The dreams of boys and men
For sports fans, life becomes a card catalog of seasons and teams and hopes and dreams and wins and loses and . . . wait-till-next-year!
My earliest football memories are of the La Habra Highlanders in the mid-1960s, taking the field at Whittier and Idaho, in their Highlander blue-and-white home uniforms. I was six years old and captivated by the monster-like figures chasing after each other on Fall Friday nights.
My first BIG STADIUM adventure was a visit to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum circa 1966. Dad took me and my older brothers and we had seats so far up in the peristyle end of the stadium that the players on the field looked like ants.
No matter. Football was big medicine and I would have sat on the moon with binoculars to watch the Rams play that day.
Back from St. Louis
In 2016 the “St. Louis” Rams (that tasted awful coming out!) returned to Los Angeles and again took up residence at the Coliseum. Like many Angelinos, I held a grudge against the team for ditching us back in 1995 for promises of a new stadium and greener “grass” in the Gateway City.
Yes, yes, yes—the team won their first Superbowl in 2000/01 while on foreign soil. But who did they think they were coming back to Los Angeles as if nothing had happened between us? That can’t be right, right?
I was as unhappy as a jilted lover and unwilling to let bygones be bygones. I determined to ignore the "Los Angeles Rams 2.0” for the entirety of the 2016 season, which I did. By the next season I was over it and once again became a Rams fan.
Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford, and the Superbowl
In 2019, first-round draft pick, Jared Goff, led the Rams to the SuperBowl—which they lost to the New England Patriots, 13-3. Still, it was a harbinger of better things to come—and quickly.
By 2020 the Rams had a new quarterback and a new home—billion dollar Sofi Stadium on the footprint of the former Hollywood Park race track. In a fairly straight-forward move—but one that would become intriguing in the near term—the Rams and Detroit Lions swapped quarterbacks. Jared Goff headed east and Matthew Stafford, with 12 mostly meh seasons under his belt, came west.
Initially, it looked like the Rams got the better end of the deal. In 2021, Stafford led the team to a Superbowl victory in his first season in blue and gold.
But, not so fast.
Fast-forward to 2023
For the first time in 30 seasons, the Detroit Lions are the Champions of the NFC North Division at 12-5. And Jared Goff is the toast of the Motor City. He completed 67% of his passes for 4,255 yards and 30 touchdowns. He’s ranked the number six QB in the NFC by NFL.com. And, if not for a very, very, very questionable call late in the Dallas game, the Lions would be 13-4.
Delicious destiny
When the Rams and Lions swapped QBs, the football world was a'twitter with all manor of predictions on who got the best end of the trade. Most “experts” thought the Rams fleeced the Lions (pun intended). But the experts are clearing their throats and averting their eyes now. In Detroit, Goff is seen as “the future,” not just a tackling dummy who brought a slew of future draft choices with him to Motown.
On the threshold of a dream
This Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions will square-off in an NFC Wildcard contest at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit. This will be a golden opportunity for both quarterbacks to restate their cases in a head-to-head contest no one imagined possible in September. The only thing that could make this game bigger is if they were playing for the NFC Championship.
Just between friends
I have a friend and former work collegue who grew up in Michigan and, by definition, is a long-suffering Lions fan. He’s seen it all and must have shaken his head in disbelief innumerable times. So, I’ve been texting him from time to time about the “New Look Lions” and their improbable 2023 season. And about former Rams quarterback, Jared Goff.
Since winning an NFL championship in 1957—a decade before the first Super Bowl was played—the Lions have won just one playoff game, in the 1991 season, against the Dallas Cowboys. That’s right: one playoff victory since the Eisenhower administration.
So, Sunday looms big for both of us—an aging expatriate Angelino hoping for the improbable, and a sage Harley-riding outdoorsman looking for a miracle.
Rams. Lions. Wildcard weekend.
I’m sure there will be a few texts after the game.
I am torn between the two teams. I love and hate the Rams for all your reasons and long for a Detroit win. But they still need to get past my Cowboys 😉