Alumnus heads to his second Super Bowl

Editor’s note: Portions of this story were published in a UNC.edu article in 2019

There’s not a sports fan in the world who wouldn’t be envious of Alex Floch and his view at some of the biggest games. He seems to regularly find himself just mere inches from the action while millions watch from their couches.

In 2017, Floch, then a Carolina senior, stood on the end line as the men’s basketball team took home its seventh national championship. This Sunday, Floch will be on the sideline for the country’s most-watched sporting event for the second time since he graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2017.

Floch is the mascot manager for the Los Angeles Rams, and he will be with his friend — and Rams mascot — Rampage on the field in Los Angeles as the team competes for its first Super Bowl title in two decades.

“It’s pretty unbelievable. Most people in their lifetime will never get to go to one Super Bowl as a fan, let alone a second one with a team,” said Floch, who was also with the Rams during Super Bowl LIII in 2019. “It’s very unbelievable. It’s very humbling.”

Just like for everybody else who will be sporting blue and gold on the field Sunday, the Tar Heel’s Super Bowl journey started years before the big game.

Becoming Rameses

Growing up in Winston-Salem, Floch was never much of a college sports fan. That changed after he arrived in Chapel Hill as a first-year student majoring in U.S. history and exercise and sport science in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“I know everybody in North Carolina has their by-birth allegiance. I wasn’t really one of those,” he said. “But I think that you step foot in Chapel Hill, and you just kind of get sucked into it.”

After a stint on Carolina’s club baseball team didn’t work out, Floch was looking for another way to get involved on campus when he saw a social media posting about tryouts for the Rameses mascot.

He figured it was worth a shot.

For the next three years, Floch viewed some of Carolina’s biggest games through the eyes of the Tar Heel’s beloved Rameses mascot — a muscular anthropomorphic ram sporting Carolina blue. Whether he was interacting with fans at games or meeting children in the community, Floch and Rameses were the face of Carolina athletics.

It’s a role that Floch cherished — anonymously, of course, as the mascots aren’t allowed to reveal their identity while students.

“The whole idea of being a mascot is understanding that you’re taking on the character,” Floch said. “It’s somewhat of an art to be able to adapt and acclimate yourself to a different persona. You have to go into it with the understanding that you’re taking on something that is much greater than yourself. … Being a mascot is a very special thing.”

Becoming Rameses helped Floch shape his college experience. He compares it to being a member of a fraternity.

“The mascot community calls itself the fur-ternity,” he said. “We’re tight-knit, and we get along really well. When you’re able to be a part of a team and be part of a group, it adds so much.”

The highlight of his career came on April 3, 2017, when the Tar Heels defeated Gonzaga in the NCAA National Championship. At the end of the night, Floch stood on the court as Carolina blue confetti fell from the sky.

“Moments like that don’t come by very often,” he said. “You cherish those.”

Building a fan base

But those moments seem to be happening with some regularity for Floch.

At the beginning of the 2018 NFL season, he took over as the mascot manager for the Rams and became closely acquainted with Rampage — another anthropomorphic ram, but this one donning a darker shade of blue.

He moved from Philadelphia to take the position and begin a career that he never imagined when he first put on the Rameses outfit as a Carolina student.

“You do something long enough, you really develop a passion for it, and you do whatever you can to stay with it,” he said. “I’ve had plenty of support, mentorship and encouragement along the way. I give all my success as a credit to them. Looking back to where I was then to where I am now, it’s something that I’m incredibly grateful for.”

The job is more than just game day antics. Floch and Rampage have been out in the community, working to strengthen a fan base for a team that had returned to LA in 2016 after two decades in St. Louis. After nearly four years of work, Floch said the team is seeing the fruits of that labor.

“The team has done such tremendous work in reinvigorating that fan base, particularly with kids and the younger generation,” said Floch, who handles many of the logistics for the community events Rampage attends. “It’s pretty remarkable to see just how many more people are more comfortable rocking royal blue and Rams gears. I think fans are really starting to see that and get behind it.”

This week is another high-profile opportunity to continue that work. With dozens of appearances leading up to the Super Bowl, Floch and Rampage are interacting with thousands of football fans and serving as a valuable asset and ambassador to the Rams organization.

“I wouldn’t say any two days — or any two hours — look the same,” he said.

Then, of course, there will be the game in SoFi Stadium on Sunday. When the Super Bowl kicks off in Los Angeles, Floch and Rampage will be easy to spot on the sideline, taking it all in from the best seats in the house.

“This go-around, I’m going to try to soak it in a little bit more,” Floch said. “The last time was really focused on executing to the best of my abilities, and now that I’m more confident, I’m going to lean on my experience to hopefully enjoy this one a little bit more. It’s something that you’re going to look back on and really wonder how you got so lucky.”