Commentary, predictions, rumors, maybe some smack on sports in Los Angeles
UCLA quarterbacks were in a passing fancy during the Bruins annual spring football game Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. A crowd estimated at around 13,000 saw Bruin signal callers combine for six touchdown tosses.
Let me immediately debunk a serious cliché, untruth and down-right lie in regards to WE Angelenos.
It states, “WE WON’T SUPPORT and NEVER HAVE SUPPORTED an NFL team in Los Angeles because there are just too many other things to do here on a Sunday afternoon.”
Well, the part about plenty of things to do on a Sunday afternoon is spot-on. But, that’s what makes the City of Angels one of the greatest cities in the world.
The part about WE WON’T SUPPORT and NEVER HAVE SUPPORTED an NFL team is the biggest bunch of absolute garbage I’ve ever heard or read.
This clichéd rhetoric is old, tired, ignorant and completely false.
It’s a complete insult to all of US Angelenos.
Seriously!
Los Angeles, the second largest market in the country, home to Hollywood, a pair of MLB teams (Dodgers & Angels), a pair of NBA teams (Lakers & Clippers…and maybe the Anaheim Royals soon.), a pair of NHL teams (Kings & Ducks) a pair of major division one universities (USC & UCLA) and a pair of MLS teams (Galaxy & Chivas USA) isn’t called the entertainment capital of the world for nothing. And although a sport, football, which includes the NFL variety, is one of the greatest forms of entertainment known to man, woman and child.
All I have to do is cite the Los Angeles Rams, the gold-standard among many pro football teams that have called L.A. home, as my example of WE Angelenos SUPPORTING an NFL team.
Beginning in 1946, after their move from Cleveland because they couldn’t compete with the Browns, the Los Angeles Rams called Southern California home for 49 years. The first 34 at the 100,000 seat L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the last 15 at Anaheim Stadium before moving to the Midwest in 1995.
49 YEARS!
Had the Rams not been supported by WE Angelenos throughout that half-century, you figure they would have left after year five.
During a 13 year period in the modern Super Bowl era from 1967 to 1979, the Rams won nine division titles, seven of those in consecutive seasons, played in seven conference championship games and one Super Bowl all the while attracting crowds at the Coliseum in excess of 65,000 to over 70,000 every Sunday afternoon.
In my interview with Hall-of-Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood and tight end Bob Klein, stars for the Rams during those years, both told me they fed off the energy of those Coliseum crowds. Fans that are still devoted to them today.
The Rams averaged just under 60,000 fans per regular season game in the 34 years they played at the Coliseum including three of the top-ten all-time league attendance single-game records exceeding 100,000 fans in the stands.
The first 12 seasons in Anaheim, they averaged about 57,000 fans. The years 1992-94 saw a significant drop-off due to rumors of a potential move first to Baltimore and, later, St. Louis. The Rams averaged about 45,000 fans those final three seasons.
Former L.A. Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom left L.A. for Anaheim in ’79 because the Coliseum Commission and L.A. politicians wouldn’t fork over taxpayer dollars to upgrade the Coliseum. Anaheim DID enclosing the Big “A” without its then-primary tenant, the California Angels, reaping any benefits whatsoever, so it could gain elite status as a city that an NFL team called home.
That changed in the early 90s when Georgia Frontiere wanted upgrades to the Big A via public funding. Anaheim said not this time. Off the Rams went to St. Louis.
St. Louis city officials and the state of Missouri gave the Rams everything they wanted and more including a new stadium in 1995 to return the Gateway City to elite NFL status after the Cardinals bolted a few years earlier for Arizona.
The tables have now turned for the Gateway City. The Edwards Jones Dome needs upgrades the Rams negotiated in their original contract. St. Louis wants the Rams to pay more than half with taxpayers footing the rest of the bill.
Currently the Rams, Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills are the NFL franchises looking to upgrade their stadium situations and join the 21st Century NFL.
It’s why Al Davis moved the Raiders to L.A. from Oakland in 1982 and then back to Oakland in ‘95. ‘84 when Bob Irsay moved the Colts from Baltimore for Indianapolis. ‘87 when Bill Bidwell moved the Cardinals from St. Louis to Phoenix. ’95 when Frontiere moved the Rams to St. Louis from Anaheim. ‘96 when Art Modell moved the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore. ’97 when Bud Adams moved the Oilers to Tennessee from Houston.
These owners didn’t pack up their teams and leave their former cities because of the lack of fan support. It always has been and will be about stadium upgrade issues.
PERIOD.
Not coincidentally, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders are on the possible relocation list because they play in two of the three most outdated stadiums in the NFL. The San Francisco 49ers were on the list playing in the third.
The 49ers will be playing in a brand new $1.2 billion facility within the next couple of years in Santa Clara. A building privately funded with the 49ers borrowing $400 million. The Santa Clara Stadium Authority borrowing $450 million. $150 million from the league’s stadium fund. $40 million from the Santa Clara City Redevelopment Agency with the final $35 million coming from a hotel tax paid by tourists and visitors to the city.
I bring these three teams up because, if you include the L.A. Coliseum and Pasadena Rose Bowl, California has the five most archaic “NFL-ready” stadiums. Anaheim Stadium’s out of play because it’s now a baseball-only stadium if you don’t count a high school gridiron clash or two.
California’s citizens and its government entities won’t consider stadium plans of any sort to be publicly-funded using taxpayer dollars. Especially in these tough economic times. We’re absolutely right not to.
That’s why the state is home to the five most archaic “NFL-ready” stadiums in the country.
This is the ONLY reason why Los Angeles hasn’t been a part of the NFL for 17 seasons and counting.
This “extended road-trip” Los Angeles has endured could be coming to an end soon with not just one, but possibly two teams, from the list relocating here.
The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) privately funded the Downtown Los Angeles Corridor Revitalization building the Staple Center and L.A. Live, and now is committed to privately fund, without taxpayer/public dollars, the entire construction of the $1.4 billion L.A. Convention Center and Farmers Field.
AEG’s already invested over $40 million, $27 million of those for an environmental impact report and the balance going to designs for the new convention center and football stadium.
Upon releasing the 10,000 page EIR earlier this month on the steps of L.A.‘s City Hall, point-man Tim Leiweke addressed AEG’s vision for the return of the NFL to the City of Angels.
A team could be calling L.A. home in September of 2013 playing its home games at the Coliseum until Farmers Field is completed by 2017.
As for which team it will be. Take a look at the aforementioned list. The Rams (if any team should call L.A. home, it should be the Rams.) and the Vikings are the top two candidates for various reasons. Who will it be?
It’s going to happen. L.A. will be back in the NFL and the NFL will be back in Los Angeles. From any angle, it’s quite overdue.
Yes. There are plenty of things to do on a Sunday afternoon in the City of Angels, one of the greatest cities in the world, and the NFL should and will be one of them.
Photo courtesy: Eric Geller, AEG, Farmers Field, Los Angeles Times, stadiumsofprofootball.com, USA Today.
Video courtesy: Eric Geller, NFL Films
Maybe Chris Dohrmann’s Sports Illustrated article claiming Bruins men’s head basketball coach Ben Howland’s lost his team was a bit overblown.
If anything, Howland’s a superior “Xs and Os” coach as well as a superior recruiter of talent.
Having to navigate through two tie-breakers, Minnesota Timberwolves all-star forward and former UCLA Bruin Kevin Love won the 2012 Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout during the All-Star Saturday Night events in Orlando.
To read the story and view the video interview, please click on the link below.
Bill Macdonald’s been a sportscasting mainstay in Southern California since the Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket Network signed on in 1985.
New UCLA head football coach Jim Mora Jr. has been busy his first two months in Westwood. Click here for my story on examiner.com.
It’s been a two-month whirlwind for new Bruins head football coach Jim Mora Jr. Since being hired December 10th to replace Rick Neuheisel, Mora’s named his coaching staff and turned in one of the best recruiting classes in the country.
Stadium issues for the Rams in St. Louis which could render their lease at the Edward Jones Dome null and void by 2014 which could return the franchise back to Los Angeles where it called home for 49 years prior to moving to the midwest in 1995.
Owner Stan Kroenke committing one regular season Rams home game each of the next three seasons away from the Gateway City and heading across the pond to Wembley Stadium in London beginning next season.
All that’s sweet music for some 4,000 members of the Facebook group, Bring Back the Los Angeles Rams, who want their team home.
They made their presence felt at Saturday’s inaugural AstroTurf NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at the Home Depot Center in Carson.
Amongst a cozy crowd of some 1500 football fans, about 75 to 100 Bring Back the Los Angeles Rams members sat in a section directly behind the National conference bench who were led by ex-St. Louis Rams head coach Dick Vermeil.
Vermeil led the Gateway City version of the Rams to a Super Bowl title after the 1999 season with the help of wide out Isaac Bruce who was on his National conference coaching staff for the game.
Listening to non-stop chants of “L.A. Rams…L.A. Rams!” and “Bring them back!…..Bring them back!” throughout the contest, both Vermeil and Bruce, who both got their NFL roots with the Los Angeles Rams, couldn’t ignore them.
After the game, hearing their chants of “Bruuuuuuuce”, he went over to their section to greet the fans and sign some autographs.
“I played my rookie year with the Los Angeles Rams and played my junior college ball at Santa Monica College.” said Bruce. “I wouldn’t change anything in my career but I sure did miss playing in L.A. during winter when it’s 70 degrees outside.”
Bruce even asked me who the last Los Angeles Ram was to catch a touchdown pass. It happened on Christmas Eve 1994 at Anaheim Stadium. I couldn’t answer it.
“Jermaine Ross.” Bruce said. I replied with, “Chris Miller probably tossed it.” Bruce said, “I think he was hurt. So it must’ve been Chris Chandler.”
We weren’t sure. I checked and guessed right. It was Miller.
As for the NFL returning to L.A., Bruce believes it’s inevitable.
“Surprising it’s been 17 years. This is a great place to play. These fans deserve a team. They’ll have a team here as soon as a new stadium’s built.”
When asked about a possible return by the Rams, it’s all speculation to him.
“I wouldn’t know. That’s business. We have loyal fans in St. Louis. Was a lot of fun playing there especially during the ‘Greatest Show On Turf‘ years.”
Vermeil’s National Conference squad got the best of Tom Flores’ American Conference squad, 20-14.
After the game I asked the coach about those loud L.A. Rams fans in the stands.
Soon, a brand new state-of-the-art stadium will be built in the City of Angels and at that time, we’ll all know if the Rams were brought back to it.
As if trying to catch the eye of pro football scouts wasn’t difficult and stressful enough for former Penn State Nittany Lion players Jon Rohrbaugh and Andrew Szczerba, getting the news their college coach was “near death” made their task even greater Saturday night.
Playing for the American Conference in the inaugural AstroTurf NFLPA Collegiate Bowl Game at Home Depot Center in Carson, California, both players were told about Joe Paterno’s failing health from Tom Flores, their head coach in the game, just before kickoff.
“He was truly a father figure for me and my teammates on and off the field,” said Rohrbaugh, a long snapper in the bowl game. “His line to all of us was always ’Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. “
The 85 year old winningest coach in FBS history, Paterno, who was the Nittany Lions head coach for six decades, is suffering serious complications from treatments for lung cancer that was diagnosed November 18th of last year, just nine days after being fired in the wake of sexual abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky.
As of Saturday night, Paterno was still connected to a ventilator at Mount Nittany Medial Center in State College, Pennsylvania. His family was debating taking him off the ventilator Sunday morning.
On Any Given Sports Day 