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PHIL AGIUS |
Weblog: Sports editor's view
The 1999 Super Bowl, won by the St Louis Rams, was a true classic
PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES
Remembering The Greatest Show On Turf
SPREAD oddsmakers won't like this but it's a fact that three of the remaining four teams competing for the Super Bowl crown are offensive powerhouses capable of setting the scoreboard spinning.
Indianapolis, New Orleans and Minnesota all hail from noisy domes, with fast-paced offences aimed at entertaining and scoring fast and often.
To some extent all three bring back memories of the classic St Louis team of what it's hard to believe is a decade ago, the 1999 Rams who came from nowhere and won the big one.
Dubbed the Greatest Show On Turf they were led by unsung quarterback Kurt Warner, who departed this year's play-offs in a gunslinging shootout with the Saints on Saturday after edging out Green Bay in a 51-45 no-defence wild-card thriller.
The Rams of '99 were coming off a miserable 4-12 campaign, and began the season as 150-1 shots for the Vince Lombardi Trophy after quarterback Trent Green suffered a serious injury in pre-season, meaning veteran coach Dick Vermeil had to hand the offence over to the untested former NFL Europe passer Warner.
As history shows, fans who tore their season tickets up at the time were sorely misguided.
The Rams recorded 526 points in the regular season (1st in the league), an average margin of victory of 17.8 points (1st in the league), they never scored fewer than 21 points in a regular-season match and they dipped under 30 only four times in 16 outings.
The names are still familiar - Marshall Faulk the unbelievably tricky all-purpose running back, with 1,381 rushing yards and the small matter of 1,048 receiving yards. Then the nattily-named Warner Brothers - the Rams receivers Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Zahir Hakim and 'Rock 'n' Roll' Ricky Proehl.
The Rams charateristically blitzed Minnesota 49-37 in the divisional play-offs, uncharacteristically edged past Tampa Bay11-6 in the NFC Championship and held off Tennessee by one-yard to win the Super Bowl 23-16.
But here's what hardly anyone remembers about the 1999 Rams.
They conceded only 242 points in the regularseason - the fourth-best record in the league and stunning considering the offence would often score so quickly their defensive players were back on the field again before they knew it.
Linebacker Mike Jones is admittedly remembered for his last-second tackle that secured the Super Bowl, but history should also honour defensive ends Grant Wistrom and Kevin Carter, linebacker London Fletcher and cornerbacks Todd Lyght and Dexter McCleon.
For much of this season New Orleans looked the second coming of the Rams, with QB Drew Brees showing Warneresque accuracy and sharing the passes out to all quarters. Their defence, too, looked aggressiveand sturdy enough in the early going before losing their way in mid-season.
And the improved display of Saturday's win over Warner's Arizona will need to be repeated if not improved this Sunday as the Vikings have the potential to look just like the Rams too, in fact they are even more powerful on their offensive line and downright frightening with their pass-rush.
With Indianapolis heavily fancied to see off the Jets in the AFC title game, there's a strong possibility of two Ramalikes clashing in Miami on February 7 and that has to be great news for millions of viewers (and points-buyers) worldwide.
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