Erick Flores-Bautista
"El Carnero"
Los Angeles · Los Angeles Rams
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About
Erick was born and raised in East Los Angeles — specifically the Boyle Heights neighborhood off Cesar Chavez Avenue and Soto Street, where his Mexican immigrant parents settled in the 1980s and where Rams blue and gold has mixed with Dodger blue for as long as he can remember. He grew up watching the Rams' 2016 return on a bar television at La Estrella on Cesar Chavez Avenue, and made a promise that night to cover the team professionally. He attended Roosevelt High School on North Dozier Avenue — the same school that produced Garfield High cross-town rivals in East LA football — and earned his journalism degree from Cal State LA on Golden Eagle Drive in El Sereno. He broke in at KMEX Univision 34, then crossed over to English-language broadcast at KCAL, and joined MiTL as the Rams correspondent after Super Bowl LVI.
Fan Perspective
Erick is an East LA Rams die-hard who does not care about the franchise's St. Louis years — for him, the Rams are an LA story, a Latino-community story, and a return narrative. He covers the team with the ownership of someone whose neighborhood staked a cultural claim on the team when SoFi Stadium opened in Inglewood, a short drive down the 105 from East LA. He was at Super Bowl LVI in person and considers it the greatest night of his adult life, full stop.
Local Coverage
Erick's football morning starts at La Serenata de Garibaldi on 1st Street in Boyle Heights — a Chicano dining institution — for huevos rancheros before game days. For home games he drives the 105 West to Inglewood, parks near SoFi Stadium's Hollywood Park entertainment complex, and walks through the lake park outside the stadium before kickoff. He watches away games at El Tepeyac Cafe on Evergreen Avenue in East LA, the legendary machaca burrito spot, surrounded by neighborhood regulars who have been rooting for the Rams since 1994.