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How To LA: Get Ready For Some Football
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood during a Rams game.
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Grant Thomas
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Unsplash
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Topline:
For the latest How To LA episode, host Brian De Los Santos and Gilberto Manzano of Sports Illustrated break down what to expect from L.A.'s pro football teams this season. Bottom line: The Chargers are looking good. The Rams ... not so much.
Why it matters: The 2022 Super Bowl was a big deal for L.A. Not only did hometown hip-hop favorites Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar give a halftime show that gave major props to Black L.A., the Rams won their first Super Bowl back on their home turf. But despite a great coach in Sean McVay and some star players like Cooper Kupp, Manzano says the team is young and inexperienced heading into the season. He says the L.A. Chargers are going to be the better team this year with star quarterback Justin Herbert — and ticket pieces will likely be cheaper to see them play at SoFi.
Why now: The NFL regular season officially starts today and the Rams and the Chargers have their first games this Sunday.
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The backstory: The Rams were L.A.’s first football team, arriving in 1946. The Rams left after the 1994 season to go to St. Louis. The Raiders overlapped with the Rams for about 10 years in L.A., but that team left in 1995 to go back to Oakland. Now that team is in Las Vegas.
For more than 20 years, the entertainment capital of the world existed without an NFL franchise. That means for over two decades, the Jack Nicholsons of our town had one less place to show up and out. This was largely because of a split fan base — the Rams and the Raiders — and the destructive aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Now we have the Rams back and the Chargers in town as our hometown teams, both sharing the field in SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
"It got pretty messy but here we are: The Rams are Super Bowl Champions and the Chargers are moving up too," says Manzano. Listen here (and below).
Listen
• 13:37
So Is LA Officially A Football Town???
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