The 2016 season marks the return of the Rams professional football team from St. Louis to the City of Angels, where they have an almost 50-year history. Sure, that history includes only one measly, unsuccessful trip to the Super Bowl, back in '79, and then a subsequent dash straight out of South Central Los Angeles to the city of Anaheim, deep in the bowels of Orange County, but it's still a history.
So what would make a winning team run from their hometown so soon after a Super Bowl appearance? Apathy. Even with a killer season, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum rarely sold out, tripping the blackout of Rams games on local television. Everyone is remembering that rule exists, right? If the Rams don't sell out, residents of Los Angeles likely won't be able to see the games on television. That's how the NFL works. It's a rule meant to encourage people to spend way more money to watch games in the worst live sports environment possible instead of staying home on the couch like a bunch of lazy sacks. (The blackout rules were lifted temporarily for the 2015 season, but they have not been permanently removed.)
It wasn't just a problem with the Rams, either. Back in the '90s when the Raiders were also playing in Los Angeles, running back Bo Jackson (along with Nike) had to purchase the remaining 9,000 tickets to a second-round AFC playoff match-up against the Cincinnati Bengals just so the game could be televised in the local market.
raiders.com
Bo knows skirting NFL blackout restrictions.