By Norma Galeana
WESTMINSTER, Calif. (Reuters) – Every day is Rams day at the Golden Ram Barber Shop in Westminster, California, but excitement is reaching fever pitch ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl championship game, when the Los Angeles hometown team will face off against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I’ve been waking up like every couple of hours because, just the energy,” said owner Sal Martinez, a life-long Rams fan. “I didn’t know how to feel because this never happened before. Fifty-one years and waiting for an L.A. Rams Super Bowl.”
Surrounded by Ram’s memorabilia, 59-year-old Martinez takes care of his clients, one haircut at a time, but the conversations always lead on how he became a passionate Rams fan.
“The first time I seen them on TV, I loved the horn on the helmet, so, the connection for that started then. And so, everything that had to do with the Rams, I started collecting, I started off with football cards,” said Martinez, who claims to own more than a thousand pieces of memorabilia, ranging from t-shirts, autographed items, newspaper clippings to photos with some players and NFL legends.
When the Rams left Los Angeles and relocated to St. Louis after the 1994 season, Martinez said he traveled to different NFL stadiums to catch up with his beloved team, but never lost hope they would return home someday.
“When the Rams came back, it was almost like an exhale of 22 years of being a passionate fan,” said Martinez.
(Reporting by Norma Galeana; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
