When you see the loyalty of UCLA and USC fans to their college football teams don't tell me football isn't highly revered and cherished in LA.
High school football is king in SoCal during the fall. So please Mr. Flores, you are not from around here so you don't know. The Rams were very much an institution here in LA from 1946 until the late 1980s. What was wrong was horrible ownership towards the end. It was a horrible decision to move the Rams out of LA in 1979 to Orange County and to allow Al Davis and the Raiders to move in. It split the fanbase. Most of those Raider fans were Rams fans who were pissed at losing season seats their families had held for years with the Rams. They didn't want to drive to Orange County to see their team. A good portion of the fanbase for the Rams was in the San Fernando Valley and West LA and the Southbay and Orange County, while ok for a afternoon at Disneyland was not considered a destination of choice.
Ownership and ownership decisions are key to fan acceptance.
Grits