Los Angeles is home to both the Rams and the Chargers. It is the second-largest city in the United States and is one of two cities (the other being New York) to have two teams in the NFL.
Los Angeles has a population of nearly four million people, one million more than the next biggest city, Chicago. Due to the massive population, one NFL team just did not seem to get the job done.
History of the NFL in Los Angeles
Los Angeles was the first city on the West Coast to host an NFL team, as the Cleveland Rams relocated to Los Angeles in 1946 and played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1946 until 1979.
In 1960, the Chargers began playing in the Coliseum. The Chargers moved to San Diego after their inaugural season, where they eventually joined the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL merger.
The Rams moved to Anaheim, California, in 1980, and in 1982, the Oakland Raiders became the Los Angeles Raiders.
Both teams left Los Angeles before the 1995 season. The Raiders returned to their original home, Oakland, while the Rams relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, leaving Los Angeles without an NFL team.
That ended in early 2016 when the Rams received approval to return to the area beginning at the start of the 2016 season.
The Chargers announced their intent to return to Los Angeles from San Diego in January 2017. The two teams now share SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which opened in 2020.
Due to the size of the city, having two teams is a smart move as the people of LA have multiple teams to root for, and having multiple teams in a city creates a local rivalry, which is good for business.
In addition to having two football teams, Los Angeles also has two NBA teams — the Lakers and the Clippers.
The Chargers won one AFL Championship in 1963 before moving to San Diego in 1961. The team would go on to win an additional AFL Championship in 1964 and make it to Super Bowl XXIX in 1995.
The Rams have won two Super Bowl titles in 2000 and 2022, while the Chargers have never won one. In 2000, the Rams took down the Titans 23-16. In 2022, they defeated the Bengals 23-20.
This season, neither the Rams nor the Chargers are having a particularly great run as they sit at 5-6 and 4-7, respectively.
The Rams most recently routed the Cardinals 37-14 as Arizona QB Kyler Murray struggled. Rams QB Matthew Stafford had his best performance of the season as he completed 75.8% of his passes for 229 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception.
While Stafford has played decently this season, the Rams just can’t seem to get into a rhythm and string together a meaningful number of wins. They are currently third in the NFC West, ahead of the 2-10 Cardinals.
The Chargers sit at the bottom of their division and just took a 20-10 loss to the Ravens in a sloppy offensive showing. The team turned the ball over a total of four times against Baltimore.