The Los Angeles Rams, Act Two

Front gate of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What did F. Scott Fitzgerald say about second acts in life?  The NFL Rams are moving back to Los Angeles after having spent two decades in St. Louis.

Owner Stan Kroenke, a Missouri-born land developer who just happens to be married to a member of the Walton family (the one that owns Walmart), successfully convinced the NFL to let him move his football team to a stadium on property he owns in nearby Inglewood, California.  Until it's finished in 2019, the Rams will probably play out of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which they called home the first time around.

This development leaves the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders in the lurch.  Both franchises are stuck in old stadiums and couldn't wait to move to LA.  Unfortunately, the NFL voted down the two teams' proposal to share a stadium in Carson, California.  But they're both still in the running to join the Rams at their new digs in Inglewood.  Or maybe San Antonio is available.

For years, NFL teams have used Los Angeles as leverage to get the stadium deals they wanted:  Seattle, Arizona, Minnesota, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Miami--have we left anyone out?  Now that they can't do that any more, they'll come up with another city worthy of blackmail.  London?  Toronto?

So why did the NFL leave LA in the first place, when both the Raiders and Rams left in 1995?  Lack of fan support?  Lousy teams?  Fear of lawsuits if the league dared to interfere?  Or couldn't they make money on it any more?  Obviously, two decades have done wonders to change attitudes.

Going back to La-la land also means the NFL is returning to the second-largest TV market in America, which makes their current deals with several networks all the more valuable.  Hollywood's power elite will want to get next to pro football's poobahs, and vice versa.  The Rose Bowl can host the Super Bowl again.  It'll be a destination for free agent players and top draft picks, if only for the fat contracts and endorsements they'll bring.

None of this describes St. Louis, which has now lost its second NFL franchise (the other one being the Cardinals, who left for Arizona in 1988), and will probably not see another one any time soon.  Kroenke is Public Enemy Number One there right now, in the same way Norm Green was regarded by Minnesota North Stars fans when he moved the team to Dallas in 1993.  The city fathers and mothers tried to counter with a new stadium to replace the outdated (to the Rams) Edward Jones Dome.  But how do you compete with the glitz and glamour of southern California, and an owner hellbent on getting there?  Oh well.  St. Louis has always been a baseball town, anyway.

In the history of the Rams franchise, they have won one NFL championship (1951) and made one Super Bowl appearance (1980, lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers) while in Los Angeles.  They won a league title in 1945 as the Cleveland Rams before moving west.  In 2000, the St. Louis Rams (then called "The Greatest Show On Turf" ) won the Super Bowl over the Tennessee Titans, in what could only be described as a Hollywood ending.

What will the script be for the Rams, now that they're in love with LA again?