Looking back at 50 years of NFL franchise relocations

The NFL is back in Los Angeles! For the first time since 1994, the city of Los Angeles has its own franchise to love and support. The Rams are back in L.A. with a luxurious new stadium on the way, the No. 1 draft pick under center and a new era of good feelings.

The Rams have also not had a winning season since 2003 and have finished last in the NFC West in six of the past nine seasons. They will play in the ancient Los Angeles Coliseum for the next few years. Not many are sold that their rookie quarterback is going to be a star. This isn't a great team arriving in the City of Angels.

So what can we expect from this latest incarnation of the Los Angeles Rams? Can they find quick success, or will it be business as usual? Looking back on the last seven times an NFL team located ... the only ones to do so in the past 50 years ... there are some silver linings apparent. Three won Super Bowls within five years with another one reaching the big game. A few took a lot longer to find their winning ways. Like anything in sports, it is a mixed bag. Plus, of the cities that lost a franchise, all have since seen a return of the NFL to their towns.

So let's look back at the past seven relocations:

Oakland Raiders move to Los Angeles (1982): Ahhhh, the messiest one of the list right off the bat. From 1966 to 1980, the Raiders were one of the most successful franchises in sports. They only missed the playoffs three times in those 15 years, winning two Super Bowls, one AFL Championship and played in 10 conference championship games. Owner Al Davis was unhappy with Oakland-Alameda Coliseum and either wanted upgrades to the stadium or he wanted out. The upgrades didn't happen so the Raiders were set to move to Los Angeles.

What happened next is well-known. The other owners blocked the move, Davis and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum sued the NFL, a jury ruled for Davis, and the Raiders left for L.A. The Coliseum, which lost the Rams a few years earlier, was set to host the Raiders.

The Raiders' successes weren't left behind in Oakland. Their first year in Los Angeles saw the team rack up an 8-1 mark in a strike-shortened campaign. The following year, the Raiders beat the defending-champion Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. The Los Angeles Raiders made the playoffs seven or their 13 seasons in L.A. and had just three losing seasons.

Baltimore Colts move to Indianapolis (1984): The most cold-blooded move of them all. The Baltimore Colts had some great years. They won three NFL Championships and Super Bowl V (they also lost Super Bowl III), and the team had a rebirth of sorts in the mid-1970s. However, from 1978 to 1983, the Colts stunk, going 26-62-1 during those six seasons. They went 0-8-1 in the strike-shortened 1982 season, and as you would expect, poor attendance was a problem.

Colts owner Robert Irsay was in talks to move the team to Phoenix, Indianapolis, Memphis or Jacksonville. He, along with the Memorial Stadium co-tenant Orioles, were trying to get a new stadium built in Baltimore. After the "Baltodome" project fell through and funds for renovations of the current stadium were rejected, the Colts decided to relocate.

Indianapolis was building the Hoosier Dome to lure a team to Indiana. After NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle said that expansion wasn't happening at the moment, city leaders were set on outbidding Phoenix for the Colts. Meanwhile, the state of Maryland was attempting to seize control of the team by eminent domain. Phoenix, scared, withdrew its bid. The Colts were then set to move to Indianapolis, and that very night, they packed up their belongings in Mayflower trucks and effectively moved the franchise to Indianapolis.

Those trucks snuck out of Maryland before they could be stopped. Once in Indiana's borders, police escorted the trucks to Indianapolis. The team's former city and state would try and fail to force the team back to Baltimore. Eventually, Baltimore ended up approving a brand-new ballpark for the Orioles and ended up luring the Cleveland Browns over a decade later.

Whew. But how did it work out in Indianapolis? Well, unlike the Cardinals, Browns, Oilers, Rams (twice) and Raiders (twice), the Colts walked into the new stadium already operational. Success was still a problem, however, as the Colts only went to the playoffs once in their first 10 seasons despite acquiring Eric Dickerson and using the No. 1 overall draft pick on Jeff George. An unlikely playoff run in 1995 finally saw some success in Indy, but it was drafting Peyton Manning in 1998 that led the Colts to their greatest heights.

St. Louis Cardinals move to Phoenix (1988): The St. Louis Cardinals were a disaster — the football team, that is. In their 28 years in Missouri, the Cardinals only made the playoffs three times. They played in the always tough NFC East and were the laughingstock of the division. Due to the lack of success and playing in the aging multipurpose Busch Stadium, owner Bill Bidwill was looking to move the team, and he found a new home in Phoenix.

The Phoenix Cardinals still found little success. Despite playing in Arizona, the Cardinals were still in the NFC East until 2002. They missed the playoffs in their first 10 seasons and 19 of their first 20 seasons in Phoenix. During that time, they had just one winning season, a 9-7 mark in 1998 that saw the Cardinals win their first playoff game in 51 years.

When the NFL realigned in 2002, the Arizona Cardinals (named so in 1994) moved to the NFC West.

What made it worse to start is that the team left aging Busch Stadium to play in 30-year-old Sun Devil Stadium, where the Arizona State football team was the main tenant. The Cardinals would play there for 18 seasons before finally getting their very own stadium, the University of Phoenix Stadium, in 2006.

Finally, in 2008, the Cardinals had their greatest success. Going 9-7 and winning three postseason games with Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, they were actually in the Super Bowl, and it was won of the most memorable Super Bowls of all time. Super Bowl XLIII is one of the best title games ever, and Arizona actually held a late lead. But Ben Roethlisberger's amazing pass to Santonio Holmes dashed those hopes.

The Cardinals are no longer the league's laughingstock. They have made the postseason four out of the past eight seasons, including three NFC West titles, with two appearances in the NFC Championship Game and that one Super Bowl showing.

Los Angeles Raiders move to Oakland (1995): It wasn't a decade after Al Davis moved the Raiders to Los Angeles that he was already talking with Oakland to move the team back. In 1989, Davis and Oakland began flirting with each other. It was obvious to the legendary owner pretty early that a new stadium in Los Angeles wasn't going to happen and playing at the Coliseum wasn't a fit. The stadium was old, held too many seats and was in a bad area of town. With the gang culture of L.A. already adopting Raiders attire and the NFL unwilling to schedule night games at the Coliseum due to the neighborhood, Davis saw that he needed out. The team was doing alright on the field (it had only three losing seasons in its 13 years in L.A. and won a Super Bowl), but Al didn't like his situation.

So the Raiders moved back to Oakland around the same time the Rams left Anaheim for St. Louis in the summer of 1995. Since the NFL never really allowed the Raiders to move from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1981 to begin with, it couldn't stop Davis from heading back to the Bay, nor could it charge him with a relocation fee.

Davis got major renovations at the crumbling Alameda Stadium to make the multipurpose stadium more football-friendly. It took the Raiders six seasons back in Oakland to reach the playoffs, and they won the AFC West three times, topped off by an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII. The same impulsive behavior by Davis haunted him, as he was quick to move on from people (most notably Jon Gruden), and the Raiders went from historic winners to the dregs of the league. In the 13 years since that Super Bowl appearance, the Raiders have not had a winning season and have missed the postseason every year. Al Davis passed away in 2011.

Al's son, Mark, has taken over the team and is currently looking to either get a new stadium in Oakland or move the team. After failing to move back into the Los Angeles market, Davis is looking at the Las Vegas area as a possible location.

Los Angeles Rams move to St. Louis (1995): Of all these franchises, the Rams have had the biggest rise and fall, which is how they moved to St. Louis in the first place. The original Los Angeles Rams made the postseason 14 times from 1973 to 1989, including reaching Super Bowl XIV. They had those magic Eric Dickerson seasons and moved to Anaheim into a newer, less cavernous stadium. The only problem the Rams had was that they played in the same division as Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers.

In 1990, the Rams fell on hard times and would have losing seasons in their final five years in Anaheim. A recession and bad play caused attendance issues, and owner Georgia Frontiere got into the time-honored tradition of owners complaining about outdated venues. Frontiere was set to move the team to St. Louis, but the NFL voted it down. After an Al Davis-type threat by Frontiere to get into a litigation war with the league, the NFL re-voted, and the move passed.

The Rams didn't find any quick success in St. Louis. That city just watched the Cardinals leave seven years earlier and was denied an expansion team in 1993. The Rams played in Busch Stadium early in 1995 until their new TWA Dome was ready later in the year. The team went 22-42 in its first four seasons.

Then the Kurt Warner story happened, Marshall Faulk was dealt for and the Greatest Show on Turf was a thing. The Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV in their fifth season in St. Louis. From 1999 to 2004, they went to the playoffs five times, winning that Super Bowl and appearing in another. Kurt Warner won two MVP awards with Faulk winning another.

In the 11 seasons since that time? Nothing. No playoffs and no winning seasons. The Rams had seasons end with 1-15 and two 2-14 records. Frontiere passed away in 2008, and the next year her heirs sold their majority stake to minority owner Stan Kroenke. Well, you know what Kroenke has done since, which is why this article is being written.

Cleveland Browns move to Baltimore (1996): This is a different one of the bunch. Not only did owner Art Modell move the Browns out of Cleveland after not getting a stadium built (like the Cavaliers and Indians already did), but the NFL immediately guaranteed a new team in town in 1999. The newly minted Baltimore Ravens were an expansion team in theory, as they were a new team with no history to speak of, but they had all the players and organization of the old Browns.

The Ravens moved into the old Memorial Coliseum for two seasons while their current stadium was being built. They drafted Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis in their first draft but went just 4-12 in their first season in Charm City. Despite the move, Modell still was having financial difficulties and was forced to bring on a co-owner. He sold 49 percent of the franchise to Steve Bisciotti, who bought a majority stake in 2004.

Ogden and Lewis would form the core that won the Super Bowl in the 2000 season. The Ravens have made the playoffs in 10 of their 20 seasons and won their second Super Bowl a dozen years after their first.  The Browns, meanwhile, have still never made a Super Bowl and have been to the postseason just once since returning to the NFL.

Houston Oilers move to Nashville (1997): The last time an NFL franchise moved before the Rams' current relocation, the Oilers change into the Titans was the longest road. The Oilers bolted Houston after the 1996 season for Nashville, but that city didn't have a facility capable of housing the team. Vanderbilt University's stadium wouldn't allow alcohol sales so owner Bud Adams decided to play elsewhere until the new digs in Nashville were built. The franchise settled in Memphis and renamed the team the Tennessee Oilers.

The Tennessee Oilers struggled at the gate the first few years. Playing in the Liberty Bowl, the people of Memphis were a bit lukewarm about supporting a team that would be moving in two years. Fans in Nashville preferred to wait the two years instead of making the long commute for games. Crowds were so small at those games that Adams decided to ditch Memphis early and play one season at Vanderbilt before the new stadium was to open. So from 1996 to 1999, the Houston/Tennessee Oilers/Titans played home games in four different stadiums under three different names. Despite all of this, Tennessee's first two seasons ended with 8-8 records.

When the team finally moved to its new stadium (Adelphia Coliseum) in 1999, Adams changed the name of the franchise to the Titans. That season, the Titans went 13-3, had the "Music City Miracle" in their first playoff game and went go on to Super Bowl XXXIV. The Titans famously lost to the St. Louis Rams 23-16 when Kevin Dyson was tackled at the 1-yard line as time expired.

Tennessee would make the playoffs in four of its first seven seasons. During that time, Houston returned to the NFL with the expansion Texans. Things haven't been as kind since. The Titans have missed the playoffs the past seven years and have not won a postseason game since the 2003 season.

So what does this mean for the Los Angeles Rams? Well, judging by what has previously happened, the Rams will continue to be bad for a few more years. They will build with their youth, and since the fans won't care about the quality of the product quite yet, it will buy some time until the sexy new stadium opens up and free agents start heading to Southern California.

Of course, the Rams have other issues to think about. They could be sharing the stadium and the market with the Chargers or Raiders. The Chargers have less than a year to figure out if they will join the Rams in Los Angeles. If they pass, the Raiders could look to move in. Even if the Raiders don't, a possible move to Las Vegas could hurt the Rams' fan base. After all, the Raiders were quite popular in Los Angeles when they were there, and the Vegas market has been good to Los Angeles-area sports.

In any event, the Rams have their work cut out for them, and it starts this season in the City of Angels.