Look at that god damned cop standing there with his arms folded

 Look at that god damned cop standing there with his arms folded!



       There was a light but steady rain coming down on section C of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where we had our Ram season tickets in the Gabe years. As die hard fans we were not dissuaded from rooting in the rain for the men in white against the not very good Vikings. It was not a big game but the precipitation made it kind of special as many folks were holding umbrellas or wearing ponchos to keep dry. There was a goodly amount of secreted alcoholic beverages being consumed by fans to keep away the chill.  It was September 22, 1967 and our group was feeling our oats and connecting with other fans as our boys were romping over the winless Minnesotans. Section C was our home away from home in the George Allen Rams seasons so we knew the section regulars and had names for all of them. Yet, this was the day we broke down the color line and became fans of one Elson Monroe. Elson and a couple of other gents of color were sharing some Cutty Sark which was visible in his back pocket. There was a clear plastic tarp over their heads but the men were happy drunk. We began shouting for our new favorite Ram Bucky Pope, "The catawba claw" who snagged a couple of passes before we started calling out his name "Bucky! Elson, took his lit cigarette and burned a hole in the tarp, then pulled the rent open whereupon he poked his head out of the tarp and met our cries by completing the call with "Pope!" We yelled "Bucky" he replied "Pope!" Eventually Elson came up and joined us for some back and forth fun and maybe a couple of smokes. The crowd was loose and a little later I saw one of Elson's pals standing at the back railing of Section C taking a much-needed piss which was arcing down the open end of the section onto the grass far below. The man was in full view of the entire south end of the stadium. There was just nothing the ushers could do or security since most of the crowd was rowdy and outnumbered them a hundred to one. I wanted to draw our group's attention so I said "hey look, some guy's getting sick back there!" By the time they clued in to the blatant breaking of Coliseum law another less tolerant fan angrily shouted "Look at that God damned cop standing there with his arms folded!" We sided with the miscreant and later labeled the complainer as "up tight." To add to the delireum, late in the game Bucky Pope caught a touchdown and pandemonium broke out in section C.





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