Did Somebody Say Football?

Just in case you didn’t notice, I’ve added a link to the Oakland Raiders on my blog. Did you think I was a fan of a different team? Well, you would have been right if this was 1994 when the Los Angeles Rams were still in town. So why am I a fan of the former Oakland-, former Los Angeles-, and current Oakland Raiders? Because I’m still mad at Georgia Frontiere.

See, the thing is, I’ve loved football for as long as I can remember. And I love the home team. My problem is that I don’t have a home team. The Rams were my first team; my dad took me to a Rams home game back in the 60’s at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I liked the Rams then, and I liked the Rams when they moved to Anaheim. I was a fan of the Rams and continued to be up to the time Georgia and Company bailed on us. I was a season ticket holder the last two years the team was in Anaheim, but had attended home games on occasion before that.

During the time the Raiders were in Los Angeles, I became a fan of their team too. I attended at least one home game each of the last few seasons they were in L.A, including the two years I was a Rams season ticket holder. I even went to a couple of Raiders’ away games at San Diego (when it was still Jack Murphy Stadium) against the Chargers. At that time, I still favored the Rams, but more importantly, I was a huge football fan.

There were Sundays in the late 80’s and early 90’s that my whole world revolved around the pro football season. To make matters better, I also held UCLA Bruin football season tickets for a couple of years in a row. (And saw three consecutive wins over USC: ’93, ’94, & ‘95)

After the Rams announced their planned departure I was ready to shift my spending money to the Raiders season ticket program. Surprise! They moved too. So I’ve been without “live” home pro football for several years now. Every time there’s talk about L. A. getting its own pro football team my hopes get up. What really hurt is when Houston Texas got an expansion team. Houston Texas? Didn’t the Oilers leave that city and move to Nashville? How does the NFL give Houston another team (the Texans) before Los Angeles?

Anyway I continued to like the Rams and the Raiders after both teams left town, but in my heart I couldn’t call either one “my team”. They say time heals all wounds. Well, I don’t blame the Rams players’, but I still don’t like Georgia for what she did. (I don’t necessarily like Al Davis for what he did either, but then I wasn’t as big a Raiders fan as I was a Rams fan). So, all that to say sometime during the past couple of seasons I decided I would back the team that is still located in California. The team I can still see live should I have the desire to. (That is when I feel like spending that much time and money on a trip to San Diego – I’m not going to Oakland.)

So join me in welcoming the 2006 NFL season with the pre-season game: the Hall of Fame game. And let’s congratulate former Raiders coach John Madden for being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today.

Addendum to Post: Raiders - 16, Eagles - 10