Kurt Warner: Rams Have ‘Built In Fan Base in L.A.’

PHOENIX—The best quarterback in the short history of the Rams in St. Louis prefers that the team remain in the Gateway to the West rather than migrate West. But Kurt Warner concedes to Breitbart Sports that a reboot in Los Angeles makes sense for the franchise.

“To me, when I hear Rams, it’s synonymous with St. Louis, I’m a part of that history, I’m part of that franchise,” Warner told Breitbart Sports at the NFL owner’s meeting in Phoenix on Tuesday. “When I think back to the memory of the St. Louis Rams, they are all going to be around the St. Louis community.”

But Warner also realizes the Rams have a rich history in Los Angeles, playing in that city from 1946 through 1994, and would be a natural fit from whence they came.

“I’m also realistic and understand how that fits for the NFL, how it fits for the Rams to move back to L.A.,” Warner said. “When I was with the St. Louis Rams, and every time I would go out to L.A., you would be amazed at the number of people who would come up and say, ‘Thanks for the great season. I’ve been a Rams fans my entire life.’ There is a built-in fan base in L.A.”

The Rams have been playing in St. Louis since 1995, following a move from Los Angeles. The team originally played in Cleveland. One of the greatest players of their 20-year history in St. Louis is quarterback Kurt Warner.

After graduating from Northern Iowa in 1993, he bagged groceries and bounced around the Arena League and NFL Europe before finally landing a third-string quarterback job with the Rams in 1998.

In 1999, he moved up to second-string, and when starting quarterback Trent Green suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason, Warner took over and led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in his first season as a starter. In the Rams’s Super Bowl win over the Tennessee Titans, Warner threw for two touchdowns and a Super Bowl-record 414 passing yards.

Two years later, he led the Rams to another Super Bowl appearance, but they lost to the New England Patriots on a last second field goal. Warner’s road to St. Louis, and his magical career with the Rams, played like a Hollywood script. Near Tinseltown, Rams owner Stan Kroenke wants to build a $1.86 billion stadium on a tract of land he owns, and eventually host two NFL teams, with the Rams likely being one of them.

Warner has mixed feelings.

“So when people think about Los Angeles, the Rams are the first thing that comes to mind because it’s synonymous with that team,” Warner maintained. “It makes sense to me that would be a good move and smart move to have built-in fan base for a team that moves there.

“But for more personally, I’d like for them to stay in St. Louis because I love the community there, and my history would stay with that team. But I definitely see both sides of it.”

He would make a good politician they way he worked the middle on this issue. But he is clearly not categorically opposed to a Rams move to Los Angeles.