49ers encourage fans to take over Rams stadium again for NFC championship game

Not long after the Rams clinched their spot as the highest remaining seed in the NFC playoffs Sunday afternoon, Melissa Whitworth tweeted a plea to the L.A. area fanbase.

"If you @RamsNFL fans want to sell your tickets - I’ll buy them," the wife of Rams tackle Andrew Whitworth wrote. "Just DO NOT sell them to the other team PLEASE!"

It wasn't long before retired San Francisco 49ers tackle Joe Staley, whose former team just happens to be facing the Rams with a Super Bowl berth on the line, sent out a slightly reworded version of Melissa Whitworth's tweet.

"If you @RamsNFL fans want to sell your tickets - I’ll buy them," Staley wrote. "Just DO NOT sell them to your own team PLEASE!"

Just because the fourth-seeded Rams are playing host to the NFC championship game at SoFi Stadium on Sunday doesn't mean they will have home-field advantage against the sixth-seeded 49ers.

If the fan turnout is anything as it was for the Jan. 9 game between the same teams at the same location, the Rams might not get much, if any, boost from the crowd at their 70,000-seat palace.

An abundance of 49ers fans traveled nearly 400 miles to Inglewood that day to cheer on their beloved team as it defeated the Rams, for the sixth straight time, and secured a spot in the playoffs as a wild-card team.

After the game, coach Sean McVay commented that he saw "a lot of red" jerseys at the game and quarterback Matthew Stafford said his offense had trouble communicating at times because of the noise from the visiting fans.

Stafford's wife, Kelly Stafford, said on her podcast that her husband was forced to use a silent count during that game while visiting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was not.

“I’ve never seen so many of the opposing team’s fans at a game, and we came from Detroit,” she said.

So it's no wonder why Staley and other current and former 49ers players have taken to Twitter to encourage another such takeover of the Rams' home this week.

Retired 49ers running back Frank Gore wrote he would join Staley in buying all the Rams fans' tickets, adding the hashtag #StraightCash.

Linebacker Fred Warner tweeted, "Need lots of Red in Sofi Sunday!!"

"Can't wait to see our Faithful show out in SoFi!" 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk added.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.