Samples
A Golden Season (Part 2)
STEP 4: DISSONANCE
The Rams won their next two games handily over the Falcons (41-13) and the expansion Cleveland Browns (34-3). At 6-0, the Rams were getting noticed by the rest of the league. The Rams offense, with its multiple formations and its fleet and elusive cast of receivers, looked like the Harlem Globetrotters of football. And their opponents looked almost as foolish as the Washington Generals.
Still, scribes and broadcasters from around the country kept pointing out that the Rams hadn't played a good opponent. The next two games against the Tennessee Titans and Detroit Lions would test their mettle. Both were on the road and in stadiums with noisy crowds.
The Rams lost each game, but both were close. Against Tennessee, the Rams fell behind by 21 points early after a few turnovers. Rookie defensive end Jevon Kearse sped by Rams tackle Fred Miller for a key sack that caused a fumble. Rattled by Kearse and the crowd noise, Miller commmitted six false-start penalties. Still, Jeff Wilkins had a chance to send the game into overtime with a 37-yard field goal. He missed wide right.
At Detroit, the Rams held a 27-24 lead with a minute to play. The Lions faced fourth-and-26, and all the Rams had to do was drop eight men back and play the pass. Somehow, wide receiver Germane Crowell got behind cornerback Dexter McCleon to convert the first down. The Lions moved in for a touchdown several plays later to win the game.
The Rams righted themselves on the gridiron, but at about the same time they faced disturbing questons about activites off the field.
On Oct. 20, the Post-Dispatch featured the Rams in three separate sections of the paper. On page 1, readers found a sweet story and picture about how Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, quarterback Kurt Warner and other team members brought cheer to the Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairment.
Accompanying that story was a list of 20 players who had donated substantial amounts of time, money and resources to area charities. Many other players work for the United Way and support the Rams Charitable Foundation.
But there was a short summary on the front page referring readers back to a gloomier story on the sports page. Rams kick returner Tony Horne had been suspended for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. Horne had failed one of the league's random drug tests.
And back in the letters to the editor column was a reminder of the first anniversary of the death of Susan Gutweiler. A wife and mother from south St. Louis County, Gutweiler was killed when rookie linebacker Leonard Little drove his sport utility vehicle into her car. Little was legally drunk. He had been celebrating his 24th birthday with his teammates at a downtown hotel.
Little pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 90 nights in jail, four years probation and 1,000 hours of community service. The league suspended him for eight games.
In one edition, the newspaper had captured the NFL's Jekyll-Hyde personality. Is this a game that inspires courage, teamwork and commitment? Or is there something about the sport that leads young men to thuggery, drug abuse, and even worse. Later in the season, police would arrest wide receiver Rae Carruth of the Carolina Panthers and charge him with the murder of his pregnant girlfriend.
The Rev. Perry, Kurt Warner's pastor, says the dichotomy troubles him a lot. The game "brings out the best and the worst in people," he said. "To tell you the truth, I don't have the whole sports thing figured out. It's a theological challenge for me. What I do know is that God wants people to succeed in life. That's why I pray for the individual players on a team."
On the day that Leonard Little was eligible to return to the field, the local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving sponsored a rally at the Old Courthouse to protest lenient sentences for alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Afterward, many of the 175 participants marched from the Old Courthouse to the Trans World Dome. They handed out carnations and copies of the police report from the Little-Gutweiler accident to any who would take them.
To Little's credit, he's repeatedly has stated that the accident changed his life. He understands why many people want to see him traded, and he supported the MADD rally upon his return.
"I totally support that 100 percent," Little said. "That's what the group is there for -- for situations like this. I have nothing negative to say to MADD because this is the situation: I admitted my guilt."
STEP 5: COPING WITH SUCCESS
After the setbacks to Detroit and Tennessee, the Rams began to pile one victory atop another -- seven in a row -- before a meaningless loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the regular season.
By midseason, the Rams had become a national phoenomenon.
Here was a band of chronic losers who had emerged from nowhere to dominate the league. The roster was dotted not only with All-Pros but unusual characters.
There was the franchise owner, the widow and seven-times married Georgia Frontiere, the former lounge singer who moved her team from one of the largest markets in the country to little old St. Louis. There was 63-year-old serial weeper Vermeil, who found a way to reconnect with his hip-hop generation players. There was mighty mouth London Fletcher, an undersized linebacker out of tiny John Carroll University, whose vicious tackling helped the Rams lead the league in run defense. There was the taciturn and elusive Isaac Bruce, who revealed that he had survived a rollover car wreck without a seatbelt by shouting "Jesus!" just in time.
And then there was Warner. No one could get enough of his improbable tale. How he met his wife Brenda and adopted her two children. How he helped her through the loss of her parents, whose lives were swept away in a tornado. How he labored as a stock boy at a Hy-Vee grocery while never giving up on his dream of being an NFL quarterback. How he goes home after a big game and eats pizza and watches videos with the kids. How he's unafraid to stand up in front of a bunch of hired skeptics and a nationwide television audience to say, "Thank you, Jesus."
Pastor Jeff Perry says he thinks the Rams' greatest challenge has been to cope with their success, to remain real.
Perry would spend Wednesday evenings during the season at the Warner home with anywhere from eight to a dozen players in religious study. They studied the biblical champions, including the apostle Paul, whose life was filled with ups and downs, and Uzziah, the king whose pride led to his downfall.
Perry says that none of the players he works with believe God gets them open for passes or parts a sea of tacklers. It's more that their faith keeps their lives in balance. That in turns helps them perform up to their potential.
Some, like Warner, are so grateful that they want to share the blessings with others. Asked how non-Chrisitian football fans should regard all this public praising of Jesus, Pastor Jeff responded quietly, "I don't know. My hope would be that they would consider receiving Jesus as their Lord."
STEP 6: RAM-DEMONIUM
Sue Arnott of Ballwin said she never had much use for football, football players, the whole scene. She worked her way through Colorado State University in the 1980s and remembers feeling resentful of all the perks the football team -- also named the Rams -- seemed to enjoy, despite their lackluster efforts in the classroom.
Thirteen years ago, she attended a marriage preparation class with her fiance, Jim, and the subject of football surfaced again. Sue and Jim were talking with their friends, Chuck and Rita, about the class. Chuck recalled that when he and Rita attended, they were asked to list their three top priorities in life. Chuck said he wrote: "God, sex and football, and not necessarily in that order."
Sue said she laughed but still didn't get it.
Not until a few weeks ago. Coverage in the newspaper, television and radio became so overwhelming that Sue couldn't avoid it. She got caught up in the Kurt Warner saga. That made her turn on the television to watch a game. She thought the Bob 'N Weave thing the players did in the end zone after a score was kind of cute.
"Hey, what's with that yellow line," she asked Jim, who knew a little something about the game.
"Oh, that's a digital thing that shows you where the first down is," Jim said helpfully. "They've got to make it there with the ball."
Pretty soon, Sue found herself letting out whoops -- the kind you might hear at a country and western bar -- when the Rams did something good. Her three youngsters began to look at her like she'd lost it.
But Sue says she hasn't, at least not yet. She doesn't listen to sports talk shows. She doesn't spend her idle time pondering coverage schemes.
"I am," she said, "beginning to understand."
Call it the Arnott effect. People who previously could care less about the Rams began climbing on the bandwagon at season's end; people who always cared started going a little crazy.
There was Gary Heaviland, who woke his wife, Fran, at 5 o'clock on the morning of a playoff game so she could put his hair up in a dozen tiny ponytails. He then sprayed each of them in blue and gold, painted his face in swirls of blue and gold, tied a gold scarf around his neck and donned a pair of gaudy gold sunglasses. He was fit for the game and the cover of the Post-Dispatch's Saturday lifestyle section.
Educators from across the area suddenly found in the Rams a teachable moment. Well, maybe more than a moment.
The children at Ridge Meadows Elementary School in the Rockwood School District wrote Rams songs to the tune of "Jingle Bells" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" and many more.
Students in the Affton district got extra credit for wearing blue and gold to school.
Children at the Missouri School for the Blind -- still another spot where Kurt Warner had surfaced to help out -- held a rally and sent off a letter to the team in Braille.
Some students at Rockwood's Crestview Middle School urged Superintendent John R. Oldani to call off school on the day after the Super Bowl so that students could attend the parade honoring the Rams. They cited precedent: Rockwood had apparently let kids attend parades for the Cardinals after their World Series wins. They pointed out that the district had plenty of unused snow days.
Oldani held his ground. "Gotta go to work," he replied.
The increasing excitement created sweet agony for Larry Kirchner, the man who gave up his season tickets. On the eve of the Super Bowl, Kirchner said he wished he could do a form of financial penance. He'd pay the Rams for every game he missed this year if they'd just give him his PSLs back for next year.
Redmond, the regional manager for Sports Avenue, could laugh now at the unwise stocking decisions he made last spring. After the Rams bolted from the gate, he was able to make some late orders for Warner and Faulk jerseys, though he had run out again by playoff time.
Still, sales at Sports Avenue were up 180 percent in December and January over the previous year.
The first home playoff game in city history did not start particularly well. The Vikings took the opening kickoff and marched smartly down the field. Fans felt fortunate that the Vikings came away with only a field goal.
But everything changed with the Rams' first play from scrimmage. Warner flicked a pass at midfield to a streaking Issac Bruce, who ran untouched into the end zone.
The Vikings came back to take the lead by the end of the half, but the Rams opened the second half with Tony Horne scoring a touchdown on the opening kickoff, a play that sparked the Rams to 35 unanswered points.
The big win generated euphoria and, at least in a few instances, some rather unsportsmanlike behavior. Letter writer Brett Arnold, a Vikings fan and University City resident, said he saw fans hurling food and epithets at the Vikings faithful. "The euphoria of winning is wonderful," Arnold wrote. "However, your team winning does not make you a better person. Football exists for our joy and entertainment, not as a basis for self-esteem."
Sour grapes? Perhaps. But an air of cockiness seemed pervasive as the Rams headed into the NFC Championship Game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers were starting a rookie quarterback. They had gotten to this game by eking out a one-point win over the Washington Redskins.
But the Bucs sent a message early by intercepting a Warner pass on the first play from scrimmage. They stifled Marshall Faulk at every turn. And they held the lead 6-5 with five minutes left in the game. That's when Warner wrote another improbable chapter in his storybook season.
Third and 4 at the Bucs 30. The situation seemed to call for a short, safe pass, one that would move the Rams closer to a field goal that would give them the lead.
Instead, Warner looked downfield for Ricky Proehl, by far the slowest member of the Rams receiving corps. Ricky Proehl, who had not caught one of Warner's 41 touchdown passes. Proehl, who until this year had never played for a winning team.
Proehl had less than a step on his defender. As the ball floated toward him, he used his right arm to create some separation. The ball fell into his hands but then popped up on his left shoulder pad. As his feet hit the ground just in bounds, Proehl pulled the ball back in and spun sideways. The referee raised his arms in the air. Touchdown! The Rams held on to win 11-6.
What could top that? Perhaps Vermiel would suit up Georgia Frontiere for the Super Bowl and have Martz draw up an owner-eligible play.
STEP 7: DESTINY
So the Rams headed down to Atlanta as a so-called team of destiny. But the Tennessee Titans' march to the Super Bowl had been nearly as improbable and seemed just as foreordained. The Titans owner had moved the team from Houston to Tennessee in 1997 without having a new stadium or even decent facilities in which to practice.
The team played its first year at its temporary home in Memphis before sparse crowds. It went 8-8. The Titans had the same record the following year.
It was not until 1999 that the Titans -- now in their permanent home in Nashville -- established themselves with a 13-3 record. The wins included three over the Jacksonville Jaguars, who otherwise had been undefeated, one in Indianapolis and, of course, one over the Rams on Oct. 31.
Tennessee established itself as destiny's darlings with a play dubbed the "Music City Miracle" against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC wild card playoff game.
The Bills had just taken a 16-15 lead on a Steve Christie field goal wit h just 16 seconds to play. Lorenzo Neal fielded the ensuing kickoff and handed off to Frank Wycheck, who sprinted to the right and drew the Bills toward him. At the 20-yard line, he turned and fired a pass to speedy Kevin Dyson at the left sideline. Dyson raced 75 yards for the score.
A penalty flag could have been thrown on the play. Replays of the "Music City Miracle" will be seen over and over again, and arguments will abound as to whether it was a forward pass, which is not allowed on a kickoff.
But officials viewed the replay and allowed it to stand.
In their game against the Bucs, the Rams also benefited from a late controversial call that went their way.
So here were two teams that maybe were fortunate to be in the big game.
This notion may have been the only aspect that got scant attention in the buildup to the Super Bowl.
Local television and radio stations added hours of coverage to their programing. Reporters thrust microphones at shut-ins and psychiatrists; souvenir hawkers and astrologers.
The Post-Dispatch, long a fan-friendly publication, went right over the top for the Super Bowl by publishing special sections seven consecutive days before the event, capped by 40 pages of coverage on Sunday. The newspaper dispatched 29 reporters, editors, photographers and online personnel to Atlanta.
Each fan prepared for the coming battle in his or her own way. Pastor Jeff headed down to Atlanta to be available to the Warners and the rest of the team for prayer.
Sue Arnott and husband, Jim, smoked a pork butt and invited their friends, the Carnescialis, to their home in Ballwin.
Asked for her prediction, she hesitated. "A touchdown is worth six points and the kick is worth one, right? Three touchdowns, two kicks . . . 20 points for the Rams. The Titans, they're going to be singing the blues. They're going to get 6."
Larry Kirchner, the man without a PSL, and Patty Ludwinski set up two two televsion sets in their family room and watched with several friends and their 4-month old child, Riley. He was thinking 28-20, Rams.
And Brother Jacob . . . What on earth was he thinking? A local radio station had offered him an all expenses-paid trip to Atlanta and a ticket to the game if he would provide his commentary afterward.
But, as we know by now, Brother Jacob never goes to the game. Though he watches every regular-season game alone, he emerges from his cocoon to join family and friends at a Super Bowl party. To do otherwise this year would be sorely tempting fate.
His prediction: an easy win, 35-14.
Pastor Jeff does a lot of praying in church, but he stops and prays whenever and wherever the spirit moves him. In Atlanta it occurred in some unusual places.
On Saturday before the game, Pastor Jeff prayed in a parking lot in the rain outside of Macy's. He and his wife, Patsy, co-pastor of St. Louis Family Church, had accompanied Brenda Warner to the store in search of blue and gold items they could give to family and friends.
Perry excused himself, stepped outside and prayed to God that he protect both the Rams and the Titans. That this would be the best Super Bowl ever. That God's will be done, whatever that may be.
On Sunday morning, Perry prayed in a hotel ballroom at a service for Rams family members. The service was so crowded that Perry and Channel 5 newscaster Deanne Lane had to borrow chairs from the hotel's cocktail lounge to provide enough seating. Perry liked the notion of tipping the balance from the lounge to the Lord.
At the service, Isaac Bruce's mother, Kay, spoke of overcoming obstacles. She read from Mark 11:23 24: "For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, that shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass."
To a chorus of amens, Kay Bruce said she had faith in her son and his team "I'm not just hoping. I'm believing," she said. Someone rose and offered a prayer for the offense, another for the defense, a third for special teams.
That evening, Pastor Jeff turned to prayer again.
The Rams were clinging to a 16-13 lead when Perry rose from his seat in the 23rd row on the 50-yard-line and turned his back on the game. "I had a job to do," he said later, "and it was to support the guys in prayer."
As the Titans drove down the field, he circled the concourse underneath the stadium weaving past the concessionaires. He prayed silently that God's will be done; that he pour out his spirit on their skill.
So Pastor Jeff missed Al Del Greco's field goal that tied the game for the Titans at 16-16. He missed the 73-yard strike that Warner lofted to Bruce to put the Rams a touchdown ahead with just under two minutes remaining. And he missed Mike Jones' championship-saving tackle of Kevin Dyson at the Ram's 1-yard-line as time expired.
What Perry found when he returned was Warner hugging his wife.
On Monday, hundreds of thousands of fans descended on downtown to honor the Rams at a parade and rally. Sue Arnott was not among them. It was not a sign of indifference. Her family room exploded with joy when Isaac Bruce scored the winning touchdown. She went to bed late that night and couldn't sleep as thoughts about the game crowded her mind.
"I have to pick up my kids this afternoon," she said Monday by telephone. "We have violin lessons. It's back to a normal life."
On Monday morning, Brother Jacob Israel called KFNS at his usual time with a homily full of gratitude. "I watched my hometown team win the world championship. It is nirvana for me," he told his listeners.
Later that day, Brother Jacob stood on Market Street as the Rams motorcade passed by. While others ran into the street to reach out to the players or scream their adulation, Brother Jacob was the picture of cool, quietly taking it all in from behind his wraparound sunglasses. He was impressed with the diversity of the gathering -- old and young, men and women, rich and poor, black and white. He took special notice of the enthusiasm white fans showed for the Rams' black players.
He found himself asking: Why couldn't black and white come together like this in other ways?
On Tuesday, Dick Vermeil announced his retirement. And he, too, was thinking of how people had come together on his squad. And, showing just a bit of pride, he said he believed he had something to do with that.
"They know how I feel about them, and maybe more important, I know how they feel about me," Vermeil said of his players and coaches.
Someone asked Vermeil about why he didn't ponder his decision longer. Vermeil said the coach would have to be making roster decisions soon. "I don't want to cut the squad," he said. "These are my guys."
The Vermeils had come home after the downtown parade and their ride on a carriage pulled by the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales wondering: "What can we do to top that?"
In taking their leave, they gave all of us -- each in our own way -- the opportunity to answer that question.
