With Rams’ house temporarily moved, Rams PA man | College News

GLENDALE, Ariz. —  In re-creating their home atmosphere for Monday evening’s playoff recreation, the Rams made sure to carry a signature component from SoFi Stadium.

The voice.

If you’ve been to a Rams home recreation, you seemingly know Sam Lagana. He’s the in-stadium announcer who fires up the group by bellowing, “Whose house?” Thousands reply, “Rams’ house!”

The Rams made sure to carry Lagana with them to Arizona to provide State Farm Stadium a acquainted vibe. They acquired a number of calls and emails from followers requesting that. It was a touching invitation for a man coming to grips with the destruction of his Pacific Palisades neighborhood, devastated by wildfires.

“This means the world to me,” Lagana mentioned from his 20-yard-line perch on the press box degree. “I have an opportunity to work with the Rams organization and bring Los Angeles this great spirit. I’m getting goose bumps with this whole idea about what America’s going to see. We can bring L.A. together and that means a lot to me.”

Lagana has had all kinds of jobs in sports activities advertising over time, and a parallel life in schooling. He was a vice chancellor of Pepperdine for 20 years, and president of Notre Dame High School for 3 more.

His little yellow ranch house principally survived the fire, however the roof was singed and all his trees and vegetation burned. He and his spouse, Eileen, raised their two daughters in that blissful place, which they’ve owned for 28 years.

Lagana is relentlessly upbeat and constructive, however his voice trembles when explaining that of the 75 or so properties in his quick neighborhood, solely 11 stay.

He borrowed a buddy’s bicycle in Santa Monica late final week, pedaled up to his house and checked out the inside. Everything was coated in an inch-deep layer of ash and the place had an overpowering odor of moist campfire. His beloved home is principally a wood storage container on a burned-out lot.

What the longer term holds, he doesn’t know. He figures he and his spouse will probably be out of their house for 2 years at a minimal. The elementary faculty throughout the road is gone. So is his church, together with the properties of too many pals to rely.

To the sport, he wore a sweatshirt from Pacific Palisades Fire Station 69, a present he acquired when he as soon as was named honorary fire chief.

“The leadership roles I’ve had besides announcing have allowed me to experience some complicated things in my life,” he mentioned. “I feel like I can stay calm. I know how to stay calm and bring people together, or get them to move in directions they need to move in a calm way. Or, like a coach, in a more assertive way when necessary.”

By his pondering, the NFL picked an splendid place to relocate the sport.

“I look at it this way,” he mentioned. “Here we are in Phoenix. We have an opportunity to show Phoenix what a rising Phoenix is really going to look like. Because our communities are coming out of the ash.”