This is it, folks. All the distractions that surround me can not hide the fact that the Los Angeles Rams are Super Bowl Champions! Not the Rams somewhere else. Not just getting to the Super Bowl, which was cool, too, but not as gold as this - the feeling yesterday, today, for years from now. 6 years ago, they'd just moved back to town, a dream come true. And now, here's the other: a ring! An LA ring! Oh, the satisfaction.
Who is this championship "for" (so to speak)?
The current staff
Current coaches (who did just enough, who I wish gambled a little more, who I wished realized we don't have a good OL and stopped running the ball WEEKS ago [so we're one-dimensional, at least it's a dimension] but also had the stones to call an end-around of all things with the game on the line)
Current players obviously, some of whom are injured, even a couple who should be cut in March for hands of stone and I'm looking at you and I won't even say your name but hey you're a Super Bowl Champion now
The front office - more about them later
Members of the past who gave their all
I would appreciate "Stan Mustache" to make the gesture of a ring, sent to the likes of the family of Deacon Jones, the Youngbloods, Vince Ferragamo, Eric Dickerson, Flipper Anderson, Nolan Cromwell, Fred Dryer, I could go on and on, but you get my drift.
Fans
No shit? Well, yeah, but why do we do this? Why do we go all in on a team? The emotions, the euphoria and dismissive attitudes on something we can't control? If we choose to, we do it for the reasons like last night, this morning, and the glow that will last for the next handful of years. If I can wear my 2020 World Series Champions T shirt still delighted by the result, what's stopping me? Maybe this will blunt or in the least town down any near-future calamities. We won LVI, and that's cool. So dial it back and know there are good times. (I think I'm just writing for my future self now)
And now a mea culpa.
13 months ago I wrote many friends about the trade for Stafford. My reaction was like getting an instant junk shot: all caps, incredulous at what was sold to me and (more specifically) what the Rams were giving away. "They're going all-in! So what if they won't have a draft pick until 2030? They want that Super Bowl now!" was what we were told. I don't know that the phrase necessarily applies, but the sentiment was there. As a fan of the team, don't you want that, though? You want the team you choose to give your interest to do something, even if it's not what you'd do, to show they want to succeed. And sometimes that comes from years of failure because young talent comes together and blooms at the same time. As fans, we tend to like that more because we can see the development like a plant taking root and beginning to grow. It's clear to us. Cobbling together many good parts seems good in theory, but be honest: how often have you seen that fail, underwhelm, not pay off? More times than I care to recall.
Early in the season I admitted the obvious, which was a guarded apology. I considered Stafford an "older Goff" with a ceiling and one prone to make the wrong choice. And, for a stretch this season, I was proven right. In the end, though, someone who knows much more about football than me was right. Those 13 months ago, that knowledgeable football person wanted that deal. And while it could have been handled better, can you dispute the results?
Long ago, Drew Boatman wrote such a statement: "Sometimes, I need to just admit I am wrong about sports." This was a statement personal to him, but believe me that I could likely make a similar list, though it would be things like "we should have kept this person because I was right when I agreed with the team about letting another person go" But Matthew Stafford might be my biggest error. A guy whose mere thought could only yield one positive statement ("go Dawgs, hunker down") and maybe something about how bad it must be to be stuck in Detroit. (Both statements are true, by the way) But HIM? On "my team?" Oh NO. All wrong. Why? Why did we do this?!
That's why.
