Straight Outta LA

I think one of the things we love about sports is the clearly defined roles. There are heroes and villains, though who serves in what role tends to change depending on your perspective. Just ask residents of Boston and New York. (I side with Boston on that one, in case you're curious).

On the diamond, my loyalty lies in Atlanta and on the hardwood I love to watch the Lakers. But when it comes to my most favorite sport, football, I am a Broncos fan all the way. That's why it was hard, at first, to appreciate ESPN's latest "30 for 30" documentary, "Straight Outta LA" directed by Ice Cube. The film focused on the 12-year period when the Raiders called Los Angeles home, and documented the cultural impact of the Silver and Black.

I know that the Raiders began their franchise in Oakland, most of their best years were in Oakland, and the corpse formerly known as the Raiders franchise still resides in Oakland, but to me they will always be the L.A. Raiders. When I was growing up and first getting into football in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Raiders were an L.A. team. That was how I knew them, from watching them thug it up in the L.A. Coliseum. And, as it turns out, I'm not alone.

In fact, it was the Silver and Black in the L.A. days that made me a Broncos fans. As a kid, not really grasping much about football, my dad had a game on. I watched as one team, adorned in beautiful orange and blue battled another team in a shady silver and black ensemble. I instantly fell in love with the orange team....if only they'd been more successful against the Raiders in those years...

Now a long-time football fan, I appreciate the Broncos for a variety of football-related reasons. They are my team, even though they ditched the orange uniforms.

But for a whole group of fans in L.A. during the Raiders run, the Silver and Black jackets, hats, and attitude came to define the fan group — particularly the emerging gangster rap scene. It was interesting to me to hear from the actual artists how they felt their identity as a culture was intertwined with the image of the Raiders and the style of play the Raiders exhibited on the field. The interviews with players from that era provided a different perspective. And, of course, the interviews with fans that were deflated when the team pulled up stakes and moved back to Oakland in 1995 was fascinating too.

You see, on the East Coast and in other major sports towns California — Los Angeles in particular — gets a bum rap. Sports fans are rabid on the East Coast and seem to adopt a different feel here on the West Coast. Additionally, because California is a melting pot of cultures, identities and regions, there are a lot of different sports loyalties. I'm a prime example of that (Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Broncos). But that doesn't mean we don't care.

I've heard many times that Los Angeles residents didn't care when the Rams and Raiders fled, and don't really care they don't have a pro football team now. If nothing else, Ice Cube's documentary Tuesday night proved differently.

We may not have mastered the art of rabid, drunken fandom like East Coast ports of call, but out west we're still plenty passionate about our sports teams.