L.A.'S LEFT WEARING THE GOAT HORNS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Well, here we go with another NFL season, the one that finds Baltimore ravenous for the Cleveland Browns, Jimmy Johnson rattling around in Don Shula's shoes, and Brett Favre on the wagon.

Hold on. Did I say ``here''? Did I say ``we''?

Of course, neither word fits the present state of affairs in Los Angeles.

For the second straight year, we have no pro football here in Greater Los Angeles, and the town is a little Lesser without it.

St. Louis has our Rams. Oakland has our Raiders. Carolina and New England have NFL teams and they're not even cities or states. We're feeling left out. After all that Los Angeles has done for football, we deserve another chance.

Here are 10 Reasons Why Los Angeles Should Have a Pro Football Team.

Did I say ``here''?

1. Those horns.

It was Fred Gehrke, a halfback for the 1947 Los Angeles Rams, who came up with the idea of decorating the team's helmets with rams' horns. Soon, everybody was striking fear into opponents' hearts with eagles' wings, arrowheads and oil wells. By now, having a cool logo is more important than winning to the teams' bottom lines.

Thus Los Angeles is to thank for the sports merchandising boom that has a generation of kids outfitted head to toe in teal and black. For this we apologize.

Please let us try to make amends.

2. Pete Rozelle.

Rozelle was a Los Angeles Rams executive before being elected NFL commissioner in 1960, quickly becoming the most influential non-participant in American sports. Thus Los Angeles is responsible for turning the simple world of fun and games into complex big business. For this we apologize.

We promise not to do it again.

3. Our pro-football heritage.

From 1946, when the Rams arrived from Cleveland, until 1995, when the Rams and the Raiders left town, Los Angeles was a jewel in the NFL crown. We even won NFL titles twice in those 49 years, which is a pretty good success rate, unless you really think about it.

We'd like a chance to do better.

4. Our pro-sports heritage.

This is the proud home of two major-league baseball teams, NBA teams and two NHL teams. And two of them have actually won league titles, which is a pretty good success rate, unless you really think about it.

We will improve. That's our vow.

5. Our college-football heritage.

USC and UCLA perennially are the class of the Pacific-10 Conference, and one of them even won a national championship during the lives of this year's players, some of whom were as old as 4 at the time.

We can do better.

6. Our stadiums.

How many other cities have three stadiums that have hosted pro football? How many other cities that have three stadiums that have hosted pro football so desperately need another one?

A new team would give us the excuse to build one.

7. Our would-be owners and stadium-builders.

Peter O'Malley. R.D. Hubbard. Disney. Some of the biggest names in the Los Angeles sports market are slinging vegetables at one another in a fight to bring football back.

Send us a team, and we'll promise to - pardon the expression - just get along.

8. Our crowds.

Big city. And, last we saw, small football crowds. Business people would call this high potential for improved market penetration.

9. Fox Television. The studio in the young network's NFL studio show is here in Los Angeles. Thus Los Angeles is responsible for turning Sunday football into a cult of media personalties overshadowing the games they cover.

Let Los Angeles put some football back in football.

10. It's one of the world's great cities.

It's great, in part, because there's so much going on here that losing a football team or two cause barely a tear to fall. Paris gets along fine without an NFL team. Rome and Tokyo too. Only a place like Tampa, Jacksonville or Green Bay needs an NFL team to feel good about itself.

Give us another team and this time we promise to notice.

Give us another team. We want to keep trying until we get it right!

MEMO: Kevin Modesti is a Daily News staff writer.