Team Stumbles Upon Winning Promotion
Sunday afternoon, somewhat earlier than expected, the Rams moved.
They twitched. They stirred. They showed a heartbeat and a blip of brain activity and a will to do something--do anything --besides mope around the homestead for another four wasted months, waiting for the vans to come and cart them away.
You’ve heard and read about the various potential destinations. Baltimore. St. Louis. Hartford.
No one ever mentioned first place, which is where the Rams incredibly sit today--in sole possession, at least for the last remaining hours before the 49ers kick off--for the first time since October, 1989.
The Rams won their season opener Sunday, another franchise first since 1989. They did so by beating the Arizona Cardinals and Buddy Ryan, 14-12, in the kind of performance that might not win them many new fans, but could go a ways toward luring back the old ones.
“Our fans are going to come back and support us,” insisted Ram tailback Jerome Bettis, whose historic game-winning touchdown plunge wasn’t witnessed by many, just 32,969, barely more than the recently skinned Pigskin Classic.
“We’ve been losing, but our fans have got to come back to us. They’ve got to come back to us, so we can pull this thing off.”
Keeping the Rams in Anaheim is the thing, last-ditch and desperate as it may be. Stranger things have happened, no doubt, although one fails to come to mind at the moment.
If there’s a chance, even one in 10,000, it begins here, on the floor and in the stands of Anaheim Stadium, where the Rams and their fans have disappointed one another for so long. The credibility chasm between this team and Orange County wasn’t created overnight. There’s only one way to bridge it, to abridge it, and if you don’t know the word for it, Bettis will spot you the first letter.
“It’s a W,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. We needed a W, and we got it.”
Win. What a concept. For the first time on an opening Sunday this decade the Rams tried it, and their jaws dropped at the consequences.
Fans standing on their feet, shouting and begging for hand slaps instead of dumping their beer on the Rams as they jog through the north tunnel.
Fans standing on their feet after the sound of the final gun, instead of cruising the diamond lane on the southbound 55.
It was a rare glimpse of life on the other side, and for the Rams, free again to leave the field without their helmets buckled up, it felt good.
Chuck Knox, unprompted, began shaking writers’ hands as he walked out of his postgame news conference. His voice was shaking and his eyes were moist.
For Knox, this was the equivalent of ripping off his shirt, throwing his shoes into the whirlpool and turning cartwheels in the trainer’s room.
“I’m more excited about this one than I’ve been in a long time,” Knox said, which was obvious. “There’s been a lot to overcome around here and those guys in there did it. That’s why I’m so proud of them.”
Knox, much like his team, has been rumored to be out the door any minute. Win or else is not the predicament facing him. Win and even that might not be enough is closer to the point.
If the Rams relocate, the thinking goes, they are going to want to start anew, beginning from the top on down.
“This was big for Chuck,” said Chris Miller, the Rams’ new quarterback. “Definitely big for Chuck. He came in here after the game with a lot of excitement. He was very animated.”
Joe Vitt, Ram assistant head coach and staunch Knox disciple, bristled, however, at this line of conversation.
“Chuck’s been there before,” Vitt said. “It’s not like this is the first win Chuck has ever had.
“Chuck is going to make the Hall of Fame a lot quicker than Buddy Ryan is. I’ve been with Chuck 11 years and every program he’s had, he’s turned around.”
And the “Chuck’s Last Stand” headlines?
“That’s headlines in this town,” Vitt snapped. “People around the league and our players know that Chuck has done it everywhere he’s ever been. This is the best talent level he’s had here in three years.
“Out of the 28 coaches in this league, he’s still the best, in my opinion, to work for.”
And so what if this victory parade teetered on an overthrown two-point conversion attempt by Cardinal quarterback Steve Beuerlein . . . and a certain touchdown bomb that trickled through the hands of Cardinal wide receiver Ricky Proehl . . . and a Cardinal punt with three minutes left that was fumbled by one Bailey, Johnny, and fortuitously recovered by another, Robert?
“That’s football,” Knox said. “You coach long enough, you’re going to see plays like that. Some go for you, some go against you. The bottom line is, we won the game.”
Miller, who completed just six of 16 passes in his Ram debut, yet left the field laughing and flipping the football end over end with his right hand, put it more colorfully:
“That wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world. That wasn’t a Rembrandt. But burn that S.O.B. We won the ballgame.”
Dozens of Ram fans saw it, too.
Maybe they’ll tell a friend.
Maybe this is the first step on the road to recovering the Orange County Rams.
Beat Buddy Day, followed in two weeks by Bring A Buddy Day.