LOS ANGELES — Old grudges die hard, and the one that former Rams tackle Jackie Slater has held against the San Francisco 49ers for 45 years shows no signs of subsiding.
Slater is 67 and decades removed from a 20-year NFL career with the Rams, but his disdain for the 49ers is as strong today as it was when he was trying to fend off San Francisco sack-masters Charles Haley and Fred Dean in the days of yore.
"Oh man, I hate the 49ers with a passion," Slater said this week when asked if he still feels the intensity of the rivalry, which resumes with Sunday's NFC championship game, in his bones. "Are you kidding me?"
