Even As They Suck A Big One, Los Angeles Fans Miss The Raiders

We have a sad admission to make—we’re Raiders fans. I know, bad timing considering this is our last week and it give you less time to totally rag on us. But what can we do, growing up in L.A. during the 80s, you had to follow them or the Rams, and really, who wanted to follow a Jim Everett-led team? Well, it turns out we aren’t the only Angelenos who miss the Silver and Black. Everyday citizens, even the Lakers’ Trevor Ariza, miss them because they wove into the fabric of the city more than the Rams did. Want proof? Even Eric Dickerson thinks so, and he’s about as much an icon as the Rams had in LA.

“As bad as the Raiders have been — and we’re talking bad, like, nasty bad — I have to give their fans their props,” he said. “I’ve met so many guys in Los Angeles who have said, ‘Hey, I know they’re sorry, but I’m a fan.’ I like that.”

“I’m not knocking Ram fans; I’ll always be a Ram,” he said. “But on the whole, there’s a lot more Raider fans around L.A. . . . There’s most definitely a Raider heartbeat in L.A.”

It’s unfortunate that the Raiders have always been associated with the thugs and deadbeats of the world, as Sam Farmer relates in the article. Maybe it was natural, given the team’s proclivity to sign bad boy athletes and renegades. And maybe that’s why they were such a hit in L.A., because in a city of either outcasts or rebels who came from other places to make it big, only weirdos like Lyle Alzado could be okay in their eyes. Us? We liked the simplicity of their uniforms, but we’re weird like that.
Raiders have moved on, but many L.A. fans haven’t [LA Times]
Image [ViewImages]