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:

View from the Sky: The Future Rams/Chargers Stadium

As seen while recently flying into LAX, the site of the future NFL stadium in Inglewood. Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park is expected to open in August 2019.

More, per Wikipedia: "The stadium and surrounding development around the site includes a new entertainment complex with 8.5 million square feet (790,000 m2) of office tower space, including a 6,000-seat music and theatre venue, ballrooms, indoor and outdoor room, a multiplex movie theater, a lake, luxury hotels, high-scale dining and an NFL Flagship Campus,including the new NFL Network studio and headquarters for the league's digital properties. In addition to Rams and Chargers games, the stadium will host Super Bowl LV in 2021."

Super Bowl Sunday: A Reminder

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! A sad reminder, above, from Target: The first year return of NFL pro football to Los Angeles didn't turn out, well, all that great. Better luck next year?

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.