The LA Rams: Success

It sunk in quickly for me.  The Rams are going to the Super Bowl.  The LOS ANGELES Rams, as it was meant to be.  As I'd dreamed.  As I'd written about on this very blog.  And not a re-hash of Super Bowl XIV.  The real thing.  I'm overjoyed!

That isn't the narrative, of course.  It was the missed Pass Interference call.  It's turned not just Saints fans, but many MANY professional hot-takers, into those very infamous Talk About Its: those in the sportsbook who drink too much, don't win, and can't stop telling you why their incorrect guess should be correct.

I, of course, can mention 2 missed Fase Mask calls, 2 missed Delay of Game calls, and I just get "Yeah, but...".  OK, we all agree, they missed the call.  The game didn't end that very minute, but that's what everyone wants to think.

I've seen some incredible home-team delusions in my day.  I saw the Vikings fans in the...hell, doesn't matter the decade.  "Letting go" is not a phrase in their lexicon.  But I also never saw the Vikings fans want to sue the league.  Or demand the Kommissar start it over and play again.  These people aren't dreaming.  They aren't joking.  They aren't upset just because they ran out of salami.  They're serious.  One so serious to spend real money to buy billboards in Atlanta, site of Super Bowl LIIIIIIIIIIII to remind everyone it should be the SAINTS that represent the NFC.  We all agree?

As I've always said, if you don't want your money, just give it to me.  But honestly, these fuckers really think this is pro wrestling, where suddenly a new ref will come out and say no, we saw in the back he hit him with the belt/brass knuckles/roll of dimes, and the REAL winner is _____.  We've gone to wacky world.

The day following the game I went to the beach.  There, I saw a large amount of tourists along with LA citizens.  I saw Rams gear a-plenty.  A child yelled at me "GO RAMS!"  That's right, son.  We're gonna do it.  Hell, we got this far!  Can you believe it!  After so many years gone from LA...

Oh shit.

Fuck.

I forgot about that good ole narrative...LOS ANGELES DOESN'T DESERVE A TEAM!  Don't EVER let it die, right, windbags?!  "Jimmy Traina" of Sports Illustrated and "Joe Flint" (clearly a bot and not a real person) of The Wall Street Journal, take it away:

For fuck's sake.  So Los Angeles just flat out doesn't get together to watch football games.  It must be solitary, in the privacy of their own home.  This metric alone will show "true" fandom.  Shouldn't have won.  Shouldn't have the Rams back (where they never should have left, nor run by Georgia).  Shouldn't HAVE an NFL team because...well...Rams fans don't watch enough TV.  And the Dodgers fans leave early!  And Lakers fans DURRRRRRRRRR

The envy, folks.  The envy on this one is mighty THICK!  Not just for victory, but everything: lifestyle, weather, whatever is seen...through their eyes, ready to judge, deliver the opinions to an agreeing 49 states.

"They don't care."

I think, as a Rams fan, as a person who long hoped for just the team to arrive, to having to put with Jeff Fisher as a coach...to someone who's phone was so nutso after the game that the fucking network went down...I'll tell you what I don't care about.

Everyone else's thoughts.

Oh that might sound harsh, but inasmuch I don't have any interest in saying I'm for or against any other team, that I know next to nothing about any other team, I don't spend any of my effort, energy, or time (for what it's worth) on giving a flying fuck about other teams.  It doesn't interest me, and I can't see how someone could for another.

Wait.  WAIT.  I've got it.

Hmm...no, because if I lived in New Orleans, there are so many things to do, so much culture, that I wouldn't get that bent out of shape...but I guess that's just me.  Because if I DID care, and went out of my way, on an ongoing basis, to do so...

I'd be a windbag.