After 22 years, Rams' fans are loud and proud

After 22 years, Rams' fans are loud and proud

By Bill Plaschke


This is what happens when you wait two decades for the return of your football team.

You don’t leave early. You stay to the sweltering end. You raise your sweaty souls above creaky Coliseum seats in the final moments of their homecoming game and you roar with hope and rage and history.

You roar loud enough, nearly all 91,000 of you, to inspire your weary and backpedaling Rams defense into one last stand.

You roar long enough, your hands waving in the air, to turn the charging Seattle Seahawks’ offense into jelly, one-false start penalty then a lost fumble by Christine Michael to clinch the game.

You roar deeply enough late Sunday afternoon to nearly make an old defensive end weep, Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood shaking his head in the locker room after the Rams 9-3 victory in the first regular-season NFL game played in Los Angeles in 22 years.

“It was a rush,’’ said Youngblood, his throat thick. “Just a rush.’’

OK, St. Louis, change of heart, we’ll keep these guys around awhile, if only for the magic they spread across 39th and Figueroa on a day that ended with thousands standing and screaming and refusing to go home.

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