May 23, 1982. The day\nthat it began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a gloomy, overcast Sunday afternoon in Boston. At the old Boston Garden, the Boston Celtics\nand the Philadelphia 76ers were playing Game 7 of the 1982 NBA East Finals. It was just like the previous year, in\n1981. The Sixers ran to a 3-1 games lead\nin the East Finals, but the Celtics won Game 5 at home and Game 6 at the\nSpectrum to force the seventh game at home on a Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1981, Larry Bird\u2019s clutch shooting and a smothering team\ndefense helped pull out a 91-90 win to send the Celtics to the NBA Finals,\nwhich they won in six games over the Houston Rockets. 1982 proved to be totally different. Andrew Toney hit on 14 of 23 from the field\nfor 34 points, UMass\u2019 Julius Erving chipped in with 29 points, the Sixers won\nevery quarter and advanced to the NBA Finals with a convincing 120-106 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With about five minutes left in the game, and the outcome decided, something strange happened at the Garden. The fans could be heard chanting \u201cBeat L.A.! Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!\u201d In a show of tremendous sportsmanship, the Celtic fans uplifted the visiting Sixers in hopes they would beat the Lakers in the finals. The broadcasters for CBS, Dick Stockton and Bill Russell, picked up on it and applauded the crowd for being such good sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the record, the Lakers won the title in six games, so\nthe chants didn\u2019t work that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two years later, the Celtics and Lakers staged an NBA Finals\nfor the ages. It went the seven-game\nlimit, with the Celtics winning Game 7 at steamy hot Boston Garden,\n111-102. All throughout the series,\nGarden fans kept bellowing \u201cBeat L.A.! \nBeat L.A.! Beat L.A.!\u201d The following year, the chants came back as\nthese two teams once again battled for the NBA title, but in 1985 the Lakers\nwon the championship with a clinching Game 6 win in Boston. Two years later, the chants returned, but the\n1987 Lakers took the Celtics in six games, winning the clincher out in the LA\nForum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It took nineteen years, but the chant finally returned in 2008. Everyone in the region celebrated the return\nof the Celtics and Lakers to the NBA Finals, calling it \u201cjust like old times!\u201d The Celtics won it all in six games,\nculminating in a 131-92 demolition of the Lakers in the clincher. Two years later it came back again, but the\nLakers took the Celtics in seven games, clinching out west at the Staples\nCenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chant went dormant for eight years, but it came\nback. Just not at the Boston Garden, or\nthe TD Garden, but rather at Fenway Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last fall, the Red Sox and Dodgers hooked up in the 2018\nWorld Series. Games 1 and 2 were at\nFenway, and all throughout the games you could hear the \u201cBeat L.A.! Beat L.A.! \nBeat L.A.!\u201d chants. The Sox won\nthe series in five games, clinching out at Dodger Stadium, but hearing the old\nCeltic chant at a different venue was delightfully different and fun to listen\nto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, a little over three months later, the chant gets to\ncome back. It\u2019s too bad that it won\u2019t be\nat Gillette Stadium, but rather at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in two\nweeks, as well as various sports watering holes around greater Boston and all\nthroughout New England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Patriots and Rams will play in Super Bowl LIII in two\nweeks. Since first meeting in the Big\nShow seventeen years ago, the Rams left St. Louis and moved back to the second\ncity of their existence, as well as the city still most identified with this\nfranchise. The Rams have now been back\nin Los Angeles for three seasons, and even though the local, indigenous Rams\nfans are still outnumbered by fans of the visiting team, thus far the Rams have\nbeen a huge hit in Los Angeles, with a palatial new stadium just a little over\na year away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with the Rams being back in LA, it\u2019s time for Patriot\nNation to join Celtic and Red Sox fans and belt out maybe the most celebrated\nchant in the history of Boston sports:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeat L.A.! Beat\nL.A.! Beat L.A.!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nice thing about this time to bring back the chant is\nthat it\u2019s quite possible that much, if not most, of the nation might be on the side\nof the Patriots. Even though the USA in\ngeneral is sick of the Patriots returning for still another Super Bowl, the\nnation might be more upset at the Rams thanks to the penalty that wasn\u2019t called\non Nickell Robey-Coleman for clobbering Tommylee Jones way too early as he was\ntrying to catch a sideline pass from Drew Brees. Suffice it to say that everyone in the Big\nEasy and the entire Bayou State will be huge Patriot fans over the next two weeks. But this missed call, which the NFL office admits\nwas a mistake, might shift the nation towards being in favor of the Patriots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Add to that the tenuous state of local sports fans in\nsouthern California, and it\u2019s largely possible that in two weeks in Atlanta,\nyou might have a very pro-Patriot crowd. \nAnd if that\u2019s the case, you the Patriot fan who gets to go to the big\ngame needs to hunker down with Celtics fans and learn this chant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s being facetious, of course. You already know the chant. Yelling it with the proper passion might take\na little practice, especially if you are not a basketball aficionado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Super Bowl won\u2019t be at Gillette, but rather at a neutral\nsite. Yelling this chant in the Garden\nor Fenway is one thing. But at a neutral\nstadium, it will be a different environment. \nAnd if you do get a stadium filled with Rams haters or indifferent fans\nwho are there just because of who they know or what their placement on the Forbes<\/em> list of the richest Americans is,\nPatriot Nation has to take the lead here and teach the crowd this wonderful\nchant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, when those of us who will have to watch the Super\nBowl at home and can\u2019t be there to join the Patriot throng in being de facto<\/em> cheerleaders are either sitting\nat home or at a party watching the game on TV, we need to hear it. We need Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to recognize it\nand say something, not that they will know its origins. We need Rams Nation (if such a group of fans\nactually exists) to hear it. It has to\nbe there. And it has to be strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a most delightfully unexpected need to chant this\nagain. Celtics and Red Sox fans know\nwhat to do. Time for Patriot Nation to\nget their pipes ready to yell it, loud, strong and often. It\u2019s arguably the most famous chant in the\nregion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeat L.A.! Beat\nL.A.! Beat L.A.!\u201d Like we said, just like old times. It\u2019s now the Rams\u2019 turn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the Rams being back in LA, it\u2019s time for Patriot Nation to join Celtic and Red Sox fans and belt out maybe the most celebrated chant in the history of Boston sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":21618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1893,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-patriots-playoffs","category-patriots-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n