The National Football League will stage their first ever Monday night playoff game from SoFi Stadium tonight with the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Arizolna Cardinals. This is the same site for the February 13th Super Bowl, and the Rams hope to be in action in that game too.
Probably not.
I have an aversion to showboat wide receivers. When I was with the Oakland Raiders in the 1970’s, I got to work with two of the best ever; Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch. While both had bright personalities off the field they were all business and never a distraction to their team.
I got to observe up close the best wide receiver ever, Jerry Rice, as he went about his business with the San Francisco 49ers with a quiet elegance.
Those three pass catchers all were members of Super Bowl winning teams.
Then you have a list of receivers that think they are the show. None more intrusive on etiquette than Terrell Owens. He played on three teams with Super Bowl potential, and never won a Vince Lombardi Trophy while only advancing to the NFL’s title game once. Owens was a member of the 2004 Philadelphia Eagles who were beaten by the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.
After his stints with the 49ers and Eagles, the Dallas Cowboys had an opportunity to sign him and their current head coach, Bill Parcells, chose not to do it. He was overruled by team owner Jerry Jones, a decision that drove a spike in their relationship and led to the departure of Parcells a year later.
When Parcells and Owens were forced to work together, the coach that had led the New York Giants to a pair of Super Bowl wins had a regiment that included a coaching session that informed his team what it took to win it all. That December event was reserved for teams that were in the playoff hunt. Parcells coached teams usually were, but when he gave this lynchpin address to the Cowboys in 2006, Owens wasn’t there, instead opting to partake in a birthday party in Los Angeles.
When the Cowboys were eliminated that year from the playoffs in their opening game, a contest lost by one point to the Seattle Seahawks when Tony Romo fumbled the snap on a would-be winning field goal, Parcells left the team and Jones was left with Owens.
Chad Johnson was a showboat that rivaled anything Owens did as a player. During ten seasons in Cincinnati, he was a prolific receiver but never won a playoff game, oh for two in the postseason with the Bengals. His years in Cincinnati included him staging a stunt on the opening Monday Night Football telecast in 2007. After scoring a touchdown, he had a teammate drape over his shoulder pads an oversized gold jacket with the words, “Future H.O.F. 20??”. He completed his 11 year NFL career with the New England Patriots in 2011. That year, the Patriots won the AFC but lost Super Bowl XVI to the New York Giants, 21-17.
Johnson never got an official call from the NFL Hall of Fame.
The Los Angeles Rams have one of the receivers who thinks the show is more about him than his team. Odell Beckham Jr. has great pass catching skills, but his contribution to a winning team is hampered by his antics.
He began his career with the New York Giants, who selected him with the 12th overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. He played in only one postseason game during his five seasons in New York, and after the Giants lost that game at Lambeau Field to the Green Bay Packers, Beckham punched a hole in the visiting locker room out of frustration.
The Giants traded him to the Cleveland Browns before the 2019 season, and he had more negative things to say about his team, coaches and organization than the most severe sports writers who were chronicling the Browns horrible results. Last year, the Browns earned a playoff date, but Beckham was not part of the team on the field after suffering an injury in the seventh week of the season. The Browns also won their opening playoff game last year, downing the Pittsburgh Steelers, and came into this season with high hopes.
As those lofty projections got leveled by early season losses, Beckham became more of a problem than an asset to the team and Cleveland released him on November 8th. Three days later, the Rams signed him. And the following day, Los Angeles lost one of their top receivers, Robert Woods, to a season ending injury when he tore his ACL in practice.
Beckham is not the only veteran the Rams have added to their roster for the 2021 season in hopes of playing and winning the Super Bowl in their home stadium. They made an offseason deal with the Detroit Lions to bring veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles, sending their starting quarterback, Jared Goff, and three high draft choices to the Lions.
On November 1, the Rams fortified an already talent rich defensive corps with the acquisition of one-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Von Miller. He was a key in the Denver Broncos Super Bowl 50 victory over the Carolina Panthers and a seven time Pro Bowl participant. While late in his career, the Rams saw him as a further enforcer to push their way to a Super Bowl title and sent two more draft picks to the Broncos for his services.
In other words, the Rams are all in on the 2021 season. They have traded away their future building prospects of using the draft and put all their eggs in this team, this year, this possibility.
There is a problem with that.
Historically, teams that win championships are not those squads that have everything in the personnel ranks, but rather those organizations that have built their squads through the draft and have a team concept where everyone knows they have to play their best to succeed as a team.
The Rams have too much to be expected to win it all.
But, in an opening round playoff game against an Arizona Cardinals squad that beat the Rams on this field in October, yeah, Los Angeles has plenty to take advantage of this spot.
Qoxhi Picks: Los Angeles Rams (-3½) over Arizona Cardinals