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| Friday, May 19 Updated: May 25, 4:10 PM ET Retracing the missteps in Los Angeles By Chris Mortensen Special to ESPN.com |
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I can remember my uncle Jimmy taking me by the hand one day after I turned eight years old, and walking me from my grandma's house in South Los Angeles, past the churches where hymns were being sung amid the splendid organ music, the peaceful neighborhoods with well-manicured lawns, many of which had been converted into temporary parking lots as we moved into the grand view of the Coliseum.
The date was Nov. 8, 1959, and the atmosphere was electric. I had never seen so many people converge upon one setting as I did on the day the Los Angeles Rams were about to play the rival San Francisco 49ers. Some 94,000 fans, including one awestruck 8-year-old, settled into their seats to watch the home team lose, 24-16. I remember the walk home, my uncle grumbling about something gone wrong in the game, but all I knew is that I had fun. The hot dog, peanuts and pop were a treat, but even more titilating was the dream that one day I wanted to be on the grass of the Coliseum, either throwing a touchdown pass or catching one in front of so many fans. (We are allowed to dream at this age.) It wasn't unusual for the Rams to draw such crowds of 70,000, 80,000, 90,000 and even 100,000 for an NFL game. At the time, the Rams had a rich post-World War II history dating back to 1946, when the team moved to L.A. from Cleveland, and such stars as Tom Fears, Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin had helped make every Sunday an event. Soon, the Rams would re-emerge as a league power behind the menacing defensive line known as the "Fearsome Foursome," led by Deacon Jones and Merlin Olson. The Coliseum itself was a spectacle, a magnificent theater set in the nerve center of a booming city that was the home to Hollywood, beautiful beaches, picturesque mountains, perfect weather and America's freshest promise. The Rams were the favorite sports team, although the Dodgers soon won their own following after their move west in 1958. Even as the Lakers gained in popularity, there seemed to be room for all. More than 40 years later, for anybody who was there, it is disbelieving that Los Angeles is vacant of not just the Rams, but pro football. Perhaps it is more disbelieving, or disconcerting, that few people seem to care. Then again, many have vacated the fantasy city, myself among them, even as the metropolitan area has mushroomed to some 13 million people.
How did it all happen? There are some facts, and there are theories.
The theory behind the exodus It wasn't long as time rolled into the 1960s that civil rights unrest began to rear its necessary head. Many blacks had migrated to Los Angeles looking for a better life, only to discover that the sunshine could not overcome the dark cloud of oppression and racism that followed them west. They had begun to settle in that South Los Angeles area, and I can remember the anger that was simmering in the community where white folks, such as mine, invented fears that permeated every household. Pretty soon, the walk to the Coliseum became a drive. It didn't help that the Rams experienced six consecutive losing seasons to start the '60s. Crowds dwindled dramatically to 30,000 to 60,000 for home games. In the vastness of the great Coliseum, the naked eye couldn't help but survey the 50,000 empty seats. The Rams began a turnaround in 1966 under George Allen, but the anger of economic apartheid had intensified during the Watts riots in '65. The fears that had been invented turned real and occasionally frightful. Even as the Rams experienced a championship level of play, empty seats almost equalled the ones with fannies in them.
The team actually received a jolt of energy in 1972 after one of sports' amazing transactions when Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom swapped franchises with Robert Irsay, who had purchased the Rams from the estate of the late owner Dan Reeves. But the period between 1975 and '79 proved pivotal to the move that eventually left Los Angeles in a state of sports flux. Rosenbloom made his displeasure known with the Coliseum Commission and finally won a concession in which the stadium was reconfigured to a football capacity of 71,039 in 1977. Yet, the acrimony that built during this time also got Rosenbloom in dialogue with neighboring Orange County, where Anaheim Stadium had been built to accomodate baseball's Angels. Rosenbloom struck a deal in '78 to move the team to Anaheim by the 1980 season, angering a core group of loyal fans who did not want to travel an extra 40-60 miles. Ironically, Orange County's growth had been attributed to what many considered a "white flight" from urban Los Angeles. A more dramatic event in the history of the Rams occurred before the team made the move. Rosenbloom died in a drowning on April 2, 1979, and his widow, Georgia, became the team's principal owner. The Rams had mild success on and off the field, but fans took the bad seasons hard. The league went through an unstable period which saw one of its own, Al Davis, successfully sue for the right to move his Oakland Raiders franchise to Los Angeles in vacant Coliseum. Players wanted their own freedom to move, too, which led to the seven-game strike in '82. Then came the upstart USFL, which paid big dollars to grab many top college stars, such as Steve Young, Herschel Walker and Reggie White. The league seemed as much about lawsuits, moves and threats; Irsay moved the Colts out of Baltimore to Indianapolis, and Bill Bidwill took the Cardinals from St. Louis to Arizona. There was another player strike in '87, and finally a game-changing collective bargaining agreement in '93 that established free agency for the first time in NFL history. Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who had led the NFL to great prosperity and popularity, grew weary enough to retire in the middle of it all.
The fumbling of expansion to Houston
The Rams seemingly had no where to turn, but NFL owners gave them an opening when it rejected expansion bids by St. Louis and Baltimore. St. Louis already had started construction of a new domed stadium on faith. Jilted by the NFL, St. Louis turned its eyes on landing an established team, the Rams. Unable to convince Orange County politicians that a more attractive financial arrangement for the team was necessary, Frontiere followed through on her threat to move the team to St. Louis in 1995. Initially, NFL owners rejected her plan but negotiated a deal that reduced Frontiere's financial take before giving her the green light to move. When the Raiders, dissatisfied with their own Coliseum experience, bolted back to Oakland, what didn't seem ever possible now was shockingly real. The nation's second-largest market was without a team. Surely, it would not stay this way. Politicians have tried to bring a team to Los Angeles, but with little success. The league and city leaders have gotten into many a "Who-needs-who-the-most" debate. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue took a run at restoring football in Los Angeles. Along with the support of many owners, the league declared L.A. off limits as it worked on a deal to bring a glitzy expansion team to the city. But there was always a hurdle. Ownership issues. Stadium sites. Franchise fees. A new demographic, including ethnic diversity, had created a population base that has little desire for pro football, not to mention that Californians have long been weary of increased taxes, so any public funding is caught in a tangled web. Los Angeles dropped the ball on an expansion team it was awarded in 1999. Houston picked up the fumble. Tagliabue, at the owners' meetings in March, suggested there is no need for the NFL to yearn for Los Angeles, because the league has 45 percent of the nation's population covered by 32 teams (as of 2002). He even suggested that a move to Los Angeles by a current franchise would almost neutralize the growth. Alas, absence has not made the heart grow fonder. There is no cry for football in Los Angeles; only tears of memories from a diminishing few. |
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