The Los Angeles Rams are among 10 teams that got lots of primetime love when the 2021 NFL schedule came out in May, tied with a league-high five contests for Sunday night, Monday night and one for Thursday evening.
However, one Sunday Night Football contest set for November 7 just got more intriguing due to Twitter exchanges and a notable trade.
The Tennessee Titans head to SoFi Stadium to take on the Rams in front of a nationally televised audience on NBC for that November evening. But now, it’ll represent more than just a battle of playoff teams from a year ago with Super Bowl aspirations. Recent social media postings and the Julio Jones trade add fuel to this fire in Inglewood.
The Social Media Angle
It began with Rams Pro Bowl Cornerback Jalen Ramsey playing the role of recruiting coordinator for Julio Jones on May 24. Ramsey described the Rams having a winning culture and primetime games as part of his sales pitch to lure the two-time first team All-Pro Jones to the Rams House, which looked as if Ramsey was a rival Southeastern Conference coach trying to get Jones out of the transfer portal and into his program:
A winning culture, a great city, prime time games, LA’s number 1 football team, etc etc..
sounds like the Rams should be a place superstars should want to play football lol 👀🤷🏾♂️
Blessings 🙏🏾
#YesImRecruiting lol I wanna win 🏆
However, Titans wide receiver A.J Brown was plotting through social media as well. Brown made the bold move to send a direct message to Jones’ Instagram account the following day.
The former Ole Miss Rebel Brown, a back-to-back 1,000-yard NFL receiver who also played his college football in the SEC like the former Alabama wideout Jones, called the seven-time Pro Bowler his idol. In the end, Brown and the Titans won in their recruitment of the former Atlanta Falcons receiver on June 6. The offseason victory for the Titans then sparked a Ramsey tweet questioning why his own team was out on Jones.
Then, Brown took his victory lap through a tweet, leading to a reply from Ramsey.
Emotions to Likely Run High in SoFi
Without a doubt, there will be bulletin board material on both sides. Regardless if the tweets were printed already and saved in a file cabinet for later or if the outspoken Ramsey takes verbal jabs at the Titans leading up to the game. Or, Brown is the one who pokes fun at the Rams and Ramsey before the Sunday evening battle.
The individual battle between Jones and Ramsey, though, will only be the second field meeting between the two talents. Coincidentally, Ramsey’s last meeting against Jones was his first game with the Rams. Ramsey collected four solo tackles and forced one fumble in the Rams’ 37-10 romp at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Jones finished the day catching six passes on nine targets for 93 yards, but was kept out of the end zone. When lined up against the former Florida State Seminole Ramsey, Jones caught four of his six receptions with the 6-foot-1, 208-pounder over the top, but three of his catches averaged 33 yards against the Rams cornerback. And in Ramsey fashion, there was trash talk.
Outside of Jones, Ramsey and Brown, there will be one former Rams slot receiver looking to exact revenge: Josh Reynolds, who spent his first four seasons in L.A.
In his final season with the Rams, Reynolds caught 52 passes for 618 yards and scored two touchdowns, often serving as the deep threat option for Sean McVay’s offense. While he posted career numbers, his longest reception was only 40 yards. The Rams instead went with veteran DeSean Jackson and drafted Tutu Atwell in the second round to bolster the deep game.
The Rams again have five different primetime contests, but their final scheduled SNF contest will take on a whole new set of emotions thanks to tweets and transactions.
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Titans at Rams November Matchup Now Has More Intrigue