Rams Host 49ers In NFC Title Game But Will Crowd Provide Home-Field Edge?
INGLEWOOD (CBSLA/AP) — Sunday's NFC Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers at SoFi Stadium is a hot ticket, with a hot question attached - which team's fans will dominate the crowd?
The rivalry is just the latest distillation of the ongoing competition between the Bay Area and Los Angeles that encompasses food, culture, music, weather, and of course, sports.
Whether it's the Giants vs. the Dodgers in baseball, the Warriors and Lakers in the NBA or this one on the gridiron, there's always a little more on the line when teams from these two regions meet.
The fans get into as well, with the 49ers faithful taking pride in taking over SoFi Stadium back in Week 18 so much that the Rams needed to use a silent count at times on offense.
That led to pleas from some of the wives of Rams players to their own fans not to sell tickets to Bay Area fans.
That doesn't seem to be working with ticket reseller StubHub projecting a heavy Northern California contingent at the game.
"Hopefully we'll have a sea of red down at SoFi and turn it into Levi's South," Niners kicker Robbie Gould said.
The Sean McVay-Kyle Shanahan chapter is just the latest in a rivalry that dates to 1950 when these teams were the only California squads in the NFL.
The game will the 146th ever between the teams and just the second in the postseason. The Niners beat the Rams 30-3 in the 1989 NFC title game on the way to back-to-back Super Bowl wins.
While the 49ers have the slight advantage overall with a 75-67-3 mark, the rivalry has featured long runs of dominance on both sides. The Rams held the upper hand in the 1970s and 2000s, and the Niners dominated for most the 1980s and '90s.
Now San Francisco hopes to extend its current streak with a seventh straight win in a matchup of teams that know each other so well.
"I don't think there's many secrets," Shanahan said. "There's not much things we can surprise them with and same with them with us, which I think is kind the most fun way. It'll be two really good teams and a really good football game where you can't really trick each other. You have to go out and beat somebody."
(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)