Your Reigning, Defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers are wrapping up practice today. In antici[ation of their Sunday tilt versus the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams are a storied franchise. They began as the Cleveland Rams. Then moved to L.A. in 1946 to become the L.A. Rams. With that move, the integration of ‘black’ players into the NFL began. The Rams signed UCLA standouts Kenny Washington and Willie Strode.
The Rams proved themselves as a top-tier team in the early 1950s. They had a collection of Stars. From Sam Waterfield to Crazy leg Hirsh They became so popular that they were the 1st team to have all of their games televised. Yet they only won one NFL championship. The equivalent of the Super Bowl at the time. In the 1960s the Ram featured the Fearsome Foursome of Rosy Grier, Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy, and Merlin Olsen. They had strong-armed Roman Gabriel as their QB. In 1967 they became the 1st team to surpass a million spectators in a season. But they could not win the big one. The same happened in the ’70s, the ’80s, and the ’90s. In 2000, now in St Louis, the Rams won their 1st and only Super Bowl with the greatest show on turf. Then they fell back to earth and faded away.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won two Superbowls in far less time and are on the hunt for their third. These are heady times for Buc fans. Joy is in the air and confidence is high. Don’t take this for granted Buccaneer fans. There are fans of thirty-one other franchises that want to be you right now. The Los Angeles Rams fanbase is one of them. They have been around since the 1950s and have not enjoyed the same success. They don’t draw large crowds anymore. They have almost ceased to be. To be or not to be is not the question anymore for Buccaneer fans. The question is how much Be will we BE. Let’s enjoy the ride and fire them CANNONs. Aaargh matey.