A lot has been made about what’s expected to be a large turnout of San Francisco 49ers fans for Sunday’s NFC Championship against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
If a Saturday Niners pre-game rally at L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles is any indication, “large” may be an understatement.
The free event, which started at 11 a.m. and was scheduled to go through 3 p.m., was hosted by the Niners at Tom’s Watch Bar and overrun by a sea of red on the eve of the NFC title game, with a line to get in snaking around the entirety of L.A. Live’s courtyard and out onto the surrounding streets.
LA takeover is real.
Like go get into Tom’s Watch Bar is around the block #FTTB pic.twitter.com/LLtBxHLUzh
— Nick Newman (@NinerNick_22) January 29, 2022
The event was filled with all the usual pre-game rally fanfare: a raffle, special guests (49ers Super Bowl champion Eric Davis was on hand, along with the Niners’ mascot and Bay Area rapper/49ers superfan P-Lo) and, of course, free giveaways. Among those was one particular freebie that poked a bit of fun at the Rams: a red fan sign that read “Beat LA… Again!”
The 49ers have won six straight meetings between the two teams, including sweeping the two-game series set against them this season. Sunday’s affair will be a rare shot at a three-game sweep of an opponent for San Francisco.
Since Rams head coach Sean McVay took over, he’s 3-7 against 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, who he worked under in Washington. His last win against S.F. came in Week 17 of 2018, a week that featured Nick Mullens lining up under center for the Niners.