L.A. Benched / Week 3 : He Still Checks the Scoreboard, but the Rams Don’t Look Quite the Same to Him From the Couch

Ed Miller, one of the 26 part-time employees who took turns manning the Anaheim Stadium scoreboard on game day, now gets his football scores while sitting on his couch watching TV.

Miller, who works full-time as a custodian supervisor for the Long Beach School District, had been monitoring the Rams’ play since 1981 from scoreboard central in the rear of the baseball press box.

“My wife doesn’t know what to do with me now that I’m home, but she’s been complaining about the roof needing fixing,” Miller said with a groan. “I miss the Rams, because I grew up a Ram fan, but I also miss the $400 to $500 I would have made by working the games.”

From the pool of 26, 14 employees were chosen each week to work on game day, earning $9 to $10 an hour. The way the Rams played in recent years, one might think the scoreboard operators had nothing to do, but Mike McKay, the video scoreboard manager, said the team’s lackluster performances demanded extraordinary effort from his staff to keep fans entertained.

“You have to make up for what’s not happening on the field,” McKay said. “You need more of everything to keep the fans’ attention.

“In the past few years, the Rams were do everything they could to fill in the gaps with cheerleaders, baton twirlers, acrobats, bands and scoreboard animation. I think what they were really trying to do was just distract the fans from the team.”