Tom Flores on the LA Market/MMQB

From MMQB--

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Los Angeles, that elusive jewel of the west coast that saw two franchises flee in the 90’s, now once again has two NFL franchises. A notoriously capricious community of fans will split its rooting interests between the Rams and the Chargers, two teams that combined for a 9-23 record last year.

For first-year head coaches Anthony Lynn (Chargers) and Sean McVay (Rams), it’s win or go home. It’s with this overarching sense of organizational urgency that the Raiders took to Los Angeles in 1982 following team owner Al Davis’ public feud with the city of Oakland and NFL ownership at large. The Raiders coach then, Tom Flores, took a 7-9 team with aging stars to a city with little patience for losers and in short order identified the nucleus of a team that wouldn’t have another losing season until 1987. Oh, and 1982 was a strike season.

“The L.A. audience was different,” says Flores, 80, now a color commentator for the team’s radio network. “We had good crowds immediately because we were competitive. We combined our fans throughout California with some of the fickle L.A. crowds and had a good crowd for a long time. But if you’re not winning they won’t come. That’s the way it is there.”


Flores’ team finished 8-1 in 1982, taking advantage of a number of circumstances these Rams and Chargers won’t enjoy. He had a Super Bowl champion quarterback in Jim Plunkett, continuity on his coaching staff, veterans with playoff experience, and the benefit of a pre-internet existence (“There were a lot of things that happened that would end up on YouTube today, and honestly they would be pretty funny, if you’re not running the team,” Flores says.) The only thing either of these teams have in common with Flores’ Raiders is the venue; the Rams will once again play in the cavernous 93,000-seat L.A. Memorial Coliseum. The Chargers will play at the 27,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, home of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy.

“Bottom line,” Flores says, “there’s an unknown future for these teams if they don’t succeed immediately in the win-loss column. Football is sacred in many other parts of the country; it is not sacred in Los Angeles.”