get excited to get your fantasy football lineups set, get together with friends on Sundays for buffalo wings, cold beers, and cooler weather. Although for a so cal native such as myself every new NFL season brings with it a little bit of bitterness. You see, I grew up an LA Rams fan, we even had season tickets for a few years and while the Rams were never really great it has been the only NFL team I have ever really cared about enough to call my team. There are many theories as to why we were robbed of the Rams I still blame Georgia Frontiere for taking them from us.

From Wikipedia:

Georgia Frontiere inherited the team. Georgia got her last name Frontiere when she later married the musician and Hollywood composer Dominic Frontiere. Under the terms of the Rams' deal with Anaheim, they were to receive the rights to develop plots of land near the Stadium. When nothing came of these plans, and with attendance falling, Georgia Frontiere got permission to relocate the team.

The Raiders left soon after this and even though I could never succumb to becoming a Raiders fan... the Los Angeles area has been with out an NFL team ever since. Mindblowing isn't it. Especially since LA has 2 MLB teams and 2 NBA teams.

The Rams while never bringing the Lombardi trophy to LA were actually pretty decent. From 1973 to 1989 the Rams went to the playoffs, that's 14 out of 16 years (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, and 1989). My all time favorite players were Jim Everett (who punched out Jim Rome when he called him Chrissy Everett after the female tennis player), Henry Ellard, Flipper Anderson, offensive rookie of the year in 1993 Jerome Bettis, and my all time favorite Ram Eric Dickerson.

Anaheim Stadium back in the day before Disney got a hold of it...