Best Seat in House Fills Bill for L.A.

Does anybody care?

Boomer throws for five football fields. Marino throws for 500 football fields. Troy throws his arms around Barry.

The Pack folds at Arrowhead. The Steelers choke in Cincy. The Raiders tank in Tampa.

And in Los Angeles, it is so quiet you can hear a remote control click.

For a 28th consecutive regular-season week, no professional football games were played here Sunday.

For a 28th consecutive week, there remains a question.

Does anybody care?

In six days, Philadelphia plays host to the Redskins, Dallas plays host to the Packers. People in those towns have been waiting for those games for a month, and will debate the results for another month.

There will be no pro football here that week, either. Or the week after that.

By the time the NFL returns to Los Angeles, at least 85 regular-season weeks will have passed without a pro game here.

This is not speculation. This is fact.

Or wasn’t anyone listening recently when NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he could not envision football returning here before the year 2000?

Steve Young, Dan Marino and John Elway will be retired by then.

Thurman Thomas, Marcus Allen and probably Emmitt Smith will be retired by then.

We will surely have lost our chance to boo Wayne Fontes and cheer Marv Levy and marvel at Jerry Rice.

By the time the NFL returns to Los Angeles, the league’s stars will be players who are now in--are you ready for this?--high school.

Tagliabue said it, and the NFL office braced for a fan response.

City officials heard it, and braced for a voter response.

This newspaper printed it, and braced for a reader response.

And, nothing.

No letters, no phone campaigns, no anger, no disbelief, no anything.

It was so quiet, you could hear a recliner recline.

Does anybody care?

Everyone knows what the politicians want. An NFL team would bring money to their community, and further their careers.

Everyone knows what some of this town’s media voices want. An NFL team, if purchased and housed without tax-payer contribution, is fun.

But what about the average person who has to shell out the average pile of bills to attend a game? The person who any new owner would have to befriend?

What does that person want?

Nobody knows. And while nobody knows, nothing more will be done.

This is not to say anybody should care.

A visit recently to one of the many places that Southland football fans spend their fall Sunday afternoons revealed the contrary.

The National Sports Grill was but a half-mile from Anaheim Stadium, yet worlds away from the darkness surrounding the Rams’ final days there.

There was no cost for parking.

There was no cost for admission to rooms filled with televisions that carried all of the NFL games.

There was no permanent seat license fee for comfortable chairs around wide tables.

The bathrooms were clean. The concessions people were pleasant. The food didn’t drip into your lap.

The total cost for two people for four hours--the average time of an NFL game--came to about $50.

Good luck getting one seat in one stadium for one game for $50.

In this place, one properly positioned seat gets you five games.

But, one might say, how can an afternoon in a sterile sports restaurant replace the feeling of rooting for your home team?

This is what this visitor found so strange two Sundays ago.

Everybody was rooting for their home team.

Fifteen different NFL jerseys or caps were spotted in the joint.

People occupying the jerseys from the same team would sit together in front of the same TV, the one showing their game.

Together, they would holler and high-five and jump around as if they were in their old stadium.

It was so real, the ones in Dallas Cowboy jerseys drank expensive drinks while the ones in Pittsburgh Steeler jerseys looked as if they wanted to fight.

A late victory by the Philadelphia Eagles caused one man in an Eagle jersey--No. 87--to dance to the screen in joy. A late loss by the Houston Oilers caused another fan to bang his hand on the table with a crash.

Four hours later, they all walked out with the same tired but satisfied look found in NFL parking lots everywhere.

Maybe this, then, is the average Los Angeles pro football fan.

Somebody from somewhere else who, once a week, is happy for a chance to return there.

If that is the case, the NFL should stay away forever.

Forget the nonsense about a pro football team turning all those different colored jerseys into one.

Does anybody care?

The league is guessing no. Nothing like a little five-year wait to build a little interest, huh, Paul?

The TV networks are also guessing no. Their upcoming negotiations with the NFL will not involve Los Angeles, contrary to previous expectation.

Both parties believe the league will get rich and the networks will get rich no matter what happens here.

Walking out of the National Sports Grill recently, one’s mind wandered back to the last NFL games played here.

Do you remember the date? It was Dec. 24, 1994.

The Washington Redskins defeated the Rams in Anaheim, 24-21. The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Raiders at the Coliseum, 19-9.

Given the average career span of an NFL player, there is a remote chance that not one player on either home team will even be in the league when football returns here.

Does anybody care?