| Just as the dust settled on a sensational NFL divisional round weekend, the sparks began to fly again. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that they’re division rivals and from two cities with a long-standing sporting status of mutual dislike, it was the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers who started going at it with some sneaky tricks and crafty mind games. What was surprising, however, was what sparked the sudden spate of animosity ahead of Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at SoFi Stadium (6:30 p.m. ET on FOX). Tickets. Crowd makeup has been a hot-button topic ever since the Rams were caught unaware in Week 18. With the 49ers needing a win to clinch a postseason spot, the sparkling venue, yep, the same one that will host the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, was hued firmly in red, with a vast visiting contingent snapping up seats on the secondary market. It worked. Jimmy Garoppolo’s late touchdown drive tied the game and saved San Francisco’s season. The fan influx captured enough attention that there were large pockets of 49ers support in both Dallas and Green Bay over the past two weeks. And the prospect of it happening again is something the Rams organization was determined to at least try to avert. Hence some highly entertaining to-and-fro in the early part of this week. Melissa Whitworth, wife of Rams offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth, issued a Twitter plea to Rams fans, urging them not to sell their tickets to 49ers rivals or to list them online – saying that she would personally buy them instead. The banter continued when retired lineman Joe Staley, beloved among the 49ers fanbase after spending his entire career with the organization, concocted an almost identical tweet in reverse, offering to buy any spare tickets from Rams fans and distribute them to those in red. Staley was soon joined by former 49ers running back Frank Gore, who also offered cash to buy up seats, while current players Kyle Juszczyk and Fred Warner called for an army of San Francisco supporters to take over SoFi once more. “It’s going to be as much of a home game the Niners can have in an NFC Championship on the road,” Staley told KNBR radio. “The Niner fans are going to be loud. The Rams are going to have to go on silent count again. All the wives of the players on the Rams side are going to be crying about it again.” Perhaps fearing what might be coming, the Rams issued a clampdown, as Ticketmaster halted sales to anyone without a Los Angeles-area billing address. The Rams have since released a statement, saying “season ticket members bought up all available tickets during a presale over the weekend, so there is no policy in place.” The truth is that a large number of the 49ers supporters wishing to attend the game will be from the L.A. region in any case. Los Angeles is stacked with 49ers followers, courtesy of both that franchise’s historic success and the fact that the City of Angels was without an NFL team to call its own for two decades. Furthermore, you’re unlikely to meet someone from San Francisco who doesn’t have several L.A.-based friends or family members. I personally know of a family of Chargers fans who were happy to secure tickets for their S.F.-located friends as a way of snubbing the Rams, with whom they share a stadium. Why it matters is because it can have a genuine effect on the game. Matthew Stafford’s wife Kelly revealed in her podcast after the Week 18 clash that the Rams had to go on silent count on offense, which is what Staley was referring to in his comments. “They made it difficult,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “In a lot of instances, you’re kind of absent of your verbal communication. If they get as loud as they were when our offense was on the field – in certain parts of the field it was really noisy. It was really difficult to operate. And so, you almost have to handle that situation like you would an away game.” In a contest between a pair of teams in prime form, every edge counts. The Rams are 3.5-point favorites with FOX Bet and are at -175 on the money line. The anticipation is huge in both cities after each team produced an outstanding road victory to reach this point. The 49ers defense was masterful against the Green Bay Packers, allowing Aaron Rodgers and friends just three points after their initial touchdown drive. The Rams burst into an early lead against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, before Stafford broke the home side’s hearts by hitting Cooper Kupp twice in the final minute to set up a decisive field goal. This is a heated rivalry already, even with the 49ers victorious in the last six meetings, and in purely football terms, there is so much to like. The ruckus over what the stadium is going to look like – a sea of blue and yellow or covered with red – only adds to the anticipation. The extra spice is what sports is all about, where animosity brews for no reason other than opposing allegiance and where fandom is put to the test. Knowing that the crowd can and will play a factor, because it already has, Rams fans are faced with a conundrum. Bucketloads of cash will be required, with some seats listed at $5000, and the asking prices are only going to climb. So the question for them is this – how much is your fandom worth? |
