Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl LIII sendoff rally a major hit with fans

On their way to the airport today, the Los Angeles Rams’ buses took a slight detour and stopped at the site of their future home in Inglewood where thousands of Rams fans had assembled to wish their team luck in Super Bowl LIII. It was the first time that the Rams allowed fans to enter the Hollywood Park site, and the turnout was massive.

Despite all attending fans having to fill out waivers online in order to enter the construction site, there was a tremendous crush to get it. No attendance numbers were released, but the on site lot and the Forum parking lot filled up early, so the attendance might resemble what an old Lakers game at the Forum might have had, which was 17,505. In fact, thousands of fans were locked out after a cutoff point, for reasons that weren’t released. The line to get in spanned the entire northern length of the property.

The event kicked off with the radio voice of the Rams J.B. Long and Rams Team Reporter Sarina Morales hosting some fan trivia games and a costume contest that featured Turf Show’s resident fashionista go rams aka The Professor.

After that, actor Danny Trejo went up and explained how he used to sneak into the Coliseum as a kid. By this point, the age old question of “Whose House?”, had been asked no less than 400 times, but now it was time for the team to get off their chartered buses and head onto the stage.

Rams Head Coach Sean McVay, obviously fired up by the turnout, assured the crowd that the Rams, despite having met so many goals this season, still had one box they intended to check. After McVay, the mild mannered hero known as K Greg Zuerlein took the mic and indicated that he was thoroughly embarrassed to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Punter Johnny Hekker called QB Jared Goff and RB Todd Gurley to front to greet the crowd, and then asked the crowd if they wanted to hear from quote machine/cornerback Marcus Peters. However, wide receiver Brandin Cooks, a former New England Patriot, jumped forward to let it be known that he didn’t appreciate how Patriots safety Patrick Chung had told Patriots fans at their rally that the Pats are ”going to go there and kick [the Rams’] ass, baby.” Cooks yelled that Chung had been heard and slammed the mic down on the stage.

After Cooks, DT Aaron Donald took the mic and was greeted by a slew of “M.V.P!” chants. AD then checked to see whose house it was a few times before leading the team back their buses.

Overall, the event was brief, dusty, hot and...beautiful.

The Rams seem to have turned a corner and have really been making a name for themselves in town lately. The rally looked to be as well attended as Dodgers fan fest the day before, which has become a bit of an institution in Los Angeles over the last few years, and doesn’t require waivers to attend.

It was also neat to see a bunch a of Rams fans walking around Inglewood for the first time. Residents hung out of their yards to see all the blue and yellow jerseys parading around and local eateries tried to lure fans in from the streets.

Here are few tweets from the event.