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After the 49ers defeated the Rams in Week 18 of the 2021 season in LA, it turned out that the home team had to use the silent count given the number of San Francisco fans who were in the building. It’s becoming increasingly common for defending Super Bowl champions to deal with noise in their own building.
With the 49ers returning Sunday for (as Peter King mentioned on Friday’s PFT Live) the fourth game between the two teams of calendar year 2022 (and the third at SoFi Stadium), the Rams are ready for a rowdy crowd on the streets.
“They travel well,” coach Sean McVay told reporters on Friday. “We definitely have the ability to use our silent count when needed. We’d rather be ready than surprised. And if that’s the case, our boys are certainly ready to deal with it. And if not, we’re happy about that too. But anyway, we’re just excited for the opportunity to play back home in front of a great crowd and see if we can give people a lot to be happy about.”
McVay is right, but his first three words are wrong. It’s not just 49ers fans making the journey from San Francisco to LA, but also 49ers fans who are already in LA since the NFL abandoned the market for 20 years.
During that time, a whole generation of kids grew up watching professional football but without a local team to cling to. So they chose any team they wanted to ally with.
Now, with two teams back in LA, there are thousands of fans from each team in Los Angeles and the surrounding communities (well, most teams – we won’t name names because we really have to?). When one of these teams comes to town, fans get tickets to the game. And then they do what fans do.