Losing Proposition Despite Nine Lives

Today in Kansas City, about 220 miles down I-70 from where the Rams play their home games, Los Angeles tries to get back into the pro football business by participating in the NFL’s version of “The Gong Show.”

Stage right: Mark Ridley-Thomas and the New Coliseum Crusaders, singing the praises of a new and improved Coliseum while hoping no one in the room pays much attention to the part about the same old neighborhood.

Stage left: Michael Ovitz and his All-Time Laker All-Stars, parading around artists’ sketches of the Carson Hacienda, which looks more like a Taco Bell on steroids than a football stadium, lacking only--although it could be coming next--a talking Chihuahua declaring its unrelenting love for 325-pound creatine-glutted offensive linemen.

Viva Gorditas!

And all the while, Houston is lurking in the wings with a stadium deal that is signed, sealed and all but delivered--in football terms, taking a 21-point lead over L.A. into the two-minute warning.

It didn’t have to be this way.

It didn’t have to come down to computer graphics and laser pointers and Shaquille O’Neal extolling the virtues of a sport he never played, informing the masses, “I have won at every level, except college and pro and the National Football League.”

Once upon a time, Los Angeles had more professional football than it knew what do with, as the L.A. Express of the United States Football League kept telling itself while it went down for the count in 1985.

It has been host to seven professional football teams at one time or another--and two others that billed themselves as “Los Angeles,” although neither ever played a game any farther west than Kansas City. In 1926, the Los Angeles Buccaneers of the National Football League and the Los Angeles Wildcats of the first American Football League played all their games on the road because at the time, USC exerted enough control over the Coliseum to keep any and all professional jackals out of it.

(Two “Los Angeles” pro football teams that never play in L.A. Old Ram and Raider fans can relate.)

Los Angeles also had its Chargers and its Dons, its Express and a Southern California Sun--nine teams total, over a span of 68 years. Most, however, had less hang time than a Pat Studstill punt. Four franchises either folded or moved after a single season. Three others failed to survive beyond a fourth season.

Only the Rams, who spent 49 seasons in Los Angeles and Anaheim, and the Raiders, who rented the Coliseum for 13 seasons, could ever lay down a five-year plan and see it through to fruition.

(Of course, in the case of Al Davis and the Raiders, the five-year plan was: Gut it out with the Coliseum Commission for five seasons, then revisit the never-ending task of scoping out a better deal.)

Pro football was rarely in it for the long haul in Los Angeles, but if not for a fit of impatience here, a chance meeting there, or a brain cramp around the corner, the Southland would still have pro football today--and no need to send competing entourages to Kansas City to play intramural tackle football on the carpet of some hotel conference hall.

Five twists of fate to ponder, guaranteed to keep NFL-deprived local football fans screaming well into the night:

What if . . .

1. The Rams had hired the other finalist, instead of George Allen, in 1978?

This is what the choice came down to when the Rams were scouting out a coaching successor to Chuck Knox in 1978:

George Allen, already fired once by the Rams in 1968, then rehired, then fired again in 1970.

Or Bill Walsh.

Walsh, then the coach at Stanford, interviewed twice with Ram owner Carroll Rosenbloom after being recommended by an old friend, Don Klosterman, then the Rams’ general manager.

“When Chuck Knox left, Bill was my pick,” Klosterman says, “Carroll was always a stickler about our offense. He’d say, ‘God, our offense is so conservative.’ We were winning, but he wanted a more wide-open offense. I told Carroll, ‘Bill Walsh would be exactly what you’d like. He wins, he’s smart, he’s innovative.’

“So we had him come down and interview twice. The first time, we went out to Carroll’s house in Malibu, on the beach, and we had a great meeting. Two weeks later, we had him come down to the desert, to Palm Springs. I thought it was a done deal. I thought Carroll liked him very much.

“And then somebody put a word in for George Allen--’He can beat the Cowboys.’ ”

At that point, those were magic words to Rosenbloom. In 1973 and ‘75, Knox took 12-2 Ram teams into the playoffs against Dallas, only to get waxed, 27-16 and 37-7.

Meanwhile, as coach of the Washington Redskins, Allen beat the Cowboys seven times from 1971 through 1976.

“Carroll Rosenbloom thought George Allen had the Cowboys’ number,” says Pat Haden, a quarterback with the Rams from 1976 to 1981. “He figured for us to get to the Super Bowl, we had to beat Dallas, so he hired George Allen.”

Klosterman says he tried to talk Rosenbloom out of it.

“I told Carroll, ‘I have respect for George, but he is not our type of coach. He can’t work within our system,’ ” Klosterman recalls. “I said, ‘George can’t work with anybody, that’s just the way he is.’

“Carroll said, ‘Oh, we’ll change him.’

“As you know, he lasted two preseason games.”

Rosenbloom fired Allen two games into the 1978 preseason to stem what Klosterman said was a team-wide revolt.

“George wouldn’t give the players water during practice,” Klosterman said. “We would tell him, ‘George, they’re not robots, the doctors say they have to be properly hydrated.’ And George would say, ‘They’ve got to be tough.’ And I’d tell him, ‘Tough? This is the No. 1 defensive team in the NFL!’ ”

By mid-August, Allen was gone, replaced by assistant Ray Malavasi. Malavasi was a good enough coach to take the Rams to their one and only Super Bowl the next season, but what if Walsh had gotten the job the first time around?

A blue-and-gold trophy case brimming with Vince Lombardi Trophies?

Joe Montana in horned headgear?

So much success the Rams could have never even dreamed of leaving?

“If we’d have hired Bill Walsh,” Klosterman muses with a smile, “Carroll would have never gone swimming that day.”

2. Carroll Rosenbloom had never gone swimming that day?

Rosenbloom drowned while swimming off the Florida coast on April 2, 1979, a cataclysmic event for the Ram franchise. Months earlier, Rosenbloom had announced his plans to move the team to Anaheim in 1980. Months later, the Rams would finally play in the Super Bowl.

At the time of Rosenbloom’s death, the Rams were a franchise at the crossroads.

And when his will left 70%, controlling interest, of the team to his widow, Georgia, the Rams were thrust onto the slow, agonizing road to St. Louis.

Georgia soon cleaned out Rosenbloom’s hand-picked front office, the men who had built the Rams into a seven-time NFC West champion--Klosterman and his assistant, Steve Rosenbloom, who happened to be Georgia’s stepson.

In Anaheim, the organization would be headed by John Shaw, fascinated with dollar signs and decimal points but rather bored with X’s and O’s. Gradually, the course of the franchise was shaped by his predilections; the Rams, the NFL’s losingest team of the 1990s, became one of the richest when Shaw moved them to St. Louis in 1995.

“If Carroll had lived, I don’t think the Rams would have ever left Southern California,” Klosterman says. “I don’t know how the franchise deteriorated, I don’t know what the numbers were, but apparently they had a need for an infusion of money--and St. Louis offered it to them.

“I don’t think Carroll would have let the situation drift to that point. He was a very astute businessman. And he believed in the NFL a great deal.”

3. Eric Dickerson had never told John Robinson to “Go run 47-Gap.”?

Halloween, 1987, remains the greatest horror story in the history of the Los Angeles Rams, the day a bitter salary dispute between Shaw and all-pro tailback Eric Dickerson was settled when the Rams traded the best running back they’d ever had to Indianapolis for Greg Bell, Owen Gill and six draft choices.

The competitive decline of the Rams, which led to increasing fan apathy in Anaheim, which gave Shaw the argumentative fodder to lobby for the move to St. Louis--We can’t draw here, so you have to let us leave--can be traced to that fateful day.

The Rams never were able to fully replace Dickerson, who had rushed for an NFL-record 2,105 yards in 1984, and, through their own bungling of the six draft picks, were never fully compensated. Through two drafts, the Rams turned three No. 1 picks and three No. 2s into Aaron Cox, Fred Strickland, Frank Stams, Gaston Green, Cleveland Gary and Darryl Henley, now in federal prison for drug trafficking.

“I really believe if that trade had not taken place, I don’t think they’d have left Anaheim,” Dickerson says. “I really believe that.

“Because I fully believe we would’ve won a Super Bowl. Just like I believe I would have attained 2,000 yards more than once.

“In ‘89, when they went down to San Francisco [for the NFC championship game], when the ‘phantom sack’ took place with Jim Everett, I think I could have made a difference on that team at that point. . . .

“I was the missing link. I really believe that. Most definitely. Because they had Greg Bell. He was an adequate back--I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything--but he thought he was up to my par. And I knew better. I could have made a big difference on that team.

“Because with [Everett], I could’ve made it a lot easier. I remember my first year with the Rams, we had Vinnie [Vince Ferragamo] at quarterback and he had a goodyear, which made it easier for me as a running back. Most of the time, I saw so many eight- and nine-man fronts because we didn’t have a quarterback.

“But that year, Jim had a really great year. I really believe I could’ve made a big difference on that team.

“But, we’ll never know.”

Haden calls the Dickerson trade “a seminal point” in Los Angeles Ram history.

“You could point to that as the turning point,” he says. “Particularly in light of what Dallas did with the Herschel Walker trade. Dallas did a great job with all the picks they got for Herschel Walker but the Rams didn’t with the picks they got for Dickerson.

“Just the fact they were losing--whether Dickerson being gone was the reason or not--contributed to the team looking elsewhere. . . . Had they won and been more entertaining, I think it would have been more difficult to leave.

“When you’re losing, the abuse the front office takes, the press criticism the owner takes . . . Finally, you say, ‘Geez, we aren’t loved here. Absolutely, I’m going to entertain an offer from St. Louis.’ ”

Dickerson, who helped force the trade by suggesting Coach John Robinson “go run 47-Gap” during one angry rant with reporters, says he now looks back on the trade with regret.

“If things had worked out, do I wonder what would have happened? Of course I wonder,” Dickerson says. “Go to the Colts? I didn’t want to go to the Colts. I wanted to go to the Redskins. But the Colts were the only option the Rams gave me. They said, ‘You go there or you stay here.’ ”

Years later, Dickerson says former Ram teammates told him that Robinson “would say to them, ‘It was just a mistake. It was just a bad move to trade Eric.’

“I’m sure it was. I really didn’t want to leave the Rams. I just felt like staying there, there was going to be so much animosity. I guess I was angry, they were angry. I thought it was best that I left, even though I didn’t want to go.”

4. Walter O’Malley hadn’t invited Carroll Rosenbloom up to Dodger Stadium for a look-see?

In the mid-1970s, Dodger owner Walter O’Malley and Rosenbloom scheduled a meeting at Dodger Stadium. O’Malley gave Rosenbloom the grand tour. He showed Rosenbloom the land the city of Los Angeles had presented the Dodgers when they moved west in 1958. He outlined the negotiations of that sweetheart deal in exacting detail for Rosenbloom.

When Rosenbloom walked away from the meeting, Klosterman remembers him saying, “Don, I can’t believe it. The Rams didn’t even get a decent practice facility when I bought them. Look at what the city gave Walter O’Malley! Can you believe the Rams got nothing in return?’

“Because of that meeting, Carroll got his hackles up--’I’ll show you, I can make a deal, too.’ Because of that meeting, he decided to go out and make a deal to move the team to Anaheim.”

Klosterman frowns and slowly shakes his head:

“Biggest mistake we ever made.”

When the Rams moved their home games to Anaheim Stadium in 1980, “we had 60,000 season ticket holders and sold off almost all the suites,” Klosterman says. “But we lost that flair. We lost Los Angeles. How we gave up the No. 2 market in the United States . . . “

Klosterman’s voice trails off as he shakes his head again.

“I’ll never forget. We were driving down to Anaheim for the press conference and someone said to Carroll, ‘L.A. is a city of 10 million people. There’s going to be somebody who’s going to move in there.’

“Carroll said, ‘Aw, they’ll never do. They’ll never do it.’

“Sure enough, you saw what happened.”

By 1982, the Rams had neighbors to the north, with the Raiders occupying the Coliseum. But Davis never truly committed the Raiders to Los Angeles. To Davis, the Coliseum was just an oversized time-share--and a fixer-upper at that. The Raiders’ roots in Los Angeles barely penetrated the topsoil.

But the Rams had a history here. According to Klosterman, “If the Rams had stayed in L.A., we’d have worked something out with the city of Los Angeles. Somehow.

“What a mistake it was to leave Los Angeles. A tragedy. And then to see the Raiders come to town--and they leave. And then the Rams leave.

“That earthquake we had here in 1994? That was no earthquake. That was just Carroll turning over in his grave.”

5. Irwindale had built its stadium and been allowed to decorate it in silver and black?

The city of Irwindale now views its flirtation with the Raiders in the late 1980s as a costly--$10 million costly--mistake. But Tom Flores, the former coach of the Los Angeles Raiders, believes the Raiders would still be playing in the Southland if the Coliseum Commission hadn’t blocked Davis’ path to Irwindale.

“I thought that was great,” Flores says of the Irwindale stadium proposal. “In fact, I think it was a big mistake that the city of Los Angeles did not allow Irwindale to build a stadium. That set football back in Los Angeles.

“Had they done that, L.A. would still have a football team, and they’d have a state-of-the-art stadium with freeway access and the beauty of the San Gabriel mountains, the whole thing.”

Irwindale approached Davis in 1987 with a stadium proposal that included free land, free ownership of the stadium and a $10-million check for simply considering the city’s offer. So Davis considered. And when he announced he was moving the Raiders to Irwindale before the start of the 1991 season, the Coliseum Commission sued for breach of contract, prompting Davis, of course, to countersue.

The deadline for Davis to sign off on the Irwindale proposal passed in 1989. With it, Flores believes, the Southland lost a grand opportunity to continue playing NFL football deep into the 1990s and beyond.

“The political people downtown just beat the hell out of it,” Flores said of the Irwindale plan. “Irwindale went away with their tails between their legs.

“The politicians downtown wanted a team to play in the Coliseum, which a lot of people still do. I don’t have anything against the Coliseum. But just travel around the country and see what you’re competing against. I think it’s not even close.

“The game has changed. With free agency and the salary cap, you’ve got to have cash flow to compete. Which means you have to have a state-of-the-art stadium. You can’t do it with just an average stadium.”

*

They are The Three Commandments of Pro Football Survival in Los Angeles, and by now, they should be chiseled on the top step of the Coliseum peristyle:

Thou shalt win.

Thou shalt be entertaining.

Thou shalt score many points.

But even then, prosperity and longevity are no sure things in this city, as the Chargers discovered during their one season in Los Angeles.

On the field, the 1960 Los Angeles Chargers made every right move.

They won--10 of 14 regular-season games, the AFL’s first Western Division title.

They entertained--quarterback Jack Kemp passed for 3,000 yards, halfback Paul Lowe scored 11 touchdowns.

They scored many points--45 against Boston, 50 against New York, 52 against Oakland.

They left for San Diego after one season, having lost more than $900,000 while averaging fewer than 16,000 spectators a game at the Coliseum.

Attendance for their Western Division-clinching victory over Denver was so low, 9,928, that the league, fearing national embarrassment when television cameras panned tens of thousands of empty Coliseum seats, voted to move the site of its first championship game.

From Los Angeles to Houston.

Having lost the home-field advantage, such as it was, the Chargers then lost the championship to the Oilers--24-16 on a late 88-yard touchdown pass from George Blanda to Billy Cannon.

Today, nearly four decades later, the rematch begins. Los Angeles or Houston? Another league vote will decide.

At this point in its professional football history, Los Angeles is hoping history doesn’t repeat.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

L.A.’S FOOTBALL STORY

1926

Buccaneers

In their one year in the first National Football League, they never played a home game in L.A.

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1926

Wildcats

Played in first American Football League, but another L.A. team that never played a home game.

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1937

Bulldogs

Won championship in first and only year; was so much better than other teams, league folded.

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1946-49

Dons

In the ‘All-American Football Conference,’ the team was named after its founder, actor-owner Don Ameche.

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1946-94

Rams

Moved from Cleveland after winning the NFL championship in 1945. Won only one more (1951) in 49 seasons here.

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1974-75

Southern California Sun

Orange County’s first experience with pro-football, this World Football League team was on shakey financial ground right from the start.

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1960

Chargers

Despite having a good AFL team, averaged only 15,665 at the Coliseum and moved to San Diego after only one season.

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1983-85

Express

A member of the United States Football League, the team made national headlines with the signing of quarterback Steve Young to a $48-million contract.

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1992-94

Raiders

Say what you want about the Raiders, but won this city’s only Super Bowl in 1983, and brought us Bo Jackson and Marcus Allen.