I Have To Go Back A Long Way To Find What I'm Feeling Now Again.

I'm shocked and numb.

I've been a Ram fan since 1968 and I go all the way back to that first season when I was 11 years old to find a feeling to match my feeling after this loss.

The 10-1-1 Rams were looking ahead to a titanic clash in the last game of the regular season against the 11-1 Baltimore Colts for the Coastal Division chamionship.

First, they had to play the Chicago Bears in the Coliseum. Of course, everyone knew they were going to roll over the Bears.

It didn't happen. The Bears upset the heavily favored Rams of Roman Gabriel, Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen and company to hand the division title to Balitmore and render that last game against the Colts meaningless.

Sure, the Rams had some great teams through the 70s but lost in the playoffs to some good Dallas and Minnesota teams. Throughout the eighties when they'd get crushed in the playoffs by the Bears or the Redskins, they were heavy underdogs.

I have to go all the way back to that 1968 Bears game to mirror the frustration I feel now where a heavily favored Rams team lost such an important game to a less talented team.

As an 11 year old, I cried after that Bears game. I'm now 44 and not crying but I sure feel like it.

Congratulations to the Patriots. Eight out of ten times the Rams are the better team but the Patriots were the better team yesterday and that's all that matters.

I just found this forum a few weeks ago. The wallpaper is great and I look forward to many more postings. Go Rams!

[hpbadger]

Going back a long ways...

What a tough loss this was. I remember as a kid being absolutely devestated by the playoff losses to the Vikings in the 70's....the mud bowl and the loss in met stadium when Chuck Knox opted for a Tom Dempsey field goal attempt at the 1 yard line were the worst....I still get a sick feeling just thinking about them!!! Strangely I don't quite feel as bad after this loss. I am very dissapointed but we have seen games like this one before where turnovers killed this team. Plus this Rams team has a very good chance of getting back to the big game next year. Hopefully they will learn from the loss and come up with a better game plan next time. I am a little irritated at all the anti-Ram people out there but that is normal when your team is the best.....the truth is we have never had a Ram team this good before!! We need to really savor and enjoy this team....these are the glory years of Ram football!!

[Ram Fan 1967-94]

I'm kind of surprised at the response from two longtime L.A. Ram fans to the Super Bowl loss. My family and I held Rams season tickets in Los Angeles (50 yard line) and later Anaheim for more than 35 years, and we received not even a "thank you" from the team for our loyalty upon their exit.

My opinion is that Georgia, John Shaw, and Jay Zygmunt deliberately fielded a subpar team from 1990-94, so that the old battle-axe could plot a return to her hometown. They claimed we did not support the team...So they moved, and all of the sudden, they decided to go out and get great coaches and players?

So these are indeed bittersweet times for me. I realize the current players and coaches are not to blame, and that the city of St. Louis rightfully supports the Rams on a fantastic level, but the way Georgia scored on husband #7 (Carroll Rosenbloom), plotted her way out of Dodge, then never bothered to thank any of the fans who were there long before she was, has left a bad taste in my mouth. Only Vermeil had the class to refelect on his two terms as an assistant with Ye Olde Rams in the late '60s and early '70s.

And when Martz chose to on-side kick against Atlanta with a 24-point lead earlier this season, I thought that showed a real lack of class.

So I can honestly say that the Super Bowl choke was a WONDERFUL moment for me!

Hey, is Dominic Frontiere still in jail?:helmet: LOS ANGELES Rams

[TIMLAN2057]

Well Rams, I can't say that I'm a great fan of Georgia Frontiere.

I'm sorry you feel you can't support the Rams in the new era but that's your business and I can understand you feeling wounded, being from LA. I live in Louisiana so it wasn't so hard for me to make the transition when the team moved to St. Louis.

You gotta admit though, fan support, even when the team was good in those LA and Anaheim years was a bit blase. I never felt the Rams had a great home field advantage in the Coliseum or in Anaheim, even when the team was good. Neither of those venues was noted as a feared place for a visiting team. You obviously are not one of those blase California fans but there were plenty of them.

I still have great memories of the old days in Los Angeles with the George Allen teams of the late sixties and the Chuck Knox teams of the seventies . . even the Eric Dickerson era when they just could not find a quarterback to put them over the top.

So Rams, your feelings are your business. I'm glad my love for the Rams has been and will continue to be, a lifelong one.

I

[Ram Fan 1967-94]

Tim, I really WISH I could feel the way you do. The first year (1995), I was still in such a state of shock that I thought if they continued to suck, St. Louis might send them back. Do they still even have the melon-heads?

The Rams had fantastic support back in the George Allen and Chuck Knox days, I thought. Though it did seem less enthusiastic in Anaheim (I was sorry they moved there, but our seats stayed great), the John Robinson years also made for exciting football (Flipper Anderson anyone?)

But then, Jim Everett took that phantom fall in the '89 NFC Championship Game, and many fans became ugly. We supported them to the bitter end, however. I still recall Kevin Greene running around the stadium high-fiving loyal fans, when he and everyone else knew Shaw wouldn't re-sign him.

So my feelings are still conflicted. I soemtimes wish they had gone the route of the Oilers and Browns and changed the team name and logo, leaving RAMS forever to L.A. Perhaps this Super Bowl will help me purge those feelings, who knows? It feels weird not to "have a team."

Pictured below is me in 1969. Gabe won the MVP that year.

[Ram Fan 1967-94]

Great, so I uploaded a photo and it didn't come through. The "smilies are on," too.:helmet: :upset:

[TIMLAN2057]

Hmmm . . now HAD they done a la the Browns, and changed the name and logo when they moved and THEN Los Angeles would have gotten the "Los Angeles Rams" back like Cleveland did with the Browns, I would have REALLY been in a dilemma as to who to root for!

Glad I didn't have to make that decision.

[TIMLAN2057]

Ramsfan, try again if you can. I'd really like to see the pic.

AND I think there would have been no question I would have rooted for the "New" Rams had LA got to keep the name and the logo.

[maceye]

Boy, do I hear you.
I am 43 years old, and have followed the Rams since the early sixties (my long time fave player before this current squad was #33 - Willie Ellison. Remember him?).

This is the most nauseating feeling I've had in ages as well (well, there was THAT fumble in last year's Saints playoff game, but this easily ices that one).

It sure as heck doesn't help to live in Massachusetts, either. My In-laws live with our family and are die-hard Pats fans, so I had to endure the Pats victory parade blaring on the TV a while ago. Talk about turning your stomach. I remember also the Rams losing to the Vikes 23-20 ('69 I believe?) and that stunk, but I don't know if I'll ever get over this one. Such a brilliant season, and such an unbelievably rotten end.
:upset:

[TIMLAN2057]

Willie Ellison, yep. He came on pretty good in 1968. That was the year Les Josephsen was hurt. Dick Bass was still the fullback.

I don't think you saw a whole lot of three receiver sets in 1968, did you? I think they pretty much even on third and long stuck with the basic pro set with Bass and Ellison, Bernie Casey at flanker, Jack Snow at split end and Billy Truax at tight end.

I was a kid back in those days and didn't really have the knowledge to pay attention to stuff like that but that's an interesting question . . didn't all the wholesale substitution and specialization in specific yardage situations come later?

In 1968-69 they weren't doing a lot, if any, three and four wideout sets five and six defensive backs and the like, were they? Not just the Rams but the NFL and AFL as a whole. Can someone help me here?

[TIMLAN2057]

But yeah Maceye, that Western Conference Championship loss to the Vikings in 1969 was hard to take. I STILL feel frustrated thinking about that one. They were up 17-7 at the half and looked like they were in control of that game.

I have a bad habit of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" but I think the 1968 Rams would have matched up better against the Jets than the Colts had they made the Super Bowl and I think the 1969 Rams would have matched up better against the Chiefs than the Vikings did.

Another frustrating loss was the 1971 Monday night game against George Allen's Redskins in the LA Coliseum.

[maceye]

1969 and the Colts/Jets.
This whole situation is just too weird.

My older brother has been a Colts fan all of his life, so he waited 'till last night to call and offer his condolences about Sunday. Smart guy - he knew I would be to p.o.'d to talk to ANYONE after the game.

Anyway, he says he still has nightmares about SB III and Joe Willie. All of the "what ifs"...

We have even more in common now. Ouch.:helmet:

[Ram Fan 1967-94]

Yes, I recall Les Josephson missed the entire '68 season. He had quite a lengthy career. Wasn't Wendell Tucker still with the Rams in '68? ... Remember when Willie Ellison held the NFL rushing record: 247 yards in one game in '71, until O.J. broke it?

Ahh, memories. I think I'm beginning to get this past me, guys. Thanks for understanding.

I'm going to try and upload the photo again. I entered it and then clicked post reply, but nothing came up. it's under the 102K byte limit, too. If it doesn't work this time, perhaps someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

:helmet:

[TIMLAN2057]

Wendell Tucker was a sub in 1968 . . . tiny guy. He may have even been a taxi-squader that year. Pat Studstill handled most of the backup receiver duties and this was back in the days of the forty man rosters so you didn't have room for a whole bunch of receivers on the active roster.

Tucker did have a good year at flanker in 1969 after Bernie Casey retired.

[hpbadger]

I grew up in AZ and at that time there were basically two teams to root for...the Cowboys or the Rams. Naturally fans of one team hated the other. I suppose if I had lived in Los Angeles I would have been extemely upset when the Rams moved. I know things went downhill after Georgia took over the team and I can understand why she is hated. It seems like after the '99 Super Bowl as usual many jumped on the Rams bandwagon. It also seemed like many old time Ram fans from around the country came out of the woodwork. During the late 90's I thought I was the only Rams fan around. ....speaking of disapointing Ram losses anyone remember the playoff loss to Dallas in 75 or 76 when Chuck Knox started an injured James Harris at QB after Ron Jaworski has performed well for several weeks. The Rams were heavy favorites and playing at home and got smashed 37-7.....I want to puke just thinking about it!!