LA Rams are still high-stakes gamblers, but 2023 is on house money

The term All-In has been used to describe the high-stakes risks taken by the LA Rams within the first six seasons of hiring Sean McVay as the team's head coach. At the poker table, going all in has several connotations. It could translate into a gambler who is struggling on a bad night and is throwing their fortune into one last gasp of win or lose.

But the phrase 'Going All-In,' to poker players also has the connotation of a risk-taker, a person who is unshaken in the face of adversity and is willing to tempt fate with one last all-or-nothing chance. A player who can go all-in is a player who does not panic but rather remains calm, cool, and collected in the fact of losing or amassing great wealth with a single stroke.

But when the phrase is used by NFL analysts and pundits to describe the LA Rams, it means neither. Instead, the phrase has the connotation that aligns with that of a prodigal son. That is a team that squanders its inheritance through a lifestyle of drugs, drunkenness, and debauchery.

Moby Dick and Captain Ahab

From that perspective, the Rams burned through their assets and resources like the treacheroous and monomaniacle pursuit of the whale Moby Dick the captain of the Pequod, the one-legged Captain Ahab.

This 2023 NFL season and the sudden financial austerity that has become the foundation of the team's off-season so far is the result of squandering draft picks. In essence, they argue that the Rams mortgaged their future, and the team is paying for past sins today. In that classic novel penned by Herman Melville, Ahab pursues his nemesis, Moby Dick, resulting in his own death. Is that how casual NFL analysts view the Rams? After all, Ahab fell short of his life's endeavor.

But didn't the Rams fare a bit better? Let's rethink that a moment, shall we?