The 1979 Rams were the last great local edition to play in Los Angeles

In 1979, The Los Angeles Rams went to the only Super Bowl the LA edition has ever played in. Not to ever be confused with the “Greatest Show On Turf”, they was a gritty team who dominating the NFC West, and the city.

Los Angeles Rams fans who can remember the 1979 NFL season, will remember that the home team played in the Super Bowl not to far away at the home of the UCLA Bruins, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

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This was, for all intensive purposes, the last great Los Angeles Rams football team.

Now, before everyone starts telling me about the “Greatest Show On Turf”, park it. THAT team played in St. Louis. THAT championship was in another state, another time zone, and in another era.

Most importantly, it wasn’t a Los Angeles based team. So let’s not conflate the two.

But in 1979, LA had a bona fide champion. An NFC champion to be specific.

The 1979 Rams had just run off a string of seven straight NFC West titles en-route to Super Bowl XIV to face the Pttsburgh Steelers. With Vince Ferragamo at quarterback, Los Angeles took a 9-7 record into the playoffs, subsequently beating the Cowboys 21-19 in Dallas, and then winning at Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship game 9-0.

The Rams kept rolling through three quarters of the Super Bowl as they would take a 19-17 lead into the fourth against a Steelers team looking to repeat as World Champions. Pittsburgh would score two unanswered touchdowns, including a 73 yard bomb from Terry Bradshaw to receiver John Stallworth.

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Final score, Los Angeles 19, Pittsburgh 31.

1979 would also be the last time the Rams would play in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. They’d move to Anaheim Stadium for the 1980 season and remain there until their eventual move to St. Louis. They actually would have a better record in 1980 than in their previous Super Bowl season, going 11-5 but losing to Dallas in the Wild Card game.

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Since then, the Rams have won a championship, but as a team in St. Louis.

Hey, geography matters.