Let’s go Rams! Years of frustration culminate in Super Bowl appearance for die-hard fan
Let’s go Rams!
Years of frustration culminate in Super Bowl appearance for die-hard fan
It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Every year for the past eight years, since I’ve been at the Hudson Reporter, I’ve been asked by my good friend and avid Reporter reader, retired Jersey City Police Officer Jim Gallagher, to make a prediction on the big game.
Gallagher, who has more nicknames – "Alamo Jones," "Shoes," and "Roscoe" – than I have pounds, gets a gigantic kick out of the fact that I pick the game and put it in the paper, along with his name. He points it out to everyone, and of course, everyone is just as quick to point out how lousy my picks are.
Usually, I don’t care. I don’t care what team I picked or what teams are playing or the Super Bowl in general, basically because my favorite team isn’t a part of it all. It’s always been everyone else’s team that has been a part of the big day.
The Cowboys played in about umpteen Super Bowls and the 49ers played in and won about umpteen more. The Steelers won four. Geez, even the biggest indignity to me came in 1986 and again in 1990 when the Giants won the Super Bowl.
So, basically, to make Alamo Jones happy, I make a prediction, then watch the game, like every other sports fan. I sit with my beer and chips and dip and partake in Super Bowl festivities, even though there was really never anything to be festive about.
Until this year.
That’s because today, my favorite football team, the St. Louis Rams, will participate in the Super Bowl, facing the Tennessee Titans. Finally, there’s something to feel super about on Super Bowl Sunday.
Oh, sure, the Rams had been to the Big Game once before, in 1980, when I was a freshman in college. But that was 20 years ago. I was in Milwaukee. The Rams were in Los Angeles. A lot of things have changed since then. And one other thing – the Rams lost that game, Super Bowl XVIsomething or other. I can’t count that high in Roman numerals.
Since then, since that heartbreaking loss to the Steelers – one of the four times that the Steelers won – being a Ram fan has represented one disappointment after another. Too many playoff losses to count. Too many losses – period.
Before this year, the Rams were classified as the team that had the worst winning percentage in the decade of the 90s. I heard that line over and over again, pounding in my brain, as a constant reminder of just how flat-out lousy the Rams have been.
They deserted Los Angeles, then southern California, and headed for America’s Heartland. Yet, they kept losing. A 3-13 season was followed by a 5-11 year. Gee, improvement. Heralded draft picks went belly-up and flopped. Coaches came and went. There was one constant. The Rams just kept losing.
Laughingstock was an understatement when talking about the Rams. They were a disgrace. But, true blue – and gold – I kept the faith in my team. They were still the Rams.
However, there’s only so much pain any masochist could take. Ten straight years of staying home for the playoff party. A decade of being the NFL’s worst team had gotten to me. When Atlanta, a team that was worse off than the Rams, made it to last year’s Super Bowl, that’s when I had enough.
So I sat down and wrote a letter to the head coach of the Rams, Dick Vermeil, to voice my disgust. I pleaded with Vermeil to improve the Rams, to give me back the NFL season. I was sick of having no season by October, that the Rams were totally out of contention by the second week of October. I told Vermeil in the letter that if he couldn’t personally guarantee improvement, I was going to abandon ship and follow another team, like the expansion Cleveland Browns.
And I needed proof. I needed Vermeil to personally write me a letter, guaranteeing improvement. If he didn’t, then more than a quarter-century of collecting Ram memorabilia and hats and pennants and posters and pictures were going into the fireplace at the Park Tavern in Jersey City.
My friends told me that I was nuts. That there was no way Vermeil would personally address some lunatic from New Jersey, who wasn’t a season ticket holder. Just a regular Joe voicing complaints. Coaches in the NFL don’t answer such ridiculous letters.
But I held out faith, much like I did in the Rams for so long, that Vermeil would respond.
Two months later, the letter appeared.
Dated March 2, 1999, on official Rams stationery, it read:
"Dear Mr. Hague, When you receive this letter, I’m sure you will find some of your concerns have been answered. People are often quick to criticize sports teams and individual athletes. It has been my experience that each year teams change and grow; they develop new chemistry by adding new personnel, both in the coaching staff and on the field. We have every expectation that next year will bring renewed good fortune to the St. Louis Rams.
It continued: "I appreciate your opinion and respect the fact that you signed the letter and hope you continue to follow the Rams. Sincerely, Dick Vermeil, Head Football Coach and President of Football Operations."
And the letter was signed by Vermeil. He made a promise. I believed it. I remained a Ram fan.
And today, I’m being rewarded for that faith. For 26 years of being a die-hard fan. For all the long hours spent anguishing over the countless losses. From James Harris in Minnesota to Pat Haden in the Coliseum to Vince Ferragamo throwing it right to Jack Lambert to Dieter Brock and Jim "Chris" Everett and every other putrid quarterback in between to Eric Dickerson leaving it on the turf, then leaving town to the worst team of the 90s. All that pain is worth it today. We’re in the Super Bowl.
The Rams have a chance to win the Super Bowl today. That says it all.
So, here’s my Super Bowl prediction this year. Hey, Alamo, I’ll take the Rams. Gladly.
And for my fellow Ram fans in Hudson County, like George Mohlmann and Richie Mezey and Carmine Turso – there aren’t that many of us – let’s enjoy today. We stuck through it for ages and we’ve earned today.
And thanks to one fateful piece of mail, I can root for my favorite team in the Super Bowl today. How many other people can say that? Not many in these parts. q