LA Rams fans converge on Hermosa to celebrate NFL Draft – Daily News

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The Los Angeles Rams celebrated having a first round NFL draft pick for the first time since 2016 with a fan extravaganza on Thursday evening, April 25, in Hermosa Beach.

Fans who attended the extravaganza watched the broadcast of the draft, which took place in Detroit, while also enjoying football-related activities, music — including a performance by rapper Gunna — and appearances from Rams players.

The party will continue at 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the Hermosa Beach Pier.

Hermosa Beach Mayor Justin Massey welcomed the crowd to the city with remarks on stage toward the beginning of the event.

“We love the Rams, and our roots run deep with the Rams, both personally and as a city,” Massey said. “The chance for us to play host to folks to come down and watch the Rams build the next Super Bowl champion is an extraordinary privilege for all of us.”

The Rams had the 19th overall pick in this year’s draft. And as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell took to the podium in Detroit to announce the Rams’ draft pick, fans in Hermosa Beach moved toward the stage.

Eight years after choosing quarterback Jared Goff in the first round, the Rams selected defensive end Jared Verse out of Florida State University.

The former Seminole, from Dayton, Ohio, first played for Albany, gained 40 pounds during the pandemic and then transferred to play for FSU, leading the team this past season with nine sacks.

Upon hearing the news, Rams fans in Hermosa Beach yelled out and raised fists and phones — capturing the moment for their personal scrapbooks.

Those fans came out from all over L.A. and beyond to watch the draft from the beach.

Orange County resident Trevor Robinson, who attended the fan experience on Thursday, has been a Rams fan since the team’s “Greatest Show on Turf” era, when the team was based in St. Louis and had a high-flying offense from 1999 to 2001.

“They won their first Super Bowl in 2000, ” Robinson said. “One of the first Super Bowls I watched was Super Bowl XXXIV.”

Since the Rams returned to Los Angeles, he said, he has gone to training camp practices and a handful of games each season.

“It went back to another level when they came back out here,” Robinson said.

Robinson said he was thrilled to witness his team’s only first round pick in eight years. But he also said he had hoped for offensive picks for the Rams.

“If we go defense, we’re just trying to fill a void,” he added. “I feel like the best players available is the (best) move.”

Long Beach resident Julius Fuse, meanwhile, said his preference was for the Rams not to trade down or swap a player for another who won’t bring great skills to the team. A trade up for an even better player, he added, would have been exciting.

As for the extravaganza, the Rams didn’t hold back — even bringing the SoFi Stadium turf to the surf with a first-of-its-kind 60-yard football field on the beach.

On the pop-up field, folks showed off their football skills with one-on-one drills, vertical jumps, 40-yard dashes, deep ball catches, broad jumps and touchdown celebrations.

Approaching Hermosa’s Pier Plaza was like walking into the “Rams house,” with branded flags hanging over every restaurant — but with an ocean breeze on the sand.

Inside the experience, fans received free pins from a button bar, got airbrush tattoos, took photos in front of blue and gold surfboards, and had their faces painted and hair decorated.

There were free giveaways, where people could open a locker with a player’s name on it and find Rams stickers, flags, towels and other paraphernalia inside, while also entering contests to win tickets to the team’s season opener.

Other fan activities included a “money” grabbing capsule where people tried to grab as many Rams bucks they could to “buy” merch like water bottles, bucket hats, portable chargers and keychains.

There were even sign-ups for the Rams Football Academy for youth.

Another L.A. sports teams made an appearance as well — in the form of an L.A. Kings bandana screen printing station.

Performances by the Mariachi Rams, Rams cheerleaders and a live band counted down to draft time, and team camera people brought some stadium humor by showing fans in the audience on screen with digital sombreros, equipped with ram horns on their heads.   .

Randall Reyna came from Hacienda Heights to Hermosa Beach Thursday to see who the Rams would pick for No. 1.

“I’ve been a Rams fan since I was a kid, and my dad has been one since a kid,” Reyna said.

He brought his three and six-year-old sons with him to event, continuing the generations of Rams’ spirit as the boys released some energy on the pop-up football field and played in the sand — while their dad watched the draft livestream.

 

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