 A REPLY TO THE LA TIMES, BY VALLEYRAM (Dec 1) |
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In the LA TIMES SPORTS
SECTION every Monday morning they have a section called the "Two-Minute Drill"
in which they have a one or two sentence commentary on each of the Sunday NFL games. I
believe it is written by TJ Simers. This past Monday the comment in the Two-Minute Drill
section on the Ram/Saint game said... "Kurt Warner doesn't exactly remind you of
Dieter Brock, does he? No justice for Ram fans in Southern California." This pretty much was the last straw as far as this life-long SoCal Ram fan was concerned so I emailed the LA TIMES the following---> Dear Mr. Simers or who ever wrote the "Two-Minute Drill" comments in Monday's edition of the Times, You wrote "Kurt Warner doesn't exactly remind you of Dieter Brock, does he? No justice for Ram fans in Southern California." Sir, I think you need to be seriously educated about "Ram fans in Southern California". As a 31 year old, passionate Ram fan since birth I think I know a little bit about SoCal Ram fans and am as qualified to speak on the subject as anyone. You imply in your comment that "justice for Ram fans in Southern California" would be seeing the Rams consistently lose and fail in St. Louis. With the possible exception of yourself and perhaps a couple of other Times writers, 95% of SoCal NFL fans are TOTALLY APATHETIC about the St. Louis Rams and were TOTALLY APATHETIC about the LA Rams from 1990-1994 before they left for greener astroturf in St. Louis. The vast majority of SoCals frankly don't give a damn about the Rams, they haven't throughout the decade of the '90's, and they certainly do not harbor any bitterness towards the Rams or Georgia Frontiere, because they JUST DON'T CARE. I was part of a "cult" of Ram fans who attended every home game during the "demise years" of the Rams in the early '90's, and I am still a part of this proud cult of SoCal Ram fans who still loves the team even though they moved to St. Louis (Its fairly accurate to use the term "cult" because during the Rams last season in SoCal, 1994, there were literally only 15,000 - 20,000 Ram fans who attended games regularly, anything over that number were fans of the opposing team). And there is still a solid core of thousands of die-hard SoCal Ram fans who suffered through the move to St. Louis and endured the initial losing seasons there. Rest assured that we are not bitter over the St. Louis Rams astounding success this season---WE ARE REJOICING IN THE SUCCESS MORE THAN EVER! We long time Ram fans have NEVER enjoyed a season as exciting as this one has been in every phase of the game. It has been unbelievably enjoyable and delightful to us...beyond words! THIS is what we Southern California Ram fans call JUSTICE! Especially in light of the coinciding demise of the hated 49ers. We can wear Ram gear around SoCal and not get snickered at---we are boasting, we are prideful, we have something to smile about. Did you see that there were 6000-7000 Ram fans up at the game at 3Com Park a week and a half ago? Do you realize that 90% of those Ram fans drove up from SoCal for the game? I drove home Sunday night after the game and everywhere I stopped along the road I saw nothing but Ram fans at gas stations, fast food joints, convenience stores, you name it. We were all driving back down with smiles on our faces from ear to ear. We've got nothing but love for the Rams still, so to read in your paper frequent comments that imply that Southern California Ram fans are more bitter than ever now that the Rams are THE BEST TEAM IN THE NFL, tells me that you are out of touch with reality. There are only two kinds of Ram fans---those who still care and are rejoicing in the Rams success, and those who stopped caring about the Rams at some point in the early '90's when they got off the bandwagon (in other words, there is only one kind of Ram fan in SoCal these days---the true fans who never lost their love for the team). I am honestly not trying to vent any anger or bitterness towards you for doing your job, I just think you're not doing your job very well. You are buried under misconceptions about how SoCal Ram fans are feeling right now, so I just wanted to write you and clear up your misconceptions---WE ARE LOVING THE RAMS MORE THAN EVER. Talk to me about a Ram team that was EVER more exciting or more talented than the current one. You would probably have to go back to the '50s and even then it would be a highly debatable argument. So the bottom line is this---if you want to keep making remarks that appeal to the thousands of anti-Ram bitter-nicks out there in SoCal, you're mistaken for thinking they even exist. They don't---their short-lived bitterness turned to total apathy. But if you want to keep us thousands of loyal SoCal Ram fans picking up the LA TIMES sports page every day to read whatever tidbits we can about our beloved team, present them in a forward thinking light which understands that the Rams are now and always will be the St. Louis Rams. That os going to earn you a little bit more respect for doing your job in an intelligently progressive manner. If you want to do a real story on the Rams, you could come to the National Sports Grill in West Covina any Sunday, where over 100 long-time, die-hard, blue and gold clad Ram fans gather to go berserk cheering for the weekly St. Louis Rams rock and roll fireworks show. It is the number one gathering place in SoCal for Ram fans and most of us there have been following the team for over 20 years. You could get some interesting insights into the mindset of Southern California Ram fans and learn what our idea of "justice" really is. Thanks for your time, and props to Tim Brown for his excellent article on the Rams in Tuesdays paper. I enjoy reading the Times sports section every day---it is truly world-class. "ValleyRam" |
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