Rams get warm welcome on first day of camp/JT

Rams get warm welcome on first day of camp

By Jim Thomas

[www.stltoday.com]

IRVINE, Calif. • Ray Khoury, 16, and his three football teammates from El Dorado High School were the first ones in line — 8:30 in the morning, or a mere seven hours before the start of Rams practice.

“My dad’s been a fan since they were in LA originally,” said Khoury, wearing Chris Long’s original jersey as a Ram, No. 72. “My dad always told me they were coming back. Growing up, he’d tell me don’t cheer for the Rams. We need them to lose. They’re not going to move a winning team back to LA.”

The Rams did their part in St. Louis, posting 12 consecutive non-winning seasons before NFL owners bowed to Stan Kroenke’s wallet and stadium plan, and approved the move back to Los Angeles after 21 seasons in the Midwest.

Khoury said he’s been hearing the “Rams are moving back” mantra from his dad for about six years.

“So when it actually happened, I was shocked,” Khoury said.

Turns out Dad was right. To the pain and chagrin of many in St. Louis, the Rams opened training camp Saturday at the University of California, Irvine.

Besides the El Dorado gang, there were about a dozen fans hanging out by the practice entrance by about 10 a.m., with more showing up as the morning went by. The gates to the practice fields — which are converted soccer fields — didn’t open until 2 p.m.

Few were as hyped up as Bobby Stephen, 53, of Huntington Beach. Wearing a Jack Youngblood jersey, Stephen was so excited, he sounded as if he were, oh, a little over-caffeinated.

“I couldn’t root for them when they moved to St. Louis,” Stephen said. “I just couldn’t root for them. When the Rams moved back here, oh man!”

Stephen said he has been watching tapes of old LA Rams games almost continuously since then.

“At home, every night. Till midnight,” said Stephen, who works for a direct mail marketing firm. “Just ask my kids. I’m all pumped.”

But he didn’t watch a second of the Rams’ Super Bowls in St. Louis, when they were known as the Greatest Show on Turf.

“I didn’t care,” Stephen said. “No. My boy called me Bandwagon Dad because when the Rams left I didn’t care.

Others did, like Fernando Gudino, 57, of Whittier.

“I’ve been a fan since Roman Gabriel, Deacon Jones,” said Gudino, a flooring subcontractor. “If you’re a fan, that’s your team. We have no control if an owner decides to take ’em (elsewhere).”

So Gudino, who came with his son Nathan, 19, said he felt for the fans in St. Louis.

“I do, I do,” he said. “Because you know, we went through it. In reality, the Rams were from Cleveland I believe. So we all know what it feels like. We have no control over it.”

Others weren’t so empathetic.

“Not really, they took them from us,” said one of the El Dorado High football players.

Others shouted, “The Rams are back! The Rams are back!” as the gates opened at 2 p.m. and hundreds of fans streamed out to the practice field bleachers.

Many wore “LA” Rams gear. There were a lot of Todd Gurley jerseys, with a few Marshall Faulks, Isaac Bruces, and Kurt Warners sprinkled in.

A souvenir stand just inside the gate even had a Torry Holt jersey for sale. The Warner jerseys had yet to arrive, said Jen Hertzberg of Legends Hospitality, a concessionaire service partly owned by Kroenke pal Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner who helped get the Rams to LA.

At 3 p.m.. or a half hour before the start of practice, a roar went up when the first Rams player walked out on the field.

“Who’s No. 34?” wondered one fan.

It was Chase Reynolds, special teams ace.

When all was said and done, the Rams announced the attendance as 10,112. But over the last 45 minutes of practice, as the Rams moved to the other side of the practice field, what became the far side of bleachers emptied as fans left early. Anyone who has ever been to a Dodgers game has seen this happen.

Operating in a much bigger area than training camp at Earth City, there were concession stands behind one end zone, a first aid station, inflatables for the kids to crawl on, and rather oddly, an information tent to join the Inglewood, Calif., police department.

Behind the opposite end zone were VIP tents, including one for family and friends of players. And one for former Rams players. Among those in the player tent were former LA Rams quarterback Jim Everett, Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jackie Slater (who played one game for the St. Louis Rams in 1995), and quarterback Dave Barr (who suddenly is everywhere).

Yes, the same Dave Barr who scored the last Rams touchdown in the Dome at America’s Center at last week’s Legends of the Dome game. He lives and works in nearby Torrance.

“The whole event was a thrill, and what a way to cap it,” said Barr, referring to the Legends game and his TD.

Former defensive tackle D’Marco Farr was on hand, and so was fullback James “The Hammer” Hodgins, who coaches high school football in the San Francisco area. So was Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who was here working for the NFL Network.

There were no sightings of Kroenke, aka Malibu Stan. (He undoubtedly will be staying at his Malibu home more often now that the Rams are in California.)

Lucia Rodriguez, the daughter of late Rams owner Georgia Frontiere and brother of Chip Rosenbloom, was in attendance. She now goes by Lucia Rosenbloom.

While happy to see the Rams in California, she said, “I miss St. Louis, I really do. I feel for St. Louis.”

The largely boisterous crowd turned dark late in practice, when quarterback Jared Goff had problems with a center exchange and then threw an interception over the middle to safety Cody Davis.

On the first day of training camp for the LA Rams, the crowd booed Goff, the No. 1 overall draft pick.

“C’mon Goff, you’re in LA!” yelled one fan, a reminder that the fan base figures to be more fickle here than in St. Louis.

Starting right tackle Rob Havenstein was not at practice and may miss a few weeks. He’s on the physically unable to perform list while a fractured toe (from offseason conditioning) fully heals.

And no one in the Rams organization knows exactly what’s up with running back Tre’ Mason. Coach Jeff Fisher said he has been unable to contact Mason, who has had off-field issues, since the end of last season. Mason was placed on the reserve/did not report list Saturday.

But that didn’t dampen the day for Fisher or his team, which is back in California for the first time since 1994. After the Rams’ first practice back in LA, Fisher spoke to a media crowd only slightly larger than what was the norm for the first day of camp in St. Louis.

“It was great to come out of the locker room if you will and see the fans and see the stands full,” Fisher said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a long way to go with this football team. The atmosphere’s certainly gonna help.

“We gathered (the players) up just before we got started, just to kind of calm them down. When the atmosphere’s the way it was and the environment, and the fans and the support, there’s that tendency to go a little bit more quicker earlier in practice than you should.

“I just encouraged them to make sure they got warmed up so we didn’t have any issues.”