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STL should embrace LA history, not fight it
By Spencer Engel
January 24, 2014 9:00 am CST
http://network.yardbarker.com/all_s...ould_embrace_la_history_not_fight_it/15619889
On Tuesday, I posted what I thought was an innocent enough piece about the reaction to Tavon Austin taking a photo with some Rams fans who turned out to be proponents of moving the franchise back to Los Angeles.
A couple days later, the article apparently made its rounds quickly, accumulating more than 2,000 views (not unheard of for us but definitely extraordinary) and 16 comments (same). I did a bit of searching and found out that a Facebook group called “Bring Back the Los Angeles Rams” had caught wind of my article and posted it to their page. I was somewhat aware this group existed, but I had no idea they had nearly 25,000 “likes.” As of this writing, my article has 421 likes on the page and 79 comments.
Obviously, a boatload of Rams fans still reside in the southern California area that count themselves as passionate Rams fans. Some of these people desperately would like the Rams to move back to Los Angeles. It’s certainly understandable. I probably would too if I had been an LA Rams fan back in 1994, right before they moved to St. Louis.
Meanwhile, almost all of the St. Louis Rams fans are desperate to hold on to the team, especially the fans over the age of 30 who are old enough to remember the pain of losing the football Cardinals to Phoenix in 1987. Some of these fans are insecure about the Rams’ future in St. Louis and freak out whenever they even catch a whiff of LA rumors. It’s certainly understandable. I probably would feel similar if I had already gone through the pain of losing a professional football franchise*.
*I was born in late 1987, so Cardinals history is non-existent for me.
However, if you take a look at those embedded tweets, the comments in my Austin piece, the comments on the STL Today piece, the comments on Turf Show Times’ piece, and the comments on the “Bring Back the LA Rams” Facebook group, you’ll notice a lot of animosity among both sides.
Here’s my suggestion to St. Louis professional fans: Embrace the LA fans. Interact with them; be friendly with them; discuss the current state of the team with them. They’re Rams fans just like you. They care about the team just like you. If you can’t bring yourself to embrace the LA fans, simply ignore them.
But being openly hostile doesn’t do the fanbase any good. It might be tough to swallow your pride and be friendly with people who openly covet your football team and want to take that team from you. You might think it’s similar to dating a new girl who’s still friends with her ex-boyfriend. Sure, you might want to punch that guy in the face once in a while because he’s flirting just a little too openly with a girl who is now in a relationship with you.
Because you haven’t put a ring on her finger yet (or in St. Louis’s case, we haven’t given the Rams a new stadium yet**), the ex-boyfriend still remains a threat. She could leave you at some point for him, and you know it, so you become overly sensitive at times. Although you have plenty of virtues yourself, you know that her ex-boyfriend is a little better looking and more athletic than you no matter which way you cut it (I hope I’m not beating you over the head too hard with the metaphors).
**The stadium issue is worth a column or two on its own. We won’t get into it here.
Sometimes you just need to be the bigger man though. Don’t acknowledge that the ex-boyfriend is a threat. Rather, treat him as you would any other acquaintance of your girlfriend. Shake his hand when you see him, converse when necessary, and go about your business. You’ll probably gain your girlfriend’s admiration and respect. The ex-boyfriend will either grudgingly give his respect too, or he’ll remain a jealous prick. But ultimately you don’t care.
You have a great girlfriend. Hope the best for the ex-boyfriend. Maybe he’ll find someone else soon. After all, there is that one girl in Jacksonville everyone thinks would be a good match for him…
