New London — It began, as all the great stories do, with love.

"ROMAN GABRIEL, BABY! SIX-FOUR, 220 POUNDS, HANDSOME FILIPINO!" Rick Beaney was saying (hollering) earlier this week. "PROTOTYPE OF THE NFL QUARTERBACK! HE SHOULD BE IN THE BLEEPING HALL OF FAME! YOU CAN PRINT THAT!"

Sorry for the decibels. But Beaney, president of the Rams Club of Southeastern Connecticut, goes a bit volcanic over his football team, the one he began rooting for when he was a kid in Waterford, all because of Roman Gabriel.

You read that correctly, by the way. We have an official Rams Club here in our corner of the world, a dozen or so guys who gather at the Birdseye in New London every Sunday to cheer a lot, eat a lot, drink a lot, scream a lot, wear Rams garb (including helmets) and totally revel in their favorite team. Which plays the Patriots Sunday night for the whole Heineken truck.

The cast: Beaney, Dave Dickenson, Griffin Beaney, Jeff Lathrop, Pete the Ram (otherwise known as Peter Dopwell), Tommy Baude, Shawn Johnson, Dave Laffey, Lucas Beaney, Jerry Sullivan, Kenny Gray, Earl Langley and a man club members only identify as "Peter A from Niantic" because they don't know his last name.

They've been at it for about four years now.

"The first unofficial meeting was one day when the Rams were playing the Jets," Laffey, who has coached Waterford Babe Ruth baseball to several state and regional championships, said Wednesday night from headquarters, otherwise known as the Birdseye. "Rick and I went to Mr. G's because Petey Farnan is a Jets fan. Then we found out E-Man (Birdseye proprietor Eric Anderson) had Sunday Ticket. So we started going there. That's how it all began."

No bandwagon jumpers, this Rams Club. They go way back with their team.

Beaney: "Me, Jerry (Sullivan), Jeff Lathrop and Scott Schaller would watch the Rams at Schaller's house because they were the rich people in town who had the TV. I started loving the Rams because of Roman Gabriel, Jack Snow and the uniforms."

Dickenson: "I'm 52 and 1972 is the first year I remember watching football. One day the Rams were playing. I loved the uniforms. I told my dad. So we went to the Sears Roebuck catalog, NFL section and I wanted that helmet. I've always rooted for them. It's like a marriage. You don't switch during bad times."

Sullivan: "Because of Jack Snow. He went to Notre Dame and you know how I am about my Irish. (Notre Dame apparel is Sullivan's American Express Card. He never leaves home without it). "All of a sudden, Snow gets drafted by the Rams. I put two and two together."

Laffey: "I grew up in the 70s (in Bayonne, N.J.). The Giants and Jets were both terrible. My brother liked the Steelers, sister liked the Cowboys and my father liked the Redskins. In 1984, Pat Summerall and John Madden (through the TV) introduced me to Eric Dickerson. Between the uniform, the rec specs, the neck roll and the Jheri curl ... it was like watching a corvette."

It gets better. Baude even took a summer job once in California just to be closer to the Rams. Beaney, meanwhile, tells this priceless tale of meeting Deacon Jones during the 2001 Hall of Fame weekend in Canton.

"Sully and I drove out there because (former Rams greats) Jackie Slater and Jack Youngblood were getting inducted," Beaney said. "We find out the hotel where all the players hang out. We're at the bar and see Deacon Jones. Immediately buy him a drink. Later in the night, from across the bar I point to my beer bottle and say, 'Hey, Deac, it's time for a round!'

"Deacon says, 'Deacon don't buy for you; you buy for Deacon!' So I told the bartender, 'another round!'"

They are a show unto themselves at the Birdseye. In 2016 when the Giants and Rams played a game in London (kickoff 9:30 New London time), the place was full by 9 a.m., for, essentially, kegs and eggs. Landon Collins picked off a pass for the Giants and ran it back for a touchdown, touching off a bar-wide chant of Beaney's name "(BEE-KNEE! BEE-KNEE!") that many feel is the greatest moment in the Eye's hilarious history.

"Eric is a gracious host," Johnson said, alluding to how Anderson makes sure the Rams Club has the best TV in the place. "He lets us do our thing. Like run out in the middle of the road with the Rams flag."

Birdseye bartender Rod Gaynor, a Giants fan: "The Rams suck, but the Rams Club pays my bills."

"I'm pretty sure most of our wives love Eric because we're here on Sunday instead of our own homes," Sullivan said. "For years, they heard enough of the screaming, yelling, banging on walls and throwing things."

It hasn't been easy being a Ram fan. Many lean years since the 1999 Super Bowl victory. Maybe that's why they're enjoying this so much now. When Greg Zuerlein kicked the game-winner in the NFC championship game, Johnson dropped to the floor and began swimming (mimicking swim moves), soon to be piled on by the rest of the gang.

"They were so bad for a while," Beaney said. "We used to do a shot every time the Rams scored. We always left thirsty and sober."

Now they're left to deal with the Patriots. The attitude of the Rams Club: Bring it on.

"I wouldn't want it to be anybody else but the Patriots," Johnson said. "They beat us (in 2001). They cheated to beat us. But they beat us. Now we owe them."

Or as Laffey said, "In the words of the great Ric Flair, 'In order to be the man you gotta beat the man! Wooo!'"

The club will gather at Laffey's house in Waterford on Sunday, mostly to avoid distractions. Been there before.

"We watched the 1999 game at Jeff Lathrop's house," Beaney said. "But it was a real Super Bowl party. Couples, kids, lots of chatter. At halftime, me and Jerry got mad because we couldn't concentrate on the game. So we moved from the 32-inch TV in the living room to Jeff's kitchen and watched the rest of the game on a 9-inch TV. All the guys came around us, too."

After the Rams won, Sullivan reported they "cried, drank champagne and hugged."

"Anna (Lathrop's wife) says, 'what is wrong with these people? They're crying.'" Lathrop said. "I said, 'hey, it's the Rams.'"

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro