Before judging Los Angeles Rams superfan Kenneth Dunham for his Super Bowl Champs tattoo, consider the reason he got it in the first place.
It’s not a Super Bowl prediction tattooed onto the arm of Kenneth Dunham, it’s a glimpse into the future.
“If I didn’t think it was a good idea, I wouldn’t have gotten it.”
There isn’t a hint of bravado behind Kenneth’s words, just resignation that the Los Angeles Rams winning the Super Bowl this year is meant to be. Back in August, Kenneth went viral for getting a tattoo on his forearm that boasted the Rams as Super Bowl 53 champions. Now his preseason premonition is about to become a dream come true.
He’s not the first fan to get a Super Bowl tattoo ahead of time. Usually it’s liquid courage that gets a fan in the right state of mind to ink such bold claim onto their body.
But not Kenneth.
“My grandmother had the ability to sort of see things, and know things before they happened.”
Wait, what?
“Believe it or not, I get a lot of those feelings before they happen.”
Call it convincingly crazy or crazily convincing, Kenneth deeply believes that the Rams Super Bowl journey is connected to a larger picture.
“Every once in a while I’ll get a glimpse of something from the beyond,” Kenneth continued. “I had a really good feeling about this.”
While he believes supernatural elements could be at play, he also grounds much of his prediction in reality. In addition to his grandmother’s help, Kenneth admired what Sean McVay and Les Snead were able to do with the Rams roster this offseason; It was the final push he needed to dig into the trenches.
You can probably predict what happened once Kenneth went public with all of this. At no point in human history has someone come out with a batshit crazy prediction and not had to answer the naysayers.
It’s not just the average knuckle-dragging Twitter troll or the run of the mill glue-snorting comment section hater that bothered Kenneth the most. What hurts him more than anything was when fellow Rams fans tried to bust him down for believing so deeply in something they all wanted.
“I didn’t understand all of the negativity and trolling. A lot of it was just crazy, especially from Rams fans. I’d never ever attack a Rams fan.”
To compare Kenneth’s fandom to that of those trolling him is to horrifically underestimate how much he loves the Rams. He’s watched the team for over four decades, supported them through endless rebuilds and countless lost seasons. For his trouble he’s experienced one Super Bowl victory, only to have it swallowed up the next year into the bottomless belly of the New England Patriots dynasty.
Then there’s the relocation controversy to address. Born and raised in Arizona, Kenneth had no ties to either Los Angeles or St. Louis when the team moved but didn’t like watching those communities suffer.
“The Rams actually started in Cleveland,” Kenneth interrupted when talking about whether the Rams belong to Los Angeles or St. Louis. “It doesn’t matter where they play. They could play anywhere and I’d be a Rams fan regardless.”
There are a lot of fans of a lot of things, but only a special few with depth like Kenneth. This tattoo wasn’t the product of a drunken night out or a lost bet. The ink may have been applied to Kenneth’s skin but the belief in what it says was always in his soul.
And he’ll be damned if he’s going to ever be ashamed of it, even if it ends up not becoming true.
“I’ll wear it as a badge of honor. There’s no hiding this, I represent the Rams. I’m proud of it.”