Heartbreak at the Coliseum: That Was Not The Best Rams Game To Witness In Person

After a dominant Los Angeles Rams season — and talk of the Super Bowl — we finally got to enjoy our first game at the Coliseum this season on Sunday night. Oops. In front of a packed house, the Rams fell way behind the Philadelphia Eagles in the third quarter — only to rally back in the fourth. A few costly mistakes, and what could have been a great comeback failed to materialize.

The crowd was pumped for the Sunday Night Football game (alas, the second in a row lost by the Rams) — and although the Eagles fans were out in full force, the Rams were well represented inside the packed Coliseum. What a difference a winning team and a championship contender brings — the L.A. fans are back. The "WHOSE HOUSE? RAMS HOUSE!" chant is real.

Unfortunately, as much as I love the history of the Coliseum, the stadium, built in 1923, is ill-equipped to handle modern crowds. USC, which operates the stadium, is currently renovating the Coliseum, but that has made it tough to get inside and get around. The Coliseum once sat more than 100,000 people — but the crowd has now been capped at 70,000. That helps — but it's still a lengthy process to just get inside. And especially tough when you have kids in the crowd of people pushing to get in. (And then there was that woman who decided to light up a joint in front of our kids before quickly moving away when she saw us. Good times.)

Despite the unfortunate loss, it was still a great experience, especially for the Franklin Avenue blogger kids. They particularly got a kick out of the passionate fans, including while waiting to get in — as Eagles fans would chant, followed by Rams fans' response. 

Meanwhile, the LA Stadium at Hollywood Park is well underway, and projected to open in 2020. A few more pics from the Coliseum on Sunday night:

Watch: As the Rams Return to LA, Rowdy Fan Drops the 'F' Bomb Live on Local TV Post-Game Show

Is this why we can't have nice things, like an NFL team? Thankfully, the guy in question is a Cowboys fan... and the big return of NFL football to Los Angeles was a tremendous success on Saturday night. A win for the L.A. Rams, and 89,000 fans in a jam-packed Memorial Coliseum -- it was nice to see football in Los Angeles for the first time since 1994. (A first for me here, and I've been living in Los Angeles for 20 years!)

Live TV being live TV... we learned on Saturday that KABC/7 wasn't on a delay when a rowdy Cowboys fan grabbed a reporter's mic and shouted, "F--K THE RAMS!" (Only... he wasn't censored.) Watch above.

USC Move to the Rose Bowl?

(Flickr pic by Steve Eggleston.)

It's possible, as the school's deal is up with the Coliseum. But, as the L.A. Times writes, it also could be a negotiation ploy:

Frustrated by lack of progress on a lease agreement with the Coliseum Commission -- one that would allow the school to run and renovate the venerable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum -- USC is negotiating with the Rose Bowl to begin playing home games in Pasadena next fall.

While a deal with the Pasadena stadium is not complete, a potential USC lease agreement is on the agenda for a Dec. 6 meeting of the Rose Bowl Operating Co. The school's two-year lease with the Coliseum expires after Saturday's game.

Some insiders have dismissed USC's talks with the Rose Bowl as a negotiating ploy, saying it's highly unlikely the school would ever leave a stadium that's practically part of its campus. But others point to the number of teams that have left the Coliseum over the years and say USC is likely to uproot if there's no significant progress with the commission.

"We've been a loyal, faithful tenant of the Coliseum for 80 years, and our goal is to continue playing in the Coliseum for another 80 years," said Todd R. Dickey, USC's senior vice president for administration. "But in order to do that, the Coliseum has to be improved. It needs to be repaired and restored. And we've offered to make those improvements, not just to hand the money over to the Coliseum Commission, but for the university to actually operate the facility."

Timing of the news is interesting, of course, with the big USC/UCLA faceoff this Saturday at... yes, the Rose Bowl Coliseum.