This is Crowd Noise

The Official, Unofficial sports blog, sounding off on today’s sports topics, focusing on the NFL, NBA, College Football and Basketball. I do have some love for MLB and slowly getting into Soccer but still very much out of the loop. It’s going to be fun following up on that kind of action which will be new to me. I just can’t fathom how much soccer there is out there, between all the leagues and different tournaments, it could very well turn into all-nighters just trying to figure why the same team is in multiple leagues? Beats me, but we’ll get into it.

NFL Views – Other than the fact that there’s football back in LA, the beginning of every NFL Season can’t start soon enough. The second it ends after the Superbowl every February, we’re counting down to Free Agency, then the draft and highlighting any team information that may seem important come September when it begins all over again. Even when the height of NCAA basketball is underway and the NBA Season is coming up at the halfway point, none of that really matters to the football fan. There might as well be nothing left to look forward to and the biggest void of the calendar year begins.

Football is back in Los Angeles for the first time in 20 years, and here’s hoping it doesn’t pick it up where it left off. A few years before the Los Angeles Rams up and left to play for the city of St. Louis, the team was a cellar dweller and lost its winning ways that they had in the late 80’s. Moving the team out Los Angeles, Orange County to be exact, seemed the best solution to become relevant again in the sport. Well the fan base didn’t seem to miss them that much as there are more than enough professional teams in the LA and Orange County markets to keep anyone interested that decided to forget about the team that just vacated.

Eventually, the St. Louis Rams would be Superbowl Champions just five years later and were on top of the NFL for a few years. After that success, the playoffs became scarce to the team.  After the playoff appearance in the 2004 season, they didn’t get that much closer until 2010 where the hopes were denied on the final game of the season.  So history looks like it has repeated itself. Los Angeles is urging for football back in town, willing to take almost anything, either expansion or any team willing to play for the city. At the sound of the Rams possibly returning to LA, it has been a non-stop rally to get the team back here. So here they are.

As far as we know, the Los Angeles Rams are on another 20 year lease. There’s much to be anticipated for a young offensive team and a talented defense which would anchor the success for the next few years. A new stadium will be finished in a few years and hopefully by then they’ll be back to relevancy and the town continues to show the love and appreciation that absence of a pro football team brings to a city. But this is Los Angeles, it’s just really hard to focus on just one thing. But a shiny new stadium in the heart of Los Angeles should be able to do the trick. As we know, shiny things keep fans of Los Angeles pretty focused.