Coach Jeff Fisher pressed the phone to his ear, turned and looked behind him. Los Angeles Rams staffers burst into applause. The secret was out. They had their man.

The voice on the other end of the line belonged to Jared Goff, the former California quarterback who, in that moment, didn’t just become the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft or a rookie taking his first steps toward his professional career. Walking onto the stage to Tupac’s “California Love,” he became the face of a team, a region, a city that had – until this past January – had been deprived of pro football for more than two decades.

“I’m ready to go,” Goff, a 6-foot-4, 215-pounder, said during the news conference that followed his selection. “I’m ready to make a difference.”

He better be. A lot of anticipation builds in 21 years, since the Rams moved from Southern California to St. Louis, years coming and going as a potential return made headlines, raised hopes and – again and again – faded. Then it happened, America’s biggest sport going back to the nation’s second-largest media market, and with the logo changed and the gear unpacked, all the Rams needed was to decide on a quarterback ready for Hollywood.

The pressure by then had built and become heavy, surrounding Fisher and General Manager Les Snead. Their jobs were expected to be on the line anyway in 2016, even before two weeks ago. That’s when they wagered the franchise’s future with a blockbuster trade to secure the top pick and the right to choose between Goff and North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz.

And for two weeks, the suspense increased. Who would it be? Scouts suggested Goff, a clean-cut son of a former major-league catcher, was the quarterback most ready for the NFL. He had attempted 1,568 passes and started for three years in a “Power Five” conference, his poise and physical tools suggesting a quick transition to the NFL grind.

Wentz, an inch taller and five pounds heavier, was seen as the more promising long-term play. He saw football as a puzzle he could, with enough time and study and repetitions, solve – drawing comparisons, at least when it comes to preparation, to Peyton Manning.

What to do, then, if you’d spend Thursday evening in that Rams draft room? The days ticked off, scouting reports turning over every strength and weakness, the draft and its unforgiving reputation drawing closer. Goff was an overachiever, a quality admired among NFL personnel types, having received only three Division I scholarship offers coming out of high school. Then again, that was three more offers than Wentz had received, and he won two Football Bowl Subdivision national championships. Wentz was small-town confident; Goff was big-city poised.

Last week the Philadelphia Eagles completed their own megadeal, sending five draft picks to Cleveland to acquire the No. 2 selection and therefore the quarterback Los Angeles would pass on – and with it, ratcheting up the pressure in two anxious cities and fan bases on opposite coasts.

The young players at the center of it remained calm, or at least that’s how they had been trained to project themselves. Goff and Wentz shared an agent, and they spent the weeks before the draft working out together in a Los Angeles suburb about 80 miles from the Rams’ temporary offices.

They acknowledged that, no matter what happened, they’d be forever linked – if one succeeded and the other failed, how and why did it happen? What had the Rams and Eagles seen, if anything? If both became franchise quarterbacks, who would reach the playoffs or win a Super Bowl first?

Already, the competition had begun and so, in the respective cities, had the jockeying. The Rams’ three quarterbacks – Nick Foles, Case Keenum and Sean Mannion – remained quiet publicly as their replacement was considered. The Eagles, who signed Sam Bradford to a new $56 million deal last month and brought in Chase Daniel, had no such luck. Bradford, the Rams’ most recent quarterback splurge when they had the top pick in 2010, demanded a trade out of Philadelphia. The Eagles have so far refused. So there’d be some interesting locker room politics for the rookie, whomever that would be, to contend with, too.

This week, the choice seemed finalized. The NFL reportedly asked the team to hold off on leaking their pick’s identity, as to not spoil the primetime fun. The Rams, with the pressure of past seasons – Fisher hasn’t led the team to a winning record in his four years with the club – complied, though it seemed clear the franchise needed an immediate splash.

Asked Thursday what he expected would be the biggest adjustment in store, Goff cited the speed of NFL defenses but noted that he’d made the transition from high school to college fairly seamlessly and expected the same of himself at the next level.

“Hopefully I’ll play early,” he said, “but we’ll see what happens.”

Goff insisted he had no idea where he was headed until NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell walked to the lectern and announced Los Angeles’s choice. Wentz, though, wore a green pocket square – a hint he knew he was Philadelphia bound or a simple nod at his college team’s colors?

Regardless, after months of adjustment and weeks of planning and days of suspense and minutes ticking off the draft clock, Fisher finally reached for the phone. The decision had been made, the candle lit for better or worse.

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The Washington Post’s Liz Clarke contributed to this report from Chicago.

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