- 16 hours ago
Late bloomer much?
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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SportsTranscript
01:00Good morning.
01:02Please excuse my throat, but it was an intense game last night.
01:06All right, let's go, momentum changers.
01:08Let's go.
01:09There it is.
01:10He's gone.
01:11That's what the world championship's all about, guys.
01:13Let's go.
01:14Let's go.
01:15So it all comes down to this.
01:18Six seconds to play.
01:19All right, guys.
01:21Last play in the game.
01:23McNair drops.
01:24Throws right side for Dyson.
01:25He dives for the end zone.
01:27Didn't make it.
01:28Didn't make it.
01:29No.
01:30No.
01:31That's it.
01:31And we won it.
01:32Woo-hoo.
01:34That's the game.
01:35It's over.
01:36It's over.
01:37We're world champions.
01:39Well, one of my first thoughts was to get my family down there.
01:42My wife is right there in Section 130 behind the bench.
01:47She'll jump down.
01:47I don't care.
01:48She'll fly down.
01:49She'd been like an assistant coach on my coaching staff for a long time.
01:53And I wanted her to share that experience with me.
01:57Well, she came over the wall and I said, bring the kids.
01:59Come on down here.
02:00Then the cops were saying, you can't do that.
02:02I said, listen, this may be the only time in my life everyone's Super Bowl.
02:05It's the first time they're coming.
02:07Come on, Stevie.
02:08All right, buddy.
02:09I got him.
02:10What do you think, guys?
02:11We won the Super Bowl.
02:13We won the Super Bowl, did we not?
02:15Did we win the Super Bowl?
02:17Did we win the Super Bowl?
02:18Did we win the Super Bowl, huh?
02:19Did we win the Super Bowl?
02:21Yeah!
02:21There can't be anything higher than that moment at that time.
02:34Dick, you've had such an emotional season.
02:36Did you cry at all after the game last night?
02:39The only time I shed tears was with my brother, who said that.
02:46Our mother, who answered me, said that she told you, you would go back and coach a Super Bowl
02:57winning team before you quit.
03:01And God, was she right?
03:02I didn't think she was.
03:05I didn't think she was.
03:05But she was.
03:08It sounds unbelievable, even now.
03:12A 63-year-old coach leads a team with a no-name quarterback to a championship.
03:21It all happened in 1999 to Dick Vermeer, a racing for good, the disappointment of his first appearance
03:29in pro football's biggest game, 19 years earlier.
03:35In 1980, Vermeer was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, and they lost Super Bowl XV to the Oakland
03:43Raiders.
03:45Vermeer was criticized for overworking his players in preparation for the title game, a charge he would never live down.
03:54As soon as you lose, however you do it, for the rest of your life, those mechanics are going to
04:00be second-guessed.
04:02There are all kinds of situations through a long coaching career that you live with for a long time.
04:06And I think the pressure grows.
04:08When I was in Philadelphia, I was my own offensive coordinator.
04:11I coached my quarterbacks and ran all the quarterback meetings.
04:14I was involved in everything.
04:15Plus, I used to sleep all, you know, in the office and maybe get two, three, four hours sleep, and
04:21I knew I couldn't do that.
04:23I am emotionally burnt out and therefore feel that I need a break.
04:31Vermeer left coaching but remained close to football as a broadcaster.
04:36He and his wife built a cabin in rural Pennsylvania where he often thought of returning to the sidelines.
04:43But not until 1997, when John Shaw asked him to help rebuild the Rams, did 60-year-old Dick Vermeer
04:51decide to come back to coaching.
04:54Fourteen years ago, I left coaching, okay?
04:57I left coaching because I had to, and I'm not embarrassed to say it.
05:01Today I'm back because I have to.
05:04Here's my reaction.
05:07That was my reaction when I heard Dick was going to be our coach.
05:10The only thing I knew about Dick was the old highlights, him screaming, him going nuts.
05:16Hey, Jerry, let's go!
05:17And the burnout, which scares players to death.
05:21Coaches that work 18 hours a day, well, this is the guy we're going to have in.
05:25Vermeer was taking over a team that desperately needed help getting its head on straight.
05:30Here we go!
05:32Since 1990, the Rams had stumbled to 36 wins and 76 losses.
05:42We had lost so much that we had accepted it, that we stopped working hard, that we stopped pushing ourselves
05:50to be the best.
05:51So when he came in, he told us that it was going to be tough.
05:56There was no way, no way I could have known what was going to happen at those practices.
06:04Guess who the announcer was?
06:06Dick Vermeer.
06:08I won player of the game that day, so did Big Daddy Dan Wilkinson.
06:11So Dick, at the end of the broadcast, says, Big Daddy Wilkinson will be a future pro.
06:16DeMarco Farr, on the other hand, he's a great college player, too small for the pros.
06:20Oh, really?
06:21Yeah, I think it was...
06:22Oh, really?
06:24Well, but a lot of people must have agreed for Milk.
06:28Wilkinson went number one next year, well, in 95, and then Farr went undrafted.
06:35Well, who had the better pro career?
06:41It was a fair, honest evaluation, because, you know, he was short.
06:46Too small to be a defensive tackle in the National Football League.
06:51Farr was an undrafted free agent who signed with the Rams and worked his way into the starting lineup.
06:57He had endured three losing seasons with the team, but when Dick Vermeer arrived, Farr and the Rams discovered what
07:06real endurance was all about.
07:08Hey, first day out, first new Ram practice.
07:12The only way you can get better is to work.
07:19He made his point.
07:20The first minute we're on the field, we're banging pads.
07:24The first day in the heat.
07:31My attitude was, when we step on the field, we're getting prepared to fight.
07:35No easing into a street fight, guys.
07:38It's a frame of mind, a toughness frame of mind.
07:40I really felt the organization needed to be toughened up.
07:44Come on, Ronnie, you're not even sweating.
07:45Did you work today?
07:46Huh?
07:48We've worked them harder than normal.
07:50Pads every day, three-hour practice in the morning.
07:53Three-hour...
07:56There were times in the city...
07:57This season, we went into games a little bit tired, but I didn't think we were going to beat anybody
08:01real early in the campaign anyway.
08:02And the thing to do was to just keep working them.
08:05No easing into a street fight.
08:06Let's go.
08:07Just as Vermeer expected, the Rams struggled in his first year.
08:12So when his second season began, the long practices continued.
08:18But so did the losing.
08:20Here they come, final play of the game.
08:22Juggled by Banks, who wants to throw it, now will run it.
08:25He's in the open, they dive for him.
08:27Short of a goal line.
08:28The game is over.
08:31Devastating.
08:32He actually got worse the next year.
08:34I mean, where do you go from here now?
08:36It took a toll on me emotionally.
08:38You know, I can't tell you how many windshields I cracked.
08:41My own windshields.
08:42You know, punching them after games.
08:44I just, I hated losing so much.
08:48Eventually, we were trying everything in our power to get out of these practices against Chicago the Saturday night before
08:55the game.
08:56We had a players-only meeting before the coach came in.
08:59And we thought about not playing the next day.
09:01Because here's our quarterman, and he has ice bags on.
09:04I got ice bags on my knees.
09:05Because everybody's beat up from the practice we just had on Friday.
09:08And we got to play the Bears at their house the next day?
09:12They handed me a list of notes, all signed.
09:14Each guy wrote what bothered him.
09:16Well, they actually played the Bears in St. Louis.
09:21I can remember one is, I'm so tired.
09:23I can't be a good father.
09:25I just, I can't even play with my kids.
09:27I'm exhausted.
09:28I mean, I can't go shopping with my wife at night because my legs are tired.
09:33Not every player at the meeting had a complaint.
09:37I remember sitting over in the corner thinking, man, I'm just happy to be here.
09:40I'm not going to complain about one thing.
09:43You know, I don't care how hard we work.
09:44I'm just happy to be in the NFL.
09:46But just remembering how they were talking about, we're going to.
09:48Uh, Favre was talking about 98.
09:54Well, at least the Rams won that game.
09:57Walk out of practice.
10:00It was something that I never dreamed I would ever see at the NFL level.
10:04The bunch of prima donna players that worry about working too hard
10:08instead of just showing up and playing football.
10:10He said, look, we got a game tomorrow.
10:12We'll try to make adjustments Monday.
10:15But right now, we got to get ready for the Bears.
10:17So we come back to practice.
10:18We have another meeting with Coach Vermeule in it.
10:21Coach, look, if you cut down the practices, we can win.
10:25He goes, okay, we'll go from three hours to two hours.
10:28So we did everything we did in a three-hour practice in two hours,
10:32which made it worse.
10:52Any coach in the National Football League knows that with that kind of a record in two years,
10:59you better win your third or you're not going to be there.
11:00And yes, they were disappointed we were still losing.
11:03But all I ever kept talking about was we're getting better.
11:14Vermeule began by hiring Redskins quarterback coach Mike Martz to serve as his offensive coordinator.
11:22The Rams signed Trent Green, who had flourished under Martz in Washington.
11:28And in April, they traded for Pro Bowl running back Marshall Falk and drafted wide receiver Torrey Holt.
11:35When you look at the new quarterback in Trent Green, you look at Isaac Cruz, you look at Marshall Falk,
11:40now you throw in a Torrey Holt.
11:41You have playmakers.
11:43They have really upgraded their team.
11:46And the first training camp practice lasted about an hour and a half.
11:50The first day.
11:51In pads.
11:52Banging.
11:53They blew the horn.
11:55You know, double horn means practice is over.
11:58We couldn't believe it.
11:59Your first session.
12:00Your first session.
12:01Good session.
12:02That's the way to start.
12:03You know, you veterans that were here a year ago for your first session,
12:06compare that one with this one.
12:09Huh?
12:09Not even close.
12:12And I felt that I'd worked a group as hard as I could work them for as long as I
12:15could work them.
12:16On the board.
12:16We'll go to a little more modern approach.
12:19Film study.
12:19It was a total change.
12:21All right.
12:21Good job, guys.
12:22Go on in.
12:23We're walking around in a state of shock.
12:25I forgot to mention that Trent Green is from St. Louis, so he was right at home.
12:31You mean I can actually go to my locker, go to my room, go to lunch, and not feel like
12:36I'm going to die?
12:39Through the start of the 1999 preseason, the spirit in St. Louis was high.
12:45Much of the excitement centered on the Rams' new quarterback.
12:48Trent Green comes in here with a real hope for this offense.
12:52We've been talking about him all game and all preseason long.
12:56Green drops.
12:57A great connection to number 18.
13:00Now we've got Trent Green down.
13:02We've got Trent Green down in the middle of the field.
13:04It took one hit midway through the third game of the preseason to destroy the Rams' hope.
13:16And you can just hear all the air come out of the place.
13:32I remember Isaac Bruce taking off his helmet and slamming it on the ground.
13:37It's like, we're back to square one.
13:41Kurt Warner checks in.
13:43Certainly not where Trent Green is and the kind of experience that Green brought to this offense.
13:47I saw Trent at halftime, and he basically told me at that time, you know, I tore my ACL.
13:53I'm going to be out for the season.
13:54And I guess it was at that point where, you know, it kind of shocked me.
13:59Like, maybe this is my opportunity.
14:01Maybe this is my chance to play.
14:04Kurt Warner was the new Will Fuhrer, who was the new Jamie Martin, who was the new T.J. Rubley.
14:09You know, he was the third string guy that was cool.
14:12He was our scout team quarterback, and he was our guy that never gets in.
14:17No one knew his story at all.
14:23There were many stops on Kurt Warner's journey to that moment in St. Louis.
14:28None farther from the NFL than the...
14:31You got about Green Bay, Arena football, and the Iowa Barnstormers, the Hy-Vee, and the Amsterdam Admirals.
14:51The Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
14:56That's where Warner was after his college football career ended in 1994,
15:02trying to keep his NFL dreams from dying as he stocked shelves on the graveyard shift.
15:08All the other people that were stocking at nights and were hoping to one day maybe become the night manager
15:15or become the manager of the grocery store, and this was their goal.
15:19And here I am saying, well, you know, I'm just doing this for a few months until the NFL calls
15:24again.
15:25The NFL never contacted Warner at the Hy-Vee.
15:29The Arena League's Iowa Barnstormers did.
15:33Warner became the best quarterback in arena football.
15:37He grew content to spend the rest of his career as a star in Iowa,
15:42but was still willing to attend the tryout with the St. Louis Rams when they offered it in 1997.
15:49So I went into the tryout with St. Louis.
15:52I had the worst tryout of my career.
15:56So I remember calling my wife as soon as I left the building.
15:59It's like, I think I just blew my last opportunity in the NFL.
16:04There were still some things impressive about it.
16:06Short, compact, you know, that little bit of a load delivery.
16:09You got rid of the ball.
16:10Plus, we didn't have anybody.
16:12You know, you open the doors to more people when you're not a very good football team.
16:18The Rams signed Warner and sent him to play in NFL Europe.
16:23When he returned in the summer of 1998, Warner earned a spot on the St. Louis roster.
16:29A year later, he was the Rams' backup quarterback when his odyssey took its final turn towards the spotlight.
16:37Now we've got Trent Green down.
16:39We've got Trent Green down in the middle of the field.
16:42I told the whole squad, we've got a guy in this room that nobody knows about that can do it.
16:47And we aren't going to go out and find some guy that's played 10 years and maybe even been to
16:51a Super Bowl
16:51or been in a championship game or maybe played in a Pro Bowl at one time or another.
16:55We're going with Kurt Warner, and I sincerely believe he can do it.
16:59We will rally around Kurt Warner, and we'll play good football.
17:04They portrayed a quiet confidence in what I could accomplish,
17:08although still to this day, I don't know exactly what they believed
17:11or actually how well they thought I could play.
17:14Have a good one.
17:15Stay within yourself.
17:16Love you, buddy.
17:17Love you, too.
17:21In the regular season opener, the quarterback who waited his whole life for a chance
17:26threw three touchdowns as the Rams beat Baltimore.
17:31Quarterback doesn't look bad, Jimmy.
17:33What?
17:34Well, doesn't look too bad.
17:35Quarterback?
17:36No, he looks bad.
17:39The Rams won their first three games.
17:43The first three starts of Kurt Warner's career.
17:47Play action to make the end of the round.
17:50Warner throws down the middle.
17:51He's got it.
17:52Touchdown.
17:53So it is.
17:54What a pass by Kurt Warner, the first quarterback in NFL history
17:58with three touchdown passes in each of his first three starts.
18:04He seemed to come out of thin air, but when Kurt Warner finally arrived,
18:09he captured the spotlight before the world could ask where he'd come from.
18:16Warner was the solution for St. Louis at quarterback.
18:19The question of whether or not the Rams were a bona fide contender still needed to be answered.
18:28The beginning of the 99th, we'd won three straight, but we still have to play the Niners.
18:35That was always in our head.
18:37Always in our head.
18:39The Rams had lost 17 straight games to the 49ers.
18:45They were especially haunted by one defeat in 1995.
18:51The Rams had begun their first season in St. Louis with a 5-1 record,
18:56but a spirit-crushing loss to San Francisco sent them reeling out of playoff contention.
19:02Ken Norton scored, punched the goalposts.
19:04They scored again, punched the goalposts.
19:06That was always in our head.
19:08Always in our head.
19:10I remember Dana Stubblefield, and he goes,
19:13different city, same team, same old Rams.
19:16Same old sorry-ass Rams.
19:18So long.
19:20It embarrassed the city, embarrassed us.
19:22Go home. Go home.
19:24Y'all go home.
19:27So here it was, the 49ers coming into our place.
19:30Up to that point, we were having success.
19:32We felt good about where we were,
19:34but I don't know if we really believed how good we could be.
19:37They forgot to mention that Steve Young was out.
19:41He would never play again, and Jeff Garcia was in his place.
19:45It's a little different with a Hall of Famer instead of just a good quarterback.
19:49A little different.
19:53This was going to be a telling game.
20:01Bruce goes in motion to the right side.
20:03Warner puffs for him.
20:04Has him as a goal line.
20:05Touchdown!
20:06They thought it was going to be the same old sorry Rams that they were playing.
20:11We unleashed on them.
20:20I'll never forget just the look that they had on offense.
20:27And I can remember Jerry Rice, the great player that he is.
20:31Like, oh my God, I can't believe these guys are serious.
20:35Yeah, we are.
20:36I don't care who you are, Jerry.
20:38I don't care how great you are.
20:39I don't care about your Super Bowls or your rings.
20:41It's our time.
20:44The Rams ended the 17-game losing streak
20:47and finally embraced the notion that their hard work was paying off.
20:56I think everybody left the field that day saying, we could be something special.
21:11The new Rams ran their record to 6-0.
21:16Their rapid turnaround was becoming the story of 1999.
21:20And midway through his first season in St. Louis,
21:24running back Marshall Falk, number 28, was already the leader of the team.
21:31Marshall Falk can make a play when not many little things were done well.
21:36I have seen him do it.
21:45The gifted people take the design of things beyond the design.
21:51Hey, Marshall.
21:52We didn't block anybody.
21:54Hey.
21:54He's gifted.
21:55That's all there is to him.
21:58We didn't block anybody.
21:59That was a hell of a rough one.
22:01Falk could make memorable plays with his body and with his mind.
22:06The Rams learned this as they trailed late against Tennessee
22:10when Falk gave a boost to number 81, Oz Hakeem.
22:15Oz got drilled.
22:16He was laying on the ground.
22:17But we're in hurry-up.
22:17We didn't have any timeouts.
22:19What did we do?
22:20The only guy that knew what to do?
22:23Marshall.
22:25Marshall grabs Oz by the collar,
22:27picks him up and holds him up so we can spike the football.
22:30Just saved that opportunity to win the football game.
22:34We thought it was just going to be a lost down.
22:36Picks the guy up and holds him up.
22:37Never seen anything like that before in my life.
22:39Greatest play I've ever seen.
22:41Falk's pick-me-up was wasted when the Rams missed the game-tying field goal.
22:47But the following week in Detroit, he would provide another lift,
22:51this time to Kurt Warner.
23:01I was able to lead the team down, and we put the ball in the end zone to go ahead.
23:05It's a touchdown.
23:07Red.
23:07Excellent throw by the quarterback.
23:09Marshall Falk came over to me, and he kind of just looked at me,
23:13and he kind of just pointed at his heart.
23:14Let me know.
23:15Let me know.
23:16Let me know.
23:16That was really, for me, a turning point in that season
23:20and something that I'll never forget and something that meant the world to me,
23:24that he was kind of the leader on the team,
23:26and now he was kind of handing the reins over to me saying,
23:29you're our guy.
23:30We going to the show.
23:31We going to the show.
23:32We want it.
23:33But the Rams' excitement was short-lived.
23:36With 28 seconds to play, the Lions score to send St. Louis to its second consecutive loss.
23:44Two losses now.
23:45People are starting to call it.
23:47You got walked down and walked over by Gus Farratt.
23:54Those flukes and jokes and this and that.
24:00Make us even madder.
24:01We didn't want to go back to that old stuff.
24:04Wanted to stay right where we were.
24:08I was always fighting for ways to improve.
24:12I was having problems getting off these big guys, 320-pound guys.
24:17I wanted to have something that would give me the edge,
24:20and it would have to be with these.
24:23And I had no idea how to use them until I met a guy named Ernest Hart.
24:27He said, if you want to go to the next level, give me a call.
24:29He gave me his card in, like, 1997.
24:31I didn't call him until 99.
24:35I started working with the guy,
24:36and it just became like a martial art inside of football.
24:41I couldn't really punch and strike,
24:43but I could, you know, use my hands to get you in positions to where you couldn't stop me.
24:49I see the influence on you.
24:50Definitely.
24:51I'll tell you what, being able to kick a guy in the mouth
24:54definitely does something for your confidence.
24:57Defense helped restore St. Louis' confidence midway through the 1999 season.
25:03A week after the team fell to 6-2,
25:07the Ram defense scored two touchdowns and a win over Carolina.
25:11In week 11, another defensive touchdown helped to secure the Rams' first season sweep of San Francisco in 19 years.
25:22It was part of that karate work.
25:25If something goes up, my hand goes up with it.
25:28My hand just went up and tipped it, and Mike caught it.
25:31And there he goes, trucking to the end zone.
25:39I'll keep hearing all these experts, these quote-unquote experts, pundits,
25:45talking about Mike Jones was a one-play wonder.
25:48He's made a few plays in this, and it's just the first half of the regular season.
25:56Carolina, in week 13, Dre Bly's 53-yard interception return clinched the Rams' 10th win
26:04and the division title, for a team that just a year earlier had been referred to as the worst of
26:11the decade.
26:12Champs, baby!
26:14NFC West, that's how it's done, baby!
26:16It's so sweet!
26:18Oh my God, we're champs!
26:21It's so sweet!
26:22We are no longer a losing football team.
26:24We've been waiting a long time, baby!
26:27Woo! Congratulations!
26:28Hey, man, you too, man.
26:28Oh my God, man.
26:30We'd watch the Niners do it year after year.
26:33Y'all see? Champions!
26:34You know, and finally, it's us.
26:37Here we are. Here's the hat.
26:39Hey, congratulations!
26:40And that's what Dick Vermeule brought to the football team.
26:43That feeling of being a winner.
26:45Hey, thank you. Love you.
26:46Well, I remember vividly walking off the field with Kevin Carter in one arm and DeMarco Farr in the other.
26:52Because they'd been there the whole time.
26:54They'd been through every three-hour double day.
26:56They'd been through the off-season program.
26:58They'd been through the bitchin' and moin'.
27:00They'd been through the whole routine to all of a sudden be a division champion.
27:05You got it. You brought it home.
27:13Nice.
27:14Coordinator, you have more responsibility.
27:17I told Mike when he came there I was going to turn it over to him.
27:19All right.
27:21By the time you got a chance to do what you have the ability to be, just go ahead and
27:24do it.
27:25I appreciate that, dude.
27:26When Mike was calling plays, he used to startle me sometimes.
27:29He'd do things coming out of our own area in the field that I wouldn't have done.
27:33Oh, Michael, Michael, Michael.
27:35Down here?
27:36Geez.
27:36Good luck.
27:37I'd say, oh my God, Mike, what are you doing?
27:40Bang!
27:40And it would work.
27:43That's one of the reasons we became so explosive offensively, because we had no fear.
27:48March's offense would be called the greatest show on turf, a scoring spectacular that shone
27:55the spotlight on Kurt Warner.
27:58You like to think that somebody could have thrown you in any offense and you would have
28:02had just as much success, but the style of play, the timing that we had with our offense
28:07in St. Louis.
28:16It was really just an extension of what I had learned and what I had perfected in arena football
28:21that we were able to take to their greatest show on turf.
28:27Warner takes, skins the secondary, and it is.
28:30Caught, and he's in trouble.
28:31Holding the near sidelines to the 20, to the 15, to the 5, and touchdown, Rams!
28:36What a pass by Kurt Warner.
28:38I love this, Michael.
28:39What a perfect pass.
28:40Touchdown, touchdown, Rams!
28:42Warner fakes to Marshall Falk, now throws the middle, yes!
28:47Touchdown, Sylvain!
28:48Yes!
28:50Warner had gone from working at the high...
28:59...to being named the NFL's MVP.
29:06In 1999, Warner threw 41 touchdown passes and led the Rams to 13 wins.
29:14A remarkable turnaround for a man and a team.
29:22Touchdown, St. Louis!
29:23That is a touchdown pass...
29:25...for 40.
29:26...for Kurt Warner.
29:27Now in the 40 touchdown pass club, there's Dan Marino and there's Kurt Warner.
29:33Unbelievable.
29:34In the first NFL playoff game ever held in St. Louis, the Rams scored on their first play from scrimmage.
29:43The 77-yard score by Isaac Bruce was the first of five touchdown passes by Kurt Warner.
30:04We beat Minnesota, and we move on, and here comes Big Bad Tampa.
30:12A tough-as-nails football team, not much deception in what they're doing.
30:17They're coming to knock you off your spot.
30:20King of the mountain time.
30:25Tampa Bay defensively worked with outstanding.
30:28In fact, we probably underestimated how good they really were.
30:33Tampa Bay stole the ball on the Rams' first possession.
30:39The Bucs were intimidating in St. Louis.
30:53You can't ease into a street fight.
30:55We did.
30:56They didn't.
30:56And it was the first time that I've seen Marshall, Kurt, Isaac, Torrey, her whole offense come off with their
31:03heads down.
31:05Like, Tampa had the answer to our offense.
31:08Nobody could figure it out.
31:09Nobody could stop it.
31:10But Tampa had something for them.
31:15It was frustrating from the standpoint of being on the offense and not being able to do what we wanted
31:19to do.
31:21But the awesome thing about it was that it showed everybody that we had a complete team.
31:27That our defense was able to come out and really make the plays to win that game for us.
31:42In a game as messy as any street fight, the Rams' defense traded punches with the Bucs.
31:51Midway through the fourth quarter, St. Louis trailed 6-5.
31:55An interception by Bray Bly gave the ball back to St. Louis.
32:00Defense was saving the Rams, but their sputtering offense was running out of chances.
32:06With four minutes left, it looked like the storybook season might finally end.
32:13You can start to hear it maybe in the background like, okay, if we don't win this game, it's still
32:20a great year.
32:22Just as that thought came into my head, I see Kurt loft one over to the corner.
32:27Well, here's Isaac and Torrey looking at it.
32:31There's Marshall out of the backfield looking at the pass, and I'm like, well, he's throwing it away.
32:35It's going to no one.
32:45What a time to do it.
32:48Ricky Pro, no touchdown catches all year.
32:52Ricky caught the game-winning touchdown pass to put us into the Super Bowl.
32:57You don't ride it any better.
33:08The St. Louis Rams are Super Bowl bound.
33:12You've got to love it.
33:15The Rams had taken a long road to a Super Bowl berth, but they knew their...
33:26Small things bother me.
33:28We don't discipline every little tiny thing, guys.
33:31We discipline what we think makes a difference in winning and losing.
33:33I can remember being wound up in a lot of knots when we landed to go to New Orleans to
33:41play.
33:41But at 63, I had better control of it than the last time I went to the Super Bowl.
33:48So I was going to be a better delegator, and I hope better define what it was going to take
33:53for us all to win, put the plan together, and go from there.
33:57I had never done it that way before.
33:58Good job. No regrets. Thank you, buddy.
34:00I wanted them to go have fun and play like they were capable of playing.
34:04You couldn't do that if you were afraid of losing.
34:08See these right there?
34:09These are brass balls, man.
34:11What better have you today?
34:12Oh, man.
34:14As the Rams got revved up, a calm descended on Dick Vermeule,
34:18and confidence came in the form of a song.
34:28Ray Charles.
34:29I used to play Ray Charles' mood music in the locker room of my high school games
34:34just to relax the kids.
34:371959.
34:38Is that right?
34:39That was my first coaching job at Elmore High School.
34:42We drove to San Francisco to hear Ray Charles sing.
34:44Is that right?
34:45I heard that, and I said, oh, my gosh.
34:47It's going my way.
34:48That's a good omen to have Ray Charles sing.
34:50I promise you.
34:52This game's all about scoring points, guys.
34:54We've got to score some points.
34:55In the first half, Kurt Warner threw for nearly 300 yards,
34:59but he paid for every one.
35:07And the Rams scored only nine points.
35:17I was emotionally drained after the first half
35:19because of the frustration of not putting the ball in the end zone
35:22and feeling like we should have been up by a lot more.
35:25I was physically drained because of the pounding that I was taking.
35:28So I remember going in at halftime, laying out on a table,
35:31saying, come tell me what I need to know.
35:34I'm not going to get up.
35:34I'm just going to wait it out right here.
35:36I was just exhausted.
35:38Coach Vermeule, he actually went over to Paul Justin,
35:41who was my backup at the time, and just said,
35:43you know, are you ready to go?
35:44Are you ready to play, Kurt?
35:45I'm not sure he can go out and play in the second half.
35:48Do you think he'll be able to finish the game?
35:50Who?
35:50Quarterback.
35:52He's all right.
35:53He says he's okay.
35:54And I think he's hurt a little bit.
35:55The doctors say he's okay.
35:571, 45, look!
36:00Warner was healthy enough to drive the Rams to a touchdown
36:03on their first possession in the third quarter.
36:06St. Louis took what felt like a comfortable 16-0 lead.
36:11But for the Titans, the fight was not over.
36:15Hey!
36:15Hey!
36:16Last I heard, you had to outscore somebody in four corners.
36:21They're celebrating!
36:22They're celebrating right now!
36:24Look at them!
36:25Go win the game!
36:26Go win the game!
36:27Let's go, boys!
36:28The Titans scored on two consecutive drives to pull within three points.
36:33Dives!
36:34Titans!
36:35Scores!
36:36What a run!
36:37Then, with just over two minutes to play, Tennessee tied the game at 16.
36:42That's what World Championships are all about.
36:44Now we battle.
36:45Couldn't ask for a better script.
36:47Let's go win it right now.
36:50You know, we called the play.
36:51The play was 9-99, which was basically all goes.
36:55You know, all four of our receivers were going to just run straight down the field.
37:01First attempt of the 27.
37:03Warner back to throw.
37:04Rainbows the far sideline.
37:06And it is caught by Isaac Cruz.
37:09Makes them all to the 30.
37:1025-20.
37:11And they won't catch him today.
37:14Touchdown Rams!
37:16What I remember about that play was Javon Kurtz.
37:19Javon was truly freakish then.
37:26And Kurtz stood in the middle of that rush and lofted it deep.
37:35Next thing I know, I hear people on our bench going up and going up and down and screaming
37:38and going crazy.
37:40I see Isaac Bruce in the end zone.
37:43But what I watched was the courage of Kurt Warner to stand in the face of that rush.
37:53And we all saw it as a defense.
37:55This is what he's doing for us.
37:57You see what that guy's doing for us?
37:59He's getting killed for us so we can win.
38:02To put us in a better position to win.
38:04A minute and 54 seconds away.
38:07A minute.
38:09The only way they can beat us is to throw it and his ass scrambling.
38:13The Rams needed to stop Titans quarterback Steve McNair.
38:17On third and five with 22 seconds to play, they could not.
38:23Now steps back.
38:23Rolls left.
38:24Rolls right.
38:25In bad trouble.
38:26Back at the 40.
38:27He gets away somehow.
38:28Fires downfield.
38:30There's Dyson.
38:30Dyson at the stand.
38:32Come on now.
38:32Ball time.
38:33Kevin Carter.
38:35Kevin Carter.
38:37Just played eight snaps of gung-ho, balls-out football.
38:43And that was all we had.
38:44Everybody was out of gas.
38:46Hey, who do I think?
38:47You went out of the game with 26 seconds to go?
38:50You went out of the game with 26 seconds to go?
38:53James.
38:54Come on, back up.
38:55Woo!
38:56Back up.
38:57And he looked at me right after he said that.
39:01And I about threw up on him.
39:03Really.
39:03I couldn't walk.
39:04After the Titans' final timeout, Kevin Carter, DeMarco Farr, and the defense returned to the field.
39:11So it all comes down to this.
39:13Six seconds to play.
39:15Well, I have a very low pulse.
39:17It's about 48.
39:18And about that time, it was three times that.
39:22All right, guys.
39:23Last play in the game.
39:26McNair will work out of the shotgun.
39:29The first thing on my mind was, please don't run.
39:33Because if he runs, there's nobody out there that's going to catch it.
39:39When he let that ball go, there was a sense of relief.
39:43My God, thank you.
39:44We got a shot.
39:49McNair drops.
39:50Throws right side for Nyssen.
39:52He drives, but he hits it!
39:54Reaches to the goal line.
39:55No, he falls at the one.
39:58Didn't make it.
39:59Didn't make it.
40:00No, no.
40:02That's it.
40:03And we won it.
40:03Woo-hoo!
40:05That's the game.
40:07It's over.
40:08It's over.
40:09We're world champions.
40:10Coach, congratulations.
40:17That's it.
40:19St. Louis, the gateway to the West, is now the gateway to the best football team in the world.
40:39I've been married, I've had kids, and those are the greatest experiences I've ever had in my life.
40:44And that's what winning the Super Bowl is like from a football standpoint.
40:57The St. Louis Rams are the world champions.
41:02Congratulations.
41:05What a year.
41:06Love you, Coach.
41:07I love you, too.
41:08You're the team.
41:09Woo!
41:10You are special.
41:11This culminated so much more than just football.
41:15It was about guys that had overcome so much to be at the pinnacle of their positions and their career.
41:22There's my coach.
41:23There's Isaac.
41:24There's Kurt.
41:25There's Marshall.
41:27Those are the Rams up there because of one guy.
41:31And it was Coach for me.
41:33Everybody just wanted to hug him.
41:35And he looked at me like he wanted to...
41:38Something special for me.
41:41Steve Arco!
41:42Hey, buddy.
41:43Love you.
41:44Love you.
41:44We did it.
41:45We did it.
41:46We did it.
41:48He wanted to be the first to tell me.
41:51That's what it seemed like.
41:52You're a world champion, buddy.
41:54You're a world champion.
41:56Wow.
41:57What do you think?
42:02Seeing that trophy was like meeting a celebrity.
42:04You know?
42:05You see him on TV, but here it is right here, and you get to touch it and hold it.
42:08And it's yours.
42:10Champions.
42:12You have caused me some stress.
42:14We got the trophy.
42:15You have caused me some stress in my life.
42:17Now you're here!
42:18Ah!
42:19I think there's a lot we all learned.
42:21Start with the old coach.
42:22We all learned.
42:25Nobody had the aspirations, so the joy is even more when you don't expect it at the beginning
42:31of the season.
42:32Nobody really thought they were going to win anything.
42:36Takes to win will never change.
42:38If it's 1980, 1990, year 2000, 2010 when you're raising your own kids.
42:43Just surround yourself with good people and work hard and be unselfish and care and don't
42:48be embarrassed to say, I love you, and I appreciate it.
42:50Because guys, if you say it, someone else will say it back to you, and guys, I love you.
42:55You know that.
42:56I did want them to appreciate everything they went through to end up being a world champion.
43:07Once you've accomplished the opportunity to put that trophy up high, that will be with you
43:12regardless of what you do the rest of your life.
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