02/10/2026
What a great image.
Go Rams.
Taken 80 years ago as the Philadelphia Eagles study film of the Rams while flying into L.A. to face them for the season opener on September 29th, 1946.
This would have been the Rams’ first-ever game in Los Angeles, having just moved to the city that spring, immediately after winning the Championship for Cleveland. This would also be the first professional football game to be played in the Coliseum, which was to be the Rams’ new home, though not without one important caveat. As construction of the Coliseum was not financed by white taxpayers alone, there was mounting pressure from the city for the team to be racially integrated. In response, the Rams immediately signed Kenny Washington from the Hollywood Bears, and then also signed his former UCLA teammate (and eventual Hollywood badass) Woody Strode before the season began, making them the first black players in the NFL since Joe Lillard in 1933.
The Rams did lose this game (the Eagles really studied up on their flight), and they would miss the playoffs that year, and the next couple as well, but with some rebuilding, they’d come back and win the championship for LA in 1951.
As I’m currently on a plane, flying into LA, seeing pieces of the Super Bowl on people’s phones in front of me, this seemed like a good one to share.
-
Photo: Bettmann / Getty
https://www.instagram.com/p/DUhGYbHiU1I/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
