I like homecomings. I returned to my own hometown a few months ago after nearly 30 years away. It was great, and it is great. It doesn't work out for everyone and it doesn't make sense for everyone, but if it works out for you, it's a great thing. And when you get home, it should feel like home.
So even though the Rams are not my favorite team (that would be the Vikings), I love that they have returned home to Los Angeles. The new stadium in Inglewood looks to be spectacular when it's done, but until then it feels very right to see them once again playing in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Seeing classic Los Angeles Rams like Fred Dryer, Jackie Slater, Eric Dickerson and many others coming out to support the new Los Angeles Rams - not to mention the packed house of fans who showed up for the first preseason game against the Cowboys - is proof things that were once right can be made right again
But one thing is glaringly wrong with this whole picture, and the only reason it's wrong is the pointless stubbornness and inflexibility of the NFL. Those classic Rams players and the many Southern California fans are showing up in the classic blue and yellow colors of the L.A. Rams. Just about everyone in the Coliseum is wearing those colors. In fact, the only people not wearing those colors (aside from the opposing team, of course) are the Rams themselves.
Because the Rams made the lamentable decision to switch to soulless, washed out colors during their years in St. Louis, they now fall under a silly NFL rule that does not permit teams to change their uniforms until two years after requesting the chance to make a change. There's a potential loophole, but even that is a no-go in the no-fun, lawyer-run NFL:
The Rams will wear their classic blue and yellow uniforms twice next season, the maximum the league allows for alternate throwback uniforms, but the team is working with the league to expand that number. Teams are required by the league to submit requests to change uniforms between January and March and then must wait two years to implement those changes. The team does not plan on making any significant uniform changes until moving into their new stadium in Inglewood in 2019.
“I understand they can’t make a change for another year or two, but they don’t have to wear that uniform, they can choose to wear anything they want,” Dryer said. “Those Rams horns are known globally and for them to bastardize it like this by putting these two stripes is stupid. They should fix those horns because right now, it’s bull----."
Dryer’s sentiment was shared by many of the former players and fans wearing blue and yellow shirts and hats and throwback uniforms at the Coliseum.
“It’s the best uniform,” former Rams running back Eric Dickerson said as he walked around the field with his blue and yellow No. 29 jersey. “I think the Rams know the importance of these uniforms and colors, but everything has to go through the league and with the league it’s always about the money. I hope they can go back to wearing these uniforms and these colors because it’s synonymous with the Los Angeles Rams.”
No one has been asked about the uniforms more than Kevin Demoff, the executive vice president of football operations and chief operating officer for the Rams. It’s usually the second thing out of the mouths of former players and fans after welcoming the team back to Los Angeles.
“The blue and yellow uniforms are our throwback alternate jerseys and we can wear them twice and we will wear them twice,” Demoff said. “We’re working on new uniforms to open up the new Inglewood stadium in 2019. We’re going to figure out a program in the interim to make our fans happy but also build for the future in Inglewood. I know it’s important to our fans. But I know it’s more important to have the team back and the jerseys are next, but it’s great to see the players wearing those colors.”
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This is just ridiculous. The ostensible reason for the waiting-period requirement is to give the NFL's marketers time to prepare strategies for marketing the new uniforms while still being able to make maximum dollar selling the existing ones to fans. In this case, that simply makes no sense. L.A. fans hate the St. Louis uniforms and won't buy them. They want the L.A. colors, as they should. If the Rams can unveil new uniforms until 2019 - and they'll certainly be some sort of updated take on the classic L.A. colors - then the only marketing play that makes any sense at all is to ditch the St. Louis colors entirely and let the Rams wear the '70s and '80s era throwbacks for the entire seasons leading up to the opening of the new stadium and the unveiling of the new uniforms.
Not to mention the fact that it would make the Rams fans very happy, which is no small thing considering how they've welcomed the Rams back to the very city they abandoned 20 years ago.
A simple common-sense decision by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell could solve this entire problem. He could simply explain that because of the unusual nature of the situation, it makes no sense to limit the Rams to only two uses of the throwback uniforms per season when they're clearly the only uniforms anyone in Los Angeles wants to see them wear.
But common sense coming from Roger Goodell would be a very unusual thing. So we're probably stuck watching the St. Louis look on the Los Angeles field while the fans scratch their heads and wonder why their team can't embrace their own identity. I'll tell you why: Because the NFL is ridiculous.
I like homecomings. I returned to my own hometown a few months ago after nearly 30 years away. It was great, and it is great. It doesn't work out for everyone and it doesn't make sense for everyone, but if it works out for you, it's a great thing. And when you get home, it should feel like home.
So even though the Rams are not my favorite team (that would be the Vikings), I love that they have returned home to Los Angeles. The new stadium in Inglewood looks to be spectacular when it's done, but until then it feels very right to see them once again playing in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Seeing classic Los Angeles Rams like Fred Dryer, Jackie Slater, Eric Dickerson and many others coming out to support the new Los Angeles Rams - not to mention the packed house of fans who showed up for the first preseason game against the Cowboys - is proof things that were once right can be made right again
