http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/19/sports/football/rams-return-to-los-angeles-with-fanfare-and-a-win.html 2016-09-19 02:49:51 Rams Return to Los Angeles With Fanfare, and a Win Many of the fans tailgating on Sunday wore throwback jerseys of bygone Rams. === LOS ANGELES — The pageant before the first regular-season home game of the nouveau Los Angeles Rams offered a mishmash of messages. Many of the fans tailgating on Sunday wore throwback jerseys of bygone Rams. They seemed to be straddling two eras — one a glorious phase when the team permeated the city’s sports fabric, another of the here-and-now, with the locals forgiving but not entirely forgetting the franchise’s sojourn in St. Louis. “There hasn’t been hardly any talent with them in about five years,” Jonathan Huerta said while explaining his shirt, which featured running back Marshall Faulk’s No. 28. In fact, Faulk’s entire Rams career unfolded in Missouri, but Huerta was not quibbling over details. His friend Derek Cruz opted for the No. 85 of the consummate 20th-century Ram, the hard-boiled defensive end Jack Youngblood. “It’s a nod to the old guys who played so long,” said Cruz, who was not exaggerating when he identified himself as a devotee since “Day 1.” As an infant, he wore a Rams onesie. Aside from some scattered Todd Gurley jerseys, few surnames off the present roster could be found on the backs of the pregame partyers. Hours later, though, that roster surprised the Make no mistake, jubilation reigned outside and within the stadium over the team’s homecoming, after such a lengthy hiatus that The Los Angeles Times felt obliged Fans had scooped up the available season tickets in about the time required to drive crosstown in the ubiquitous stop-and-start traffic. Demand for seats on Sunday was so intense that an additional 11,000 less-than-desirable ones were sold on top of the Coliseum’s usual cap of 80,000. Cruz maintained that he had never stoped his allegiance while the Rams operated in the Central time zone, but Huerta acknowledged that his fandom was interrupted by their Super Bowl win in January 2000. “That broke my heart,” he said. Nearby, Edward Contreras wore running back Eric Dickerson’s No. 29 on his back and a horn-sprouting contraption on his head that said, “Los Angeles Rams 4 Life.” “I never turned away from them,” Contreras said. “I stayed with them in St. Louis — win, lose or tie, Rams till we die.” Some friends of Contreras had not warmed to the rebooted Rams so quickly, comparing the experience to accepting back a cheating spouse who left to marry the paramour. Contreras, though, bore no ill will. The news of the Rams’ return was “music to my ears,” he said, and he and his acquaintances were all but pinching themselves as they prepared to attend an actual N.F.L. game — rather than the filming of a remake of the football films “North Dallas Forty” or “Heaven Can Wait,” which were set in the Coliseum. The team has made evident its win-now mind-set. When the Rams were featured this year on the HBO reality series “Hard Knocks,” Coach Jeff Fisher harangued his players about the need for a playoff run as if reading from a script. The team also excluded quarterback Jared Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft, from the active roster for the Rams’ opener last week. Against the Seahawks, he swapped out his warm-up gear for a uniform as he stood on the sideline, but he was not called on to spell the veteran Case Keenum. At the same time, the franchise is in a holding pattern of sorts until a new-age stadium is christened in 2019. (It has taken the Airbnb approach, with the 93-year-old Coliseum its temporary quarters.) Players are clad in the same blue-and-gold uniforms of yore, the team delaying a rebranding of fresh colors and styles to coincide with the move to its new, palatial stadium, eight miles southwest in Inglewood. And even with Fisher reportedly in talks for a contract extension, some bookmaker websites list him as the favorite to become the season’s first fired head coach. With the Rams coming off 12 consecutive nonwinning seasons, expectations of short-term success were already muted, and they were further diminished last Monday when the team, a 3-point favorite at San Francisco, sustained a dreadful shutout loss. But revved up by a short set by the Red Hot Chili Peppers before kickoff on Sunday, the crowd exploded when a virtually automatic short field goal gave the Rams an early lead. The teams slogged through three quarters with as many punts as points (nine). The end zones were rendered unnecessary. By the fourth quarter, the throng was thinning slightly, perhaps as Hollywood types headed to the Emmy Awards and others carried out a longstanding tradition that remained intact throughout the Rams’ absence: beating the traffic. For those who remained, the Rams found favor via a stout defensive effort that hearkened to the days of the renowned Fearsome Foursome defensive line a half-century ago. If it is nostalgia these fans wanted, they were rewarded with the kind of low-scoring game typical of this team when it was the toast of the town.