LOS ANGELES — Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer, boldly went there.

“I absolutely believe that we can own this market,” Demoff said.

Demoff spoke with conviction. After all, the Rams are participating and hosting the L.A. area’s first Super Bowl in 29 years.

It was the perfect outcome that Demoff and the Rams wouldn’t have imagined if it was presented to them in a Hollywood script five years ago before informing the NFL that SoFi Stadium wouldn’t be ready in time.

Tampa Bay jumped the line and was awarded Super Bowl LV – and the headaches that go with it – long before masks and vaccines were requirements to enter NFL games.

Waiting an extra year turned out to be the best outcome for the Rams and the Los Angeles Super Bowl Committee. SoFi Stadium will have 70,000-plus fans in attendance Sunday for the big game between the home team and the Cincinnati Bengals.

“When you get a chance to play in a Super Bowl, that always helps pin hearts and minds,” Demoff said. “When you get a chance to host a Super Bowl, that obviously helps elevate your brand, the SoFi Stadium brand, the NFL in Los Angeles as a whole. When you combine those two, it’s an unbelievably powerful mix to develop that next generation of fandom.”

That’s why Demoff planted his flag on the Rams’ growing presence and briefly warned the Dodgers and Lakers that the Rams are coming for the top spot in the Los Angeles market.

Demoff, however, understands how complex this market is compared to the rest of the country. His priority since the team left St. Louis in 2016 has been to make Southern California fall in love with the Rams again.

Demoff quickly pumped the brakes on the confidence, despite having the stars aligned during this run to the Super Bowl.

“That’s probably the wrong thing to say,” Demoff said seconds after his proclamation. “I absolutely believe that we can be at the level of the Dodgers and Lakers have been and continue to be. But those teams have been decades of success and championships and building a deep multicultural fan base, stars, legends, Hall of Famers and building on consistency.”

WORK TO DO

The Rams are steps and years away from reaching the popularity of the Lakers and Dodgers, and the national perception of football in Los Angeles agrees. Outsiders believe the 18 million people scattered across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties aren’t as passionate about football as their respective fan bases.

It’s hard to disagree and buy what Demoff was selling because it wasn’t that long ago that San Francisco 49ers fans invaded the Rams’ house twice in a month. The snickers returned this week on social media after the Rams had an unimpressive turnout at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village for their fan rally compared to the Bengals’ large showing at Paul Brown Stadium.

The Los Angeles area has its flaws when it comes to supporting the local teams, but the people here care and it takes a lot for them to be impressed. The L.A. market is complex yet rich with football fandom and tradition.

Rams Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jackie Slater doesn’t want Demoff to tone down the confidence because he remembers when the Rams were the kings of L.A. before the 1980s, when Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won championships for the Lakers and Fernandomania took over Dodger Stadium.

“I was sitting on the bench down there in Anaheim and I looked over and Magic Johnson was giving me the thumbs-up,” Slater recalled.

Magic in his prime making an appearance at Anaheim Stadium signifies how beloved the Rams were in this market before they fled for St. Louis and played there from 1995 to 2015.

The Rams have made progress by making yearly playoff appearances with Coach Sean McVay, but they have work to do to reach the level of the Lakers and Dodgers. The Chargers, who arrived in 2017 after 56 seasons in San Diego, have more work to do, but they have a main attraction in star quarterback Justin Herbert.

The NFL in Los Angeles needs work, but this area is passionate about football, from Inglewood to Carson, to Long Beach, to Santa Ana, to Whitter, to Pasadena, to Palmdale, to Van Nuys, to Oxnard. The Greater L.A. region, the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, will be showcased late Sunday afternoon for Super Bowl LVI.

Quarterback coach, Danny Hernandez, works on a drill with Trevon Towns Jr. during a Sunday workout at St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs on Sunday February 6, 2022. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

THE HIGH SCHOOL SCENE

The list of current college quarterbacks Danny Hernandez has helped groom is long and impressive.

The local quarterback guru coached Alabama’s Bryce Young, Clemson’s DJ Uiagalelei, Colorado’s J.T. Shrout, Texas’ Maalik Murphy, Michigan State’s Katin Houser and Michigan’s Jayden Denegal. All of them grew up in the Los Angeles area.

“It’s a wide range and I don’t mean to name drop or anything,” said Hernandez, a private quarterbacks coach and founder of Los Angeles Dimes.

Hernandez could have rattled off more names, especially if he wasn’t just restricted to quarterbacks from Southern California. Word is starting to spread about Hernandez and that has led to young quarterbacks from across the country traveling to Los Angeles to work with the San Gabriel Valley native.

Hernandez didn’t want to brag about his quarterbacks list, but he should. There aren’t many Mexican-American football coaches doing what he’s doing. He’s paving the way for the many Latinos playing youth and high school football across the greater L.A. area. Football in L.A. is diverse and filled with talent.

But Hernandez might be so good at his job that his pupils are becoming exports. Decorated college coaches like Alabama’s Nick Saban and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney are recruiting L.A.’s best quarterbacks and causing them to leave the state for college football.

“These (Southern California) kids are constantly chasing the best,” said Hernandez, who is also a coach for QB Collective. “They’re chasing the best trainer. They’re chasing the best school, the best opportunity and why is it going to stop there? They’re going to want the best in the college football space too, and the best is what? What is on your checklist? A program with great culture. A program that puts guys out in the (NFL) consistently.”

Can’t blame local quarterbacks, such as Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Ole Miss’ Matt Corral, for leaving the state to face the best competition in the country.

For decades, some of the best college football and NFL players have come from the L.A. area and its more than 600 high schools, and the surplus of talented young quarterbacks from this area is another perfect example. They might not play at USC and UCLA, but they were raised and groomed in Southern California.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud #7 of the Ohio State Buckeyes scrambles against the Utah Utes in the second half of the 108th Rose Bowl game in Pasadena on Saturday, January 1, 2022. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

THE COLLEGE LANDSCAPE

The abundance of talent from the area shows that this market does care about football. But to make the point more clear, USC and UCLA will need to start winning again and draw sold-out crowds at their respective prestigious home venues, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and Rose Bowl.

“Nothing tops the Rose Bowl with 100,000 people for games against USC or Oklahoma,” said Chargers running back Joshua Kelley, who played at UCLA. “It’s still the best venue I’ve played at and that includes the NFL.”

Kelley’s Chargers teammate, Uchenna Nwosu, disagreed with his pick for the best venue in the nation. Nwosu prefers the Coliseum as a USC alum.

“I definitely agree people are sleeping on the L.A. culture of football and how big it is out here and how many people really watch USC football,” said Nwosu, an edge rusher for the Chargers.

Former NFL defensive lineman Frostee Rucker won national championships at USC in the early 2000s with teammates Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. Those USC squads rode the same wave of popularity here as the Lakers with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

“The energy and how electric we were on the football field,” Rucker said about why his college team was able to gain L.A.’s attention. “Nearly every player I played with got drafted in the NFL. We put on a show. We were showtime. We were the ones winning championships and everyone showed up. The reason they remodeled the (Coliseum) was because of the attendance we had and they kept getting bigger.

“The stadium is now built for the growth Lincoln Riley can bring to the table.”

Riley, USC’s new coach, has plenty of pressure to turn the Trojans into a national powerhouse again. There’s pressure because L.A. football fans do care. They just have different ways of showing it.

But Rucker’s USC teams provided the blueprint for how the L.A. NFL teams can rise to the popularity of the Lakers and Dodgers.

THE PRO FOOTBALL SITUATION

Los Angeles wants championships, star power and tradition.

The Rams have the star players with Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Odell Beckham Jr., Aaron Donald, Von Miller and Jalen Ramsey.

They have L.A.’s attention. This is their second Super Bowl appearance in four seasons. They’ll need to win Super Bowls though to keep this market’s attention. Maybe then they’ll regain the rich tradition they had before leaving for the Midwest.

Football fans from the L.A. area split in different directions when the NFL left the second-biggest market in the nation for two decades.

“It’s not about flipping fans,” Demoff said. “Someone who grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to L.A. as a Steelers fan. That’s great if it happens, but that may not be realistic. It’s about their kids, who are 8, 9, 10 years old growing up wearing Cooper Kupp jerseys, wearing Aaron Donald jerseys and becoming lifelong Rams fans.”

The Chargers are behind in the winning category and, outside of the franchise’s inaugural season in 1960 before moving south, don’t have the history the Rams had with Los Angeles before relocating to St. Louis. And it doesn’t help that the Chargers for decades have been the rivals of the Raiders, arguably L.A.’s favorite NFL team.

Raiders fans from Los Angeles have made their presence felt at the Black Hole in Oakland and Las Vegas – another unique way this market supports football.

But the Chargers showed progress in the L.A. market during their first season at SoFi Stadium with fans.

“I feel the support and I can see it,” Chargers general manager Tom Telesco said. “I see it on game day, which going into this year was completely new. We didn’t know what we were going to see in our first year in a new stadium, in what, basically, is a new market for us. I think that there’s a lot there to be proud of with this football team and how they play.”

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Demoff might have gotten carried away when he said the Rams are capable of owning the L.A. market. Perhaps that can one day happen, but the truth is the NFL in Los Angeles works.

And the region’s football culture and passion will be on display for Super Bowl LVI.

“It’s sort of surreal that we’re here,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “I think this is going to be a regular Super Bowl stop.”