Yes, What a Difference a Win Makes
The Rams did it.
They 86’ed the 49ers.
At San Francisco.
In front of a national TV audience.
By seven points, after going into the game 10-point underdogs.
The first-place, playoff-bound, Los Angeles via Anaheim Rams.
The same Rams who had lost four of their previous six games.
The same Rams who had gotten their horns pinned back the previous week by the traditionally crummy New Orleans Saints.
The same Rams who, eight days before the 49er game, were described as odorous by their own offensive lineman, Dennis Harrah.
“We’re in first place, and we stink,” he had said.
No reporter said that.
No fan said that.
A Ram said that.
It was no figment of America’s imagination that this team had played several rotten football games.
When you lose by 26 points to New Orleans, you can not expect society to sit back and say: “Aw, they’ll beat San Francisco next week. Just you wait.”
But, sure enough, as soon as they did defeat the 49ers, what did the Rams do?
They got on the cases of everyone who had ever insulted them.
Quarterback Dieter Brock, who has now put together a string of one good game in a row, made sure he got in a dig at the stupid old reporters who had criticized his play.
And running back Eric Dickerson had a whole lot to say about how stupid Jimmy the Greek was for having the nerve to knock the never-say-die Rams. Funny how Dickerson did not have a lot to say the previous six weeks.
As for Dennis Harrah, well, all of a sudden he was sniffing all over the place and didn’t smell anything stinky at all.
These are not the same Rams they were eight days earlier, boy.
This is really one red-hot football team now.
All is forgotten. All is forgiven.
And anybody who ever criticized them did not know what the hell he or she was talking about.
If those critics had ever actually played pro football, after all, they would know that the Rams were just playing possum all those weeks, and that you shouldn’t judge a football team harshly just because it has been losing games and just because one of the team’s 11-year veterans happened to mention that the team stinks.
For one night--Monday night--the Rams got together and won an important game. Good for them.
They will, of course, slaughter St. Louis and the Raiders in their next two games and then sweep through the playoffs and really shut up all those stupid reporters and fans.
Look, nobody wishes the Rams any ill will. Why should anybody want this team to play badly? What would be gained from that?
The players did not pick up a California newspaper the day after the New Orleans game and see a headline that read: “RAMS LOSE TO SAINTS. GOOD!”
But what did we hear? “The media” did this. “The media” said that.
You remember the media. Hundreds of little people who run around locker rooms with “Media” printed across their shirts. They all are alike and they all say the same things.
And every single one of them had said the Rams stunk.
Nobody stood up in the Los Angeles locker room at San Francisco and said: “We really showed Dennis Harrah tonight.” No, sir.
The Rams only showed all those pea brains who watched them drop four of six games and had the audacity to find fault with their play.
That’s the trouble with the media, see.
None of them ever actually played football.
Joe Namath can call the Rams’ offensive game plan archaic on national television, but that’s OK, because Joe knows an offense when he sees one.
All the media know is free seats in the press box and mustard stains on their shirts from the free hot dogs.
Anybody who knew anything about the game of football should have known that the Rams were going to give the 49ers nothing but trouble Monday night.
But no. Every single living American had called the Rams a bad team. Only the Rams themselves knew in their hearts that they were actually a good team.
When their record was 7-0, the fans and media should have said: “And every single one of them is playing great!”
When they lost four of the next six, the fans and media should have said: “They’re trying really hard! Don’t worry! They’ll snap out of it!”
Well, OK, by golly.
The Rams are not going to lose another game.
This is one darn fine football team we have here.
They really taught those 49ers a lesson.
From here on in, they will stink their way right back to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
They may not lose a game next season, either.
You read it here first.