How hard is it on an NFL team to pick up and move?

I was thinking about this after the Rams, having moved from St. Louis earlier this year, stunk it up in their second debut first as NFL representatives of “Los Angeles”.

I had a memory of the Rams and Raiders having some difficult times after they abandoned greater Los Angeles for St. Louis and Oakland, respectively, ahead of the 1995 season.

The Rams’ most recent move is the seventh by an NFL team since 1982, which followed a span of 22 years of no NFL moves at all.

How did those other six relocating teams fare? Were they good before they left? Did they get better — or worse — on arrival at their new home?

Should fans of a newly arrived team expect hard times?

After a couple of hours of research … well, Rams fans should not be thinking about buying playoffs tickets.

It appears that teams that move are more likely to get worse over the first few years (or more) in their new location. Perhaps because moving a franchise is a dramatic and even traumatic event, involving new housing for everyone in the franchise, new practice sites, a new home field, a lack of familiarity with the new city, etc.

But before we speculate further … let’s look at the six other NFL franchise moves since 1960.

–In 1981, the Oakland Raiders went 7-9; in the strike-shortened 1982 season, the Los Angeles Raiders went 8-1. The following season, they won the Super Bowl. Verdict: Great move!  (At least for a bit.)

–In 1983, the Baltimore Colts went 7-9. In 1984, the Indianapolis Colts went 4-12. In their first three seasons in Indiana, they were 12-36. Verdict: Bad move! (Though they were glad for the new yard, and they came around once they drafted that Manning kid.)

–In 1987, the St. Louis Cardinals were 7-8. In 1988, the Phoenix Cardinals went 7-9, a slight decline. In retrospect, that was a very good year, because over their first 19 seasons in Arizona the Cardinals were 105-199 and had only win winning record. To be fair, they weren’t doing anything just before they left St. Loo — 16-30-1 over the previous three seasons. For more context, the three seasons previous to those were all winning teams. Verdict: Bad move!

–In 1994, the Los Angeles Rams were 4-12. In 1995, the St. Louis Rams were 7-9. A gain of three games. Good, right? Yes, but … that was the highlight of the first four seasons in St. Loo. They followed up the 7-9 by going 12-36. To be fair, again, the L.A. Rams went out with five consecutive losing seasons, 23-57 overall — though their fans would suggest Rams ownership (Georgia Frontiere) wasn’t really trying to win, in those final SoCal years. Verdict: Bad move!

–In 1994, the Los Angeles Raiders went 9-7. In 1995, the Oakland Raiders went 8-8. A bit of regression. Of more import: Not until their sixth season back in Oakland did they post a winning record. Plus, they traded Los Angeles for Oakland and the Oakland Coliseum and two decades later are still looking for a stadium. Verdict: Very bad move!

–In 1996, the Houston Oilers went 8-8. In 1997 the Tennessee Oilers, based in Memphis, went 8-8. In 1998, the Tennessee Oilers, based in Nashville, went 8-8. In 1999, the re-branded Tennessee Titans, playing in their new stadium in Memphis, reached the Super Bowl. Verdict: Four stadiums in four years, ending with a Super Bowl. Maybe moving is their thing; now securely in Nashville, they are 33-63 the past six seasons.

Since the chaotic Oilers-Titans episode, no NFL team moved — until Stan Kroenke’s Rams did, this year.

Six moves is not a significant sample, but it seems fair to say that usually the relocating team is going to have some rough times — which may be a carryover from their previous home, or could represent some sort of issues with the new location.

In four of the six moves, the relocating club was moving into a more favorable stadium situation — right away (or within a couple of years) after the team gave up on getting its previous city to build a new one.

That suggests franchise unhappiness with their previous stadium, a constant look for a more lucrative situation, a reluctance to invest in their current digs — and probably an unpleasant relationship with local governmental authorities unwilling to build a new stadium.

Which could create a negative, losing atmosphere.

Al Davis, in 1982, was the last owner to move because he wanted to be in a bigger market, leaving the graceless Oakland Coliseum for the ancient L.A. Memorial Coliseum — but at least he gained a market many times larger than he had been in. (After 13 seasons, and despairing of L.A. building him the new stadium he wanted, he returned to Oakland and took a lump payment of $40 million.)

The rest … were about the stadium, and the ability to monetize it.

–In 1984, the Colts went from the wretched multi-purpose Memorial Stadium in Baltimore to the new-build RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

–In 1988, the Cardinals left aging Busch Stadium, a baseball stadium,  for a bigger, football-only stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

–In 1995, the Rams went from the awkward Anaheim Stadium to (in midseason) the new Trans World Dome in St. Louis, albeit with a handful of games in Busch Stadium before the dome (and its lucrative seat licenses) was ready.

–In 2016, the Rams ditched the now-aging St. Louis dome for the promise of the most expensive/plush dome ever built, in the L.A. suburb of Inglewood. Price tag, $2 billion, due to open in 2019.

At the end of the day, the enormous energy and attention required of a franchise that is moving seems to hurt the team — before it leaves, after it arrives or, as the current Rams may discover, both.

Get ready for a rocky season or three.