Lansford Tired of Ram Fans Getting Kicked

This week in Anaheim/St. Louis Ram history, our hometown-through-Christmas-Eve heroes finally sell out a home game, thereby engendering goodwill throughout thousands of Southern California households now deprived of Dallas-San Francisco, and approach their Battle of Los Angeles against the Raiders with John Shaw telephoning fans in St. Louis to whisper sweet nothings into their earpieces.

A sense of timing. Some people are born with it, some people develop it and some people send Jerome Bettis into the middle of the line three times in a row with the ball on the one-yard line.

As one who grew up rooting for the Rams, grew rich kicking for them and has lately grown mortified over Shaw’s attempts to move them east, Mike Lansford has seen it all, so he is no longer surprised by any of it.

Except for, maybe, that part about Shaw picking up the phone and making small talk with Joe and Jim Fan in St. Louis.

“I can’t even imagine that,” Lansford said, chatting with a few sportswriters after a Tuesday afternoon luncheon at Anaheim Stadium.

“You guys have met John Shaw. Can you imagine him getting on the phone and talking to fans? The man does not like people, period.”

The John Shaw Lansford knows is “(most) comfortable just going to the racetrack and hanging out”--far from the madding crowd. Or, sequestered behind closed doors, figuring out how to put the squeeze on some NFL-deprived city, or a barefooted kicker.

“I just hope John hasn’t made a decision yet,” Lansford said. “It kind of scares me a little bit. I’ve dealt with him, you know.

“He is,” Lansford added, lowering his voice for emphasis, “a shrewd businessman.”

Those contractual wars of yore are small potatoes when compared to yanking a 50-year-old L.A. institution out by the roots and transplanting it in another time zone. Lansford, a card-carrying member of the Save The Rams coalition, said he is “sick” about the franchise’s present predicament.

“I have selfish reasons for wanting the team to stay here,” he said. “I’m a businessman in the area, I’m the team’s all-time leading scorer, I had a great career here. I grew up as a Ram fan.

“But besides those reasons, we’re losing one of the now-30 NFL franchises--and, chances are, we won’t get a team to replace it. I think everybody responsible for the team leaving should really look at it strongly before it happens.

“I would be sick if the Rams left, honestly. I personally believe the NFL is the best attraction out there, and not just because I was a player. From a fan-interest standpoint, it’s one of the best. For the fans here to lose a franchise, it would be catastrophic.”

But those fans can’t support an NFL franchise. Shaw has informed them, repeatedly, of this. Shaw waves turnstile counts of 34,000 in their faces and sneers, “See, you don’t deserve a team.”

Lansford shook his head.

“I don’t know what the attendance figures were when they first came in Orange County in ‘80,” he said, “but from what I remember, the stadium was full. The 1980 product wasn’t very good. The 1981 product wasn’t very good. My first year here, 1982, we were horrible--and it was a strike year--and the stadium was still full.

“So I think the fans did a great job supporting the team. I just think that over a period of time, the fans felt that maybe they weren’t appreciated and started staying away. It takes a long time for that to happen, but I think that’s what we’ve experienced here the last few years.”

Not appreciated?

You mean trading the team’s most popular player, Eric Dickerson, at the height of his career during a spat over--what else--a few dollars?

You mean hanging on to a fading quarterback, Jim Everett, two years too long despite overwhelming public sentiment for a change?

You mean promising new, improved and exciting football and then handing the ball to Bettis 35 times a game while Troy Drayton hops up and down and lights flares 20 yards downfield?

No, Lansford means “the little things.”

“Take what the Raiders do,” he said. “The ‘Commitment To Excellence.’ Even though we’re all kind of sick of it, it’s out there on every park bench and bus stop and what have you. It’s just a constant subliminal reminder that the team is there.”

When Lansford hears about Shaw dialing up a couple of fans in the Midwest, he wishes Shaw would have made half the effort in Orange County.

“If I can pinpoint one area where the Rams have been deficient, it’s marketing,” Lansford said. “I think that’s something John Shaw would agree to. I don’t think he’s extended himself to the community and the end result is low fan support at a time the team’s not winning.”

Lansford mentioned the lack of a Rams’ speakers bureau, both current players and past. “Those are two specific areas,” he said, “and that’s nothing. That’s just reaching out to the fans and saying, ‘We appreciate you supporting the team.’ ”

Owner Georgia Frontiere, in Lansford’s estimation, “has been marketed wrong, too. She could have been presented more positively as having a hand in our success.”

“We had some great teams in the ‘80s. It was very fashionable to go to the games and be associated with the Ram franchise. She maybe could have been given more credit for that. And again, that’s the Rams. Because as soon as they started sliding, she’s taken the blame. To the point where she’s too embarrassed to come to the games any more.”

If that sounds like a blatant attempt to butter up Georgia, coaxing her into staying put, well, Lansford won’t apologize.

“I just hope there are some emotional attachments to this area for Georgia that may carry some weight in the decision,” Lansford said.

Lansford knows he has a few.

As he put it, “Being the all-time leading scorer for the ‘St. Louis Roundhorns’ doesn’t please me too much.”