The 1979 Los Angeles Rams

[JoeZagorski]

Hey Guys:
I recently viewed the highlight film from Super Bowl XIV. A portion of the theme of the film was that the '79 Rams were disrespected (for lack of a better word) by their fans through much of the season. Does anyone have any proof of this? Any info that you can provide is appreciated. Thanks guys!
Sincerely,
Joe Zagorski

[Saban1]

That is funny because I watched the same game last night, and the Rams had nothing to be ashamed of by the way that they played. I hated to see either team lose. I really wasn't rooting for one side or the other when I watched the original broadcast. I just wanted to see a good game, and that I did.

The Rams gave the Steelers more than they wanted, but a couple of sensational catches by John Stallworth and another earlier by Lynn Swann made Pittsburgh the winner. Of course, other Steelers and their great defense contributed much to their win as well. The Steelers had to be at their best to win, because the Rams were very tough. Vince Ferragamo played a great game, which was surprising to me considering who he was playing against and the fact that it was the Super Bowl, and Vince had just recently become a starter at QB for the first time. Wendall Tyler was also great despite getting banged up a lot.

I didn't know about any disrespect from the Rams fans, but I think that the 1979 Rams team was not considered their best of that era. I thought that their 1977 team was their best, but were eliminated in the first round due to some circumstances that I wrote about in another thread. I would think that Rams fans would have been happy to see their team go to the big game.

At the time, I thought that Vince Ferragamo would become a big star QB in the NFL, but it really didn't happen for some reason. Maybe injuries.

[Gary Najman]

The 1979 Rams had a lot of injuries. If you look at their opening game skill starters, it was much different as of Super Bowl XIV:

QB) Pat Haden - Vince Ferragamo
RB) Lawrence McCutcheon - Wendell Tyler
WR) Ron Jessie - Billy Waddy
WR) Willie Miller - Preston Dennard
LT) Gordon Gravelle - Doug France
LG) John Williams - Kent Hill

Although McCutcheon played in Super Bowl XIV (and even threw a TD pass), it waas his last game with the Rams.


Cornerbacks Rod Perry and Pat Thomas also missed half the season, although they started in the Super Bowl.

[Citizen]

As we can see here http://losangelesrams.org/about/statist ... dance.html, the Rams' home attendance dwindled every year following Chuck Knox's first season, hitting a 13-year low in 1979. Maybe that's what they were referring to.

[Bryan]

Hey Guys:
I recently viewed the highlight film from Super Bowl XIV. A portion of the theme of the film was that the '79 Rams were disrespected (for lack of a better word) by their fans through much of the season. Does anyone have any proof of this? Any info that you can provide is appreciated. Thanks guys!
Sincerely,
Joe Zagorski

I thought the Ram fan saying "Come on Rams, LETS GO! you jerks" during the Super Bowl highlight film would have been evidence enough.

1979 was the last season the Rams played in Los Angeles...they moved to Anaheim Stadium for the 1980 season. I think the hardcore fans weren't really enamored with the franchise move.

Unrelated, its interesting that San Diego destroyed both Super Bowl participants by a 75-23 margin.

[SixtiesFan]

Hey Guys:
I recently viewed the highlight film from Super Bowl XIV. A portion of the theme of the film was that the '79 Rams were disrespected (for lack of a better word) by their fans through much of the season. Does anyone have any proof of this? Any info that you can provide is appreciated. Thanks guys!
Sincerely,
Joe Zagorski

I thought the Ram fan saying "Come on Rams, LETS GO! you jerks" during the Super Bowl highlight film would have been evidence enough.

1979 was the last season the Rams played in Los Angeles...they moved to Anaheim Stadium for the 1980 season. I think the hardcore fans weren't really enamored with the franchise move.

Unrelated, its interesting that San Diego destroyed both Super Bowl participants by a 75-23 margin.

A cynicism among Ram fans had been growing for several years and had settled in by 1979. The "you jerks" comment is an illustration of it. The 1976 playoff loss to the Vikings really brought it out. This made three straight NFC Title game losses for Chuck Knox's Rams. When Knox talked with the Lions about coming to Detroit, the sentiment among Ram fans (including me) was "let him go."

Carroll Rosenbloom wouldn't let Knox out of his contract, but fired him a year later. With Rosenbloom, a coach left when Rosenbloom decides it's time to go.

Three of the Ram's playoff losses (1975, 1977, and 1978) were games in which they flopped on their home field.

[Bryan]

Do the Rams hold the single-game yardage differential record with a +482 against the Seahawks in 1979?

[SixtiesFan]

Do the Rams hold the single-game yardage differential record with a +482 against the Seahawks in 1979?

I don't know if it was a record but the Rams shut out Seattle that day 24-0 and held Jim Zorn to 2-17 for 25 yards, both receptions by Steve Largent. In 1979, Zorn and Largent had their best year together and Seattle almost made the playoffs, but were stopped cold by the Rams.

The Ram defense of those days could do that. They stopped Roger Staubach when it counted in the first playoff game and shut out Tampa Bay in the 1979 NFC Championship game.

[John Grasso]

Do the Rams hold the single-game yardage differential record with a +482 against the Seahawks in 1979?

According to Pro-football-reference.com the Rams on 9/28/51 had 735 total yards - 181 rushing, 554 passing while
the Yankees had just 166 - 103 rushing, 63 passing for a differential of 569. If you factor in sack yardage the difference
is even greater as the Yankees lost 55 due to sacks while the Rams lost just 13. The total difference is then 611.

[Bryan]

Do the Rams hold the single-game yardage differential record with a +482 against the Seahawks in 1979?

According to Pro-football-reference.com the Rams on 9/28/51 had 735 total yards - 181 rushing, 554 passing while
the Yankees had just 166 - 103 rushing, 63 passing for a differential of 569. If you factor in sack yardage the difference
is even greater as the Yankees lost 55 due to sacks while the Rams lost just 13. The total difference is then 611.

Thanks. Thats some incredible stuff...Rams had 541 net yards passing, Yankees had 8.