When Will Los Angeles' Gunslingers Play Each Other?

Matthew Stafford, the modern Joe Montana who spent years without his Bill Walsh. A football savant from the fertile field of Texas by way of the Georgia Bulldogs. A beaten, bashful competitor who found salvation out west in the form of a new offense and Super Bowl LVI.

Justin Herbert, a quarterback chiseled out of granite. Tall, athletic, accurate with an arm like John Elway. Like the Broncos legend, success eludes him despite winning play. A conundrum plaguing the franchise he represents. From Fouts to Humphries to Brees to Rivers, will Herbert be the one to overcome the odds to lift a Lombardi wearing the colors of his childhood team?

SoFi Stadium. A modern duomo of football. Planted into God's green earth, one hundred yards of turf surrounded by one of engineering's greatest marvels, a platform built for excellence.

And yet Stafford and Herbert, a lock for Sunday Night Football, have never faced each other in their careers. The Chargers played Stafford and the Lions in 2019, a year before Herbert was drafted and in 2022, the Chargers defeated the Rams but it was Baker Mayfield who got the start as Stafford was out due to injury.

The Rams and the Chargers possess two of the best passers in football, two of the best coaches in football, sharing the premier venue in football, and yet, due to NFL scheduling rules, they only play each other in the regular season once every four years.

This needs to change. There is an evident fact that fans love rivalries. It was drives sports from a business perspective, and the fact that two teams so close, in a matchup that promises to excite, don't get a chance to play each other annually, feels like a miss from not only a business perspective but the perspective of just being a fan of competitive football.

Los Angeles isn't the only place where this happens. New York, the Bay Area (with the Raiders due to their longstanding history in the region), Florida, Texas, and other boarder states that have teams benefit from annual games that cross conference lines.

College football is built on these traditions. It's time for the NFL to adopt some of them as well.