The Los Angeles Rams' first day of training camp led to more 10,000 fans turning up at the University of California at Irvine. A week later, in an open practice at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, that number more than doubled. On Saturday, the Rams return to Los Angeles for real, kind of.
The Los Angeles Rams host the Dallas Cowboys in a preseason exhibition on Saturday evening at the LA Coliseum. With special expanded seating, the Rams could potentially see upwards of 90,000 people in attendance to celebrate the return of the Rams.
So, while Saturday may only be a preseason game, 90,000 fans in a stadium sounds like the NFL is back in Los Angeles.
"Only what I've been told, which is there's going to be a lot of people there and there are going to be a lot of Cowboy fans there as well," Rams coach Jeff Fisher spoke about what he expects from the crowd on Saturday.
"I think it's great, it's a great experience," Fisher continued. "It's going to be a great experience for the fans to come out there and see us for the first time and hopefully we make some plays that they can be impressed about."
The Rams are also being highlighted on HBO Sports' Hard Knocks series, which profiles NFL teams during their preseason preparations. As one would expect, NFL coaches use four-letter words, and Fisher is no exception. After being caught on camera cursing, Fisher shared a funny and relatable phone call.
"'Jeffrey,'" Fisher laughed as he impersonated his mother on the phone. "This is from mom, so I said 'sorry, mom, this is our world. I'll try to do better.'"
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Along with Fisher's mother, the players had also carved out time to watch the first episode.
"I thought it was funny," quarterback Jared Goff, who was the no. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, said on Thursday. "I caught a lot of grief from my friends and stuff. But it was funny, I didn't mind it."
Goff's highlights on the episode included coaches takes jabs at the rookie for having a crush on Taylor Swift and the University of California at Berkeley kid not knowing that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
On Saturday, though, the Northern California kid expects to get a chance to show off his stuff for his new Southern California home crowd.
"I feel good, I feel ready," Goff said. "Obviously, my first NFL game. I'm going to try and go out there and treat it like every other game I've ever played in my life, and have fun, execute, enjoy my time, and do the best I can."
For the first preseason game, Fisher said that, typically, the starters will play about two-to-three series before the team goes into substitution mode. For Goff, who starts the season as the backup, Saturday should offer a healthy first taste of NFL football.
"Yeah, yeah, there's a little bit," Goff admitted he had butterflies in his stomach. "But at the same time, I know once I step on the field, again, it's just the same thing. I can't make it more than it is. I can't blow it up in my head. I've just got to treat it like any other game. I've always been pretty good doing that my whole life. So, I don't feel like I have any issue with the magnitude of it."
