Is the 49ers-Rams rivalry reborn or will San Francisco fans continue to dominate?

For it to be a rivalry, sometimes the other team has to win.

The San Francisco 49ers have hearty rivalries with the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys. But games against the Los Angeles Rams haven’t provided much tension in the past four decades.

All that changes Sunday, when the 49ers travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. The teams haven’t played a game of this importance in decades. The winner gets two weeks of media attention before returning to Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium for the Super Bowl. The loser gets to start work on off-season golf.

Recent history suggests the 49ers will have an advantage, but history doesn’t mean much in the playoffs. Here’s how we got here and what to expect in Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

A sea of 49ers red

The last time the 49ers played in Los Angeles, a sea of red 49ers jerseys filled the stands. The 49ers have devoted fans around the country, but Los Angeles is close to the Bay Area and tickets are relatively easy to come by.

With a postseason spot on the line, the 49ers faithful packed into the Rams’ stadium on Jan. 9 and roared their approval for the visiting team. After San Francisco rallied to take a 27-24 win, the red-clad crowd celebrated in the other team’s stadium.

“It did catch us off guard,” Rams coach Sean McVay said in a news conference. “Just because of the way that it’s been this year. It’s been great, great atmosphere, great environment. Yesterday was the same thing, but there was a lot of red there. That was definitely a surprise.”

The visiting fans were more than just a surprise. The raucous red crowd created a problem for the home team. Crowds typically keep their noise down when the home team has the ball. Then they get raucous when the visiting team has the ball because it makes it harder for them to run plays.

At the Rams game, the 49ers fans made so much noise that the Rams had to run their offense with silent signals because they couldn’t be heard over the din.

“It was a tough environment for us to communicate in really the whole second half,” Rams quarterback Matt Stafford said after the game.

San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan said this week he knows how that feels. When he was an assistant coach with the Atlanta Falcons, he said, visiting teams sometimes brought thousands of fans, forcing his Falcons to work on silent counts and feel like they are out of sorts.

He commiserated with the Rams’ plight, but made it clear he’s hoping for a repeat performance from the stands Sunday.

“I know how much it fires us up, how much we love our fans for it. It’s pretty cool to see,” Shanahan said.

The situation a few weeks ago was so noticeable, and an embarrassment to the team, that the Rams decided to clamp down on ticket sales for the upcoming NFC Championship game. The team started ticket sales Monday with a rule that only customers from an eligible ZIP code in the Los Angeles area would be allowed to buy tickets. That rule was quickly scuttled after heaps of criticism landed on the team.

Why do the Rams struggle so much to provide a home-field advantage? The answer lies with history.

Rams moves and 49ers’ dominance

The Rams have deep roots in Los Angeles, but some fans might be hesitant to support the team because it spent 20 years playing in St. Louis, from 1995 to 2015. The Rams moved back to Los Angeles because the NFL and owner Stan Kroenke saw dollar signs, with no team playing in the nation’s second-largest media market.

Why not move back to California?

The Rams and Chargers both moved to Los Angeles for the 2016 season. Visiting fans immediately started showing up in droves. Chargers games, in particular, have been a huge draw for visiting teams, with the crowd doing chants and partying like it’s a home game.

San Francisco fans have had plenty to celebrate against Los Angeles. The 49ers have won six straight games, with the last Rams win coming in 2018. San Francisco has basically owned the 49ers for the last four decades.

Since 1980, the 49ers have 52 wins against the Rams; the Rams have beaten the 49ers just 26 times in that same frame. In the 1990s, the Rams only beat San Francisco three times; the 49ers won 17 games during that span.

49ers vs. Rams

But for all that history, there’s a sports cliché that fits this situation. Throw out the records in the playoffs.

Let’s add another one. Football coaches often say it’s tough to beat a team three times in a season. It’s a cliché that isn’t borne out by statistics. According to ESPN reporter Nick Wagoner, there have been 22 instances of a team going 2-0 against a rival and then facing off a third time in the playoffs. The team that won the first two games has gone 14-8 in the playoffs. The regular season records matter when we’re talking about postseason success.

Which is good for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who seems to live rent-free in Rams coach McVay’s head. Shanahan is 7-3 against McVay. The two are friends and, at some point, Sunday’s game figures to come down to one coach correctly anticipating what the other is up to.

“I don’t think there’s many secrets. There’s not much things we can surprise them with and same with them with us, which I think is kind the most fun way,” Shanahan said. “It’ll be two really good teams and a really good football game where you can’t really trick each other. You have to go out and beat somebody.”

This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.