The NFL skills that the Rams are “the best at” With Aaron Donald’s retirement this season, the Los Angeles Rams lost the mother of all defensive tackles, which means owner Stan Kroenke will have lost one “best.” But when it comes to winning, the Rams aren’t playing catch-up.
The Rams may have the greatest of these six teams in the NFL. In addition to being the first professional team to relocate to the west coast and pave the way for other teams like the Dodgers and Lakers to establish themselves along the Pacific Ocean, the Rams also broke the color barrier in the NFL in 1946 when they hired its first black player, running back Kenny Washington.
However, the NFL’s owners made a covert agreement to adopt baseball’s approach that year in an attempt to increase their own wealth. They also stopped signing new black players and kicked out the few existing ones.
The L.A. Rams added African American tailback Kenny Washington to the club in March 1946, breaking with other owners and bringing an end to football’s apartheid. For the following twelve years, this covert policy of segregation was strictly enforced.
But it wasn’t only a matter of doing the right thing that determined this choice. The Rams had recently left Cleveland for Los Angeles after spotting dollar indications on the West Coast.
They wanted to play in the L.A. Coliseum and they needed a place to live. However, the stadium was owned by both white and black taxpayers and was publicly funded.
Black sportswriters in Los Angeles were able to pressure local leaders to demand integration from the club if the Rams were to play there.
At the time, Washington, an LAPD officer of 28 years old, was recuperating from several knee operations. But a few years before, when he was a player at UCLA, he had been among the best in college history. L.A. cherished him.
The 1946 Rams were among the most influential teams in NFL history, according to Albert Breer. With quarterback Bob Waterfield, a great player who was married to Hollywood actress Jane Russell, the Rams were equivalent to the NFL’s Prom Queen and King.
Norm Van Brocklin, Aaron Donald, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Orlando Pace, Deacon Jones, Eric Dickerson, Cooper Kupp, Jack Youngblood, and Roman Gabriel—a fan favorite—are just a few of the numerous famous and Hall of Fame players who have played for the Rams.
I’m sure everyone is yelling a name I forgot to include, but I don’t have time to mention them all.
Finally, even if the 1999 Rams aren’t the greatest team in history—which they very well may be—they are the most recognizable squad in my lifetime.
Few other teams in history, aside from the 1985 Bears and the 1999 Rams, require you to speak just two digits and the team name for any fan to fully get what that implies.
It’s amazing that the Rams have won a Super Bowl on either end of that period of incompetence, considering that the team was the worst in the NFL from 2005 to 2016. Still, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Los Angeles manage to find a path back.
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