December 24, 1994: The Kansas City Chiefs defeat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Raiders, 19-9, before 64,130 fans -- a big crowd, but hardly a sellout at the 93,000 seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The Coliseum had been the home of the Raiders since moving from Oakland before the 1982 season, and the home of the Los Angels Rams from 1946 to 1979. The Rams had moved 38 miles southeast to Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). On this same day, they played there, and lost to the Washington Redskins, 24-21. The crowd was 25,705, a pathetically small one for a stadium whose football capacity was 69,000.
Before the next season opened, the Los Angeles metropolitan area dropped from 2 NFL teams to none: Al Davis took the Raiders back to Oakland, and Rams owner Georgia Frontiere took the team to her hometown of St. Louis. The Rams' move also killed the famous Los Angeles-San Francisco rivalry with the 49ers, whose run of success the preceding few years hurt the Rams as much as anything: For about 15 years before it, the Rams had dominated the division that became the NFC West.
It took the Rams a while to get going in St. Louis, building "The Greatest Show on Turf," winning Super Bowl XXXIV, and losing Super Bowl XXXVI, before falling apart again. After the 2015 season, with Stan Kroenke having bought the team from Mrs. Frontiere's estate, the Rams moved back to Los Angeles, playing 4 seasons at the Coliseum before Kroenke's SoFi Stadium was built in Inglewood, on the site of the Hollywood Park racetrack, across from The Forum. The NBA's Los Angeles Clippers have begun building their new arena, the Intuit Dome, on the same campus.
The Raiders' return to Oakland was shaky. They fell victim to the Tuck Rule Game in the 2001 season, then won the 2002 AFC Championship, but lost Super Bowl XXXVII. Al Davis died in 2011, and his son Mark Davis inherited the team. He never liked Oakland, and tried to go back to Los Angeles, before making a deal to move to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.
With the Raiders having balked in their negotiations, it was the San Diego Chargers who moved for the 2017 season, spending 3 season at Dignity Health Sports Park in suburban Carson, California, before moving into SoFi as tenants of the Rams.
*
December 24, 1994 was a Saturday. No college football bowl games were played. Baseball was out of season. The NBA had no games scheduled. And the NHL team owners were locking out the players. So the only games played on the day were in the NFL.
At the time, the NFL preferred not to play games on Christmas Day, even when it fell on a Sunday. That changed the next year. This time, the only game played on Sunday, December 25 was the Miami Dolphins' 27-20 win over the Detroit Lions at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida, and that was in prime time. The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-14 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The rest of the NFL slate, including the 2 L.A. farewells, was played on the afternoon of Saturday, December 24:
* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 15-10 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.
* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Arizona Cardinals, 10-6 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34-19 at Tampa Stadium.
* The New Orleans Saints beat the Denver Broncos, 30-28 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The New York Jets lost to the Houston Oilers, 24-10 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the Seattle Seahawks, 35-9 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 33-30 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills, 10-9 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
* The New England Patriots beat the Chicago Bears, 13-3 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 37-34 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
No comments:
Post a Comment