The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles area of California. The Rams have competed in the National Football League (NFL) since 1937, one year after their formation in Cleveland, Ohio, as a charter member of the second incarnation of the American Football League. [2] The team moved to Los Angeles in 1946 where they became the city's first professional sports team. [3] They first played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before moving to Anaheim, California, in 1980, where they played their home games at Anaheim Stadium. [4] The Rams moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1995, and remained there for two decades until they returned to Los Angeles after the 2015 NFL season. [5] Currently, they are members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) and play their home games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. [6] [7]
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The early era of the NFL and American football in general was not conducive to passing the football, with the forward pass not being legalized until the early 1900s and not fully adopted for many more years. [8] Although the quarterback position has historically been the one to receive the snap and thus handle the football on every offensive play, [9] the importance of the position during this era was limited by various rules, like having to be five yards behind the line of scrimmage before a forward pass could be attempted. [10] These rules and the tactical focus on rushing the ball limited the importance of the quarterback position while enhancing the value of different types of backs, such as the halfback and the fullback. [11] Some of these backs were considered triple-threat men, capable of rushing, passing or kicking the football, making it common for multiple players to attempt a pass during a game. [12]
As rules changed and the NFL began adopting a more pass-centric approach to offensive football, the importance of the quarterback position grew. [10] [11] Beginning in 1950, total wins and losses by a team's starting quarterback were tracked. [13] Throughout the late 20th century and early 21st century, the significance of the position has grown exponentially. [11] The modern starting quarterback is often viewed as the leader of the team and its player spokesperson. [9] The position is often the highest paid player on an NFL team's roster, with teams assigning significant resources in trying to draft, acquire or trade for a franchise quarterback. [14] [15] These resources are based on the high expectations placed on the position, which include handling the ball on every offensive play (whether it be to pass the ball or hand it off to another player), relaying plays (or sometimes calling plays themselves) to the offense and understanding every teammate's role, formation and responsibility for every play. [9] The emergence of the dual-threat quarterback has also seen additional focus on the position, with quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen leading their team in both passing and rushing yards during any given game. [16]
Prior to 1950, the Rams had numerous players identified as playing the quarterback position, including Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Bob Waterfield. [17] However, the combination of unreliable statistics in the early era of the NFL and the differences in the early quarterback position make tracking starts by quarterbacks impractical for this timeframe. Since 1950 however, the Rams have had 58 starting quarterbacks in the history of their franchise. [18] Eight of those quarterbacks made over 50 starts, and three of them were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Norm Van Brocklin, Kurt Warner, and Waterfield. Joe Namath was also inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. [18] [19]
