Ruminating on the LA Rams’ horn logo (yet again): Piling on.

The LA Rams were the first team to have a logo on their helmet when a little-known halfback on the team by the name of Fred Gehrke painted horns on his helmet and the team permanently adopted the look – 73 years ago. At the time, he just thought it would boost team morale a bit. It accomplished that, but so much more, too.

"“I drew the horns on with chalk. Then I painted the rest of the helmet in blue. Then I came back inside the chalk lines with the gold for the horns. It was not easy. On those helmets, the leather was not even. It was hard to paint.” – Frank Gehrke as reported by helmethut.com"

He painted a Picasso. Those horns became an icon for the toughness of the LA Rams team. It bestowed upon this team its identity.

Who could have possibly known or even predicted then that the rest of the league would soon adopt that idea and follow suit with their own helmet logos? Proof positive that the NFL was then, and remains now a copycat league.

Not just gimmicky gadget plays,(such as the one head coach Sean McVay recently ‘fessed up to ripping off from a bit of game film of the Miami Dolphins) but uniforms and logos as well.

Now, fast forward to 2021 and we got “modern throwback” uniforms to appease the angry mob, but yet, we remain saddled with a two-banana helmet.

Err, make that a two-bit helmet.

Or you can simply call it Demoff’s Folly.

Los Angeles Rams

Before the makeover, all Rams fans could agree on one thing above all else – the Ram horns on the helmet were sacred, the team’s identity. One of the most iconic images in the NFL. No, in all professional sports.

The curlicue horn was simply immediately recognizable. It conveyed instant meaning, a symbol of great football prowess. Like the golden arches of McDonald’s, the golden seashell of Shell Oil. Show a stranger or a youngster a picture of the blue and gold horn logo, ask ’em what it represents and invariably, the LA Rams would be their response.

Two bananas? Not so much.

The one thing that everybody knew, that everybody could agree upon was sacred, was sacrosanct, revered, venerated. It was, frankly, a divine design. Something that should never have been modernized, or re-touched, or given a makeover. And still, somehow they just could not stop themselves from screwing it up. And why? In pursuit of new merchandising dollars, we must presume.

In doing so, the marketing gurus robbed the team of its identity.

We must forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.

And we can forgive if you’d only just bring the horns back – the real horns. Not those faux two-bananas you tell us are horns. Because our eyes don’t lie.

Demoff’s decision to change it in 2020, a move to commemorate the grand opening of SoFi Stadium to the public, was sooo much more than just a mistake, a misstep, or a mere marketing miscalculation. It was a blunder of monumental proportions, a freakin’ snafu, a total brain fart. An abomination that amounts to an affront, a design slur, a slap in the face to all Rams fans’ sensibilities.

It’s an abomination. A dud. A flub up. An anathema. A plague that’s been hoisted upon the team. No matter how you slice it, the two-bananas look is the dog won’t hunt.

In the beginning, there were the Rams horns. As it shall be and (should) ever shall be.

Please let us return to the team’s roots, re-visit its storied past. Give us back a helmet that’s worthy of the team’s past. Bring back the horns, the missing curlicue. Let its curl swirl around the earhole of the helmet again.

The disjointed banana hurts our eyes. “It burns, it burns.” (as Gollum said)