Rams' No. 1 fan moved to St. Louis … and then to Los Angeles
We all love our favorite sports teams. But would you move with them if they relocated?
And if they moved again, would you go too?
If the answer is no, congratulations because you’re sane. And you’ll never out-fan Adam Mirghanbari.
SI.com’s Greg Bishop wrote a great story that looks at the Rams relocation in a different way. Mirghanbari (better known as “Merg”) was a fan of the Los Angeles Rams from the age of 3. He lived in Chicago and the Rams’ move to St. Louis worked out pretty well for him, because he commuted to all their games. He’d drive to St. Louis (about five hours) for the home games and fly to the road games. He was spending about $20,000 a year to follow the Rams at one point. Then he just moved to St. Louis and opened a pizza place there.
The Rams noticed him and asked if he’d like to help out, first working with the video department to take still pictures from the printer to the coaches, which started in 1997. Eventually he was a ball boy and then part of the chain crew at practice.
And then the team moved back to Los Angeles after the 2015 season. So Mirghanbari moved to L.A. too.
He still travels to St. Louis to run his pizza place and see his mother, but he’s a Los Angeleno now.
“I can’t even believe it,” Merg says. “Back in LA! And the cherry on top is that the next three years are going to be in the Coliseum. I ask myself, wait a minute, how can this be happening?”
So, hey, someone is excited about the Rams playing the next three seasons in the Coliseum.
Bishop’s story, detailing how Merg became such a superfan, is a great read. It’s a good way of framing the Rams’ first preseason game in Los Angeles, which happens on Saturday night and will be on ESPN.
And the guy who became a Rams fan in Chicago seems to understand better than anyone what the move means.
“St. Louis is a good place, nice people and everything, but the Rams were a stepchild,” Mirghanbari told SI.com. “Their daddies weren’t Rams fans. Their granddaddies weren’t Rams fans. There’s no generational bond.”
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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