RIVALRY--AN EXCHANGE BETWEEN TWO FANSAdd yourself to The HERD's Official Roster (guestbook), if you think you are man enough!
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Enjoy--
Zack
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I remember the years when the Rams used to Kill the 49ers. And then, there was a period when the Rams and 49ers were both good. And the last ten years or so, the 49ers have been killing the Rams.
Of the three eras, the one I liked best was when BOTH teams were good. The rivalry really meant something then. You can't have a great rivalry if one team is lousy (look at what happened to the Redskins/Cowboys rivalry). Its gonna get boring if we end up clubbing them for a decade or so.
I really do hope the 49ers and Rams are good in the coming years. I love a great rivalry. Conners/Mcenroe, Ali/Frasier, Lakers/Celtics, Michigan/Ohio, Nicklaus/Palmer, Federation/Borg...etc... To me sports is at its best when you have two great forces meeting each other. I've posted this notion before, and I'll say it again -- I don't want the 49ers to crumble; I want to beat them while they are still good. Where is the fun in beating a doormat?
Certain American Indian tribes rated or gauged themselves by how powerful their enemies were. They were INSPIRED by their enemies courage and vigor. They felt a strange kinship with their enemy. A victory over a powerful enemy fed their soul in a way that a victory over a puny, weak rival, could not.
I still think there is some life in Young and Rice and company. I see it like this: Falcons 10-6 Rams 10-6 49ers 10-6 Panthers 8-8 Saints 8-8
wv ram
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Nobody from another part of the country who has never lived in San Francisco or Los Angeles will ever know the true meaning of this rivalry between the Rams and the 49ers.
See WV, the Rams vs 49ers has been one of the most storied rivalries since the Rams moved to LA in 46 and the Whiners came into being in the early Fifties and they started playing each other at least twice and sometimes three or four times a season. The only other more intense rivalry for the Rams, if you can believe it, was George Halas's Chicago Bears...but we'll get into that later on.
It's been the Rams vs the 49ers for five decades now, and you have to understand it was pretty much LA vs SF. Dodgers vs Giants, Rams vs 49ers, Angels vs A's, Lakers vs Warriors, USC vs Stanford, UCLA vs Cal. Understand where I'm going here? Even in the Shrine All-Star High School Football classic played here, usually in the Rose Bowl for years and then some in the Coliseum, it was the Northern California High School Football All-Stars versus the Southern California High School Football All-Stars. Its' always Northern California versus Southern California or LA vs SF.
So, my point is that there always has been a rivalry for me and other Rams fans in LA/Southern California. Even when the Rams were pounding the 49ers twice a year in the 60s and 70s we still hated them because they were from San Francisco. Even when the 49ers and John Brodie won the Western division in 70, 71 and 72 under coach Dick Nolan the Rams were still beating them twice a season. They (49ers) could not beat the Rams--no matter how bad the Rams played most of the season (71 and 72), they just couldn't beat the Rams. They never beat the Rams at Candlestick (now 3Com) the first ten seasons that stadium was in existence.
You've always liked the Rams but you don't understand the hatred between LA and SF. Myself being a long time fan of the Rams and growing up here in LA County do understand. I've been able to carry that over now that the Rams are in St. Louis, because this futility against the F'n Faggy Whiners started here in SoCal--and that is why my hatred for the Whiners is so intense and I want nothing but to see the Rams dominate them the way they did for the next decade or so. No, it will be extremely exciting for me and gratifying for me each time the Rams ream those ######s.
Grits
