The thumbnail analysis of the Los Angeles market and the National Football League is this:
Those poor saps! No team to call their own.
That was not the situation 15 years ago, when the L.A. market had not one but two franchises.
Since 1994, then, it’s been one long, painful void for NFL fans here. Or that would be the popular perception. See it in your mind’s eye: Mopey NFL fans in L.A., longingly looking at empty venues on fall Sunday afternoons. How sad, right?
Wrong.
Los Angeles fans of the NFL are lucky. Beyond lucky. Blessed.
Let’s flip this. What if Los Angeles had an NFL team or two?
We must proceed by acknowledging that the only realistic scenario that has the NFL in the Los Angeles market at any point from 1995 forward … calls for the Rams and/or Raiders to have stayed in town.
And if you’re talking about the Rams and Raiders … well, not having those franchises around for the past 15-plus seasons has been a stroke of great fortune.
Consider:
The Rams are 105-124 since they left Los Angeles. That includes eight losing seasons (out of 14), only four winning seasons, five playoffs teams, two Super Bowl teams, one Super Bowl champion (after the 1999 season). The Rams are 0-5 this season.
The Raiders are 93-136 since the left Los Angeles. That includes eight losing seasons, only three winning seasons, three playoffs teams and one Super Bowl appearance. They are 1-4 this season. (Their record since 2003 is the worst in the NFL — and that includes the Detroit Lions.)
That’s a combined record of 198-260 that Los Angeles fans have not had to look at. Sixteen losing seasons (with two more on the way) out of a possible 28 that Angelenos have not had to see.
And it gets worse. Uh, better.
The Raiders and Rams, right this moment, probably are the two worst franchises in the National Football League.
One is owned by the survivors of Georgia Frontiere.
The other is run by Al Davis.
The Rams are hopelessly inept and are well on their way to 1) duplicating Detroit’s 0-16 from 2008 and 2) “showcasing” the worst offense in modern NFL history. (Through five games, the Rams have scored 34 points, or less than 7.0 per game.) Their losing streak is at 15.
The Raiders not only are inept, they are thuggish (from the coach on down) and moronic. They are a roster of players who can’t wait to escape what has turned into the Siberia of the NFL.
St. Louis journalists refer to the Rams in apocalyptic terms. Eight days ago, a Post-Dispatch columnist who has covered the NFL for 30 years wrote that “the 2009 Rams are the worst non-expansion year team I have seen.” And that was before the Rams’ 38-10 home spanking by Minnesota on Sunday.
Oakland journalists are thinking equally dark thoughts. Just today, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune wrote that the Raiders’ 44-7 embarrassment vs. the New York Giants on Sunday represented the “bleakest day in the history of the Raiders franchise.” And this is a franchise that has had plenty of bleak moments since it left Los Angeles.
When L.A.-market NFL fans sit around feeling sorry for themselves (and not many do), they need to keep this in mind: The franchises that left are horrible. And in the case of the Raiders, practically doomed to failure and incompetence as long as Al Davis hangs around. (The Rams at least might be sold to someone who knows something about running a successful organization … by letting modern, coherent football people do it.)
The rest of the story is this: No government entity in the L.A. market was willing, or will be willing, to build a new stadium. Which is the absolute requirement for an NFL team to move here or for an expansion team to be moved here.
So, the past 15 years … nobody was going to play here unless it was the Raiders or Rams. And for the amount of misery and failure those franchises have generated — and they clearly are just getting warmed up — one Super Bowl victory isn’t nearly enough to balance the scales.
Instead of finding themselves sunk in misery/cynicism/despair because they have to watch the Raiders and/or Rams, L.A. fans can pick and choose from the entire league, taking what appeals to them, leaving the rest behind.
Los Angeles NFL fans? Given how this could have gone, they are the luckiest fans on the face off the Earth.
6 responses so far ↓
1 al // Oct 12, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Except for the fact that Angelinos WANT a team!!! You made valid points but a losing team beats no team at all. We need a franchise team, we have the fans.
2 Evan // Oct 13, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Speak for yourself. I don’t need a crappy NFL team that I’m told I have to root for. I certainly don’t want to have to drive out to Walnut to watch said crappy hypothetical future LA team. I’m really happy with the way things are now.
3 Not so fast, Al // Oct 13, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Speak for yourself, Al. Do you remember the days of having two losing teams? Now, Raiders fans actually get to watch their team because the games aren’t blacked out, plus L.A. gets the best morning and afternoon game on TV. Before, you’d always have a crappy local team or bad movie reruns.
not having a team is the best thing to happen to L.A. ever.
4 Dennis Pope // Oct 13, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Keep the NFL out of L.A.! Everyone’s already a fan of another team anyway.
It’s not as if there’s a single football fan in SoCal that’s on the fence between the Chargers and another team thinking: ‘Boy, I can’t decide. I really wish there was a team in L.A. to root for.’
With no team, we get all the best games on TV. I hope it stays that way.
5 Ed Zintel // Oct 14, 2009 at 11:39 AM
I’ve managed to survive just fine without an NFL team in LA, thank you. If there’s a good game on TV, I’ll watch it. Otherwise, I’d rather be outside, enjoying the beautiful weather (today’s miracle rainy day notwithstanding). Judging by all the people I see outside on said beautiful days, I think most Angelinos feel the same.
6 Fohian // Oct 15, 2009 at 6:13 PM
To hell with the NFL. I hope I never see them again in the Southland. High school & college football is good enough for me. The traffic is already a nightmare at the juncture of the 57 & 60 without adding a stadium there. What are they thinking? Certainly not about people who travel through there regularly.
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