IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - Ever since the Rams came home to Los Angeles two seasons ago, a big segment of their long-faithful local fan base has pleaded with them to dress better.
The Rams have listened to their fans’ pleas, and now the NFL is allowing them to wear their classic blue-and-yellow uniforms five times at the Coliseum this season.
The Rams will don the franchise’s traditional uniforms in their final five home games this season, chief operating officer Kevin Demoff announced Friday to a thrilled throng of Rams supporters at training camp.
“I’m excited for our fans, because their voice was heard in the NFL office,” Demoff said. “We’re glad that we were able to deliver for them.”
The Rams’ uniform choices have attracted uncommon scrutiny since mere days after the team announced its return to California in 2016. Most local fans fondly remember the Rams in their royal blue jerseys with yellow pants, which the Rams wore from 1973 until 1999.
The St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl in the white version of that uniform, but swapped out that color scheme the next season in favor of a navy-and-gold look. The Rams tweaked their look when they moved back to LA, and the Rams wore a hybrid look last season that resembled the blue-and-white look worn by the Los Angeles Rams from 1964-72, but with accents of the St. Louis gold.
The Rams adopted the classic blue-and-yellow look as their throwback uniform when they moved home, and they’ve worn it in two home games apiece over their first two seasons in the Coliseum. Their fans wanted more, and they’re getting it.
“(The NFL) understood our fans’ requests about why we wanted to wear throwbacks more,” Demoff said. “They saw the passion. We sent them all the letters, all the discussion from last year.”
The Rams essentially were allowed to swap out their current navy-blue jerseys for their throwbacks for four games during the upcoming season. The team spent several games last season wearing what appeared to be mismatched navy jerseys and pants, and fans were fed up.
They’ll also swap their current white-horned helmets for gold horns while wearing the throwbacks. The Rams’ headgear also is historic: they have the first NFL helmets ever to feature a logo, after halfback Fred Gehrke painted the horns onto the leather helmets in 1948.
After the NFL agreed to the switch this week, the Rams will wear the royal blue jerseys with yellow ram horns around the shoulders in five of their seven home games. Their eighth “home” game is in Mexico City, where the Rams will wear their yellow “Color Rush” alternate uniforms.
The Rams will wear their current white home jerseys in their two preseason home games and their first two regular-season games at the Coliseum in September. That decision will force their opponents to wear colored jerseys in the hottest temperatures of the season.
The team also will wear the blue-and-yellow gear with roughly the same frequency in 2019, Demoff said.
But this franchise’s uniform saga is far from over.
The Rams have long planned to unveil new uniforms when they move into their palatial new stadium in Inglewood for the 2020 season. Demoff indicated the new look is likely to be “a blend” of the classic and the new.
“Certainly we know where the fans’ passion on colors and uniforms are,” Demoff said. “But we want to make sure we walk into the world’s newest and most modern stadium with a uniform design that is reflective of our history, but also reflects the building that we’ve just constructed.”
___
For more NFL coverage: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL
Please read our comment policy before commenting.