(nervous music)
- The St. Louis Rams were the kings of the NFL in 1999,
led by MVP quarterback Kurt Warner,
who was only a few years removed
from working the graveyard shift
stocking shelves in a grocery store
preceding a stint in the Arena Football League.
The Rams obliterated their opponents all year,
earning the moniker Greatest Show on Turf
before capping the season by hanging on
to win the 34th Super Bowl over the Tennessee Titans,
but it sure didn't look that way to start.
The Rams spent big bucks to sign Trent Green away from
Washington to upgrade from Tony Banks at quarterback.
Those plans ended before they began
when Green tore his ACL in the preseason
on a low shot from Chargers safety Rodney Harrison.
So in stepped Warner, who was only there in '99
because the Browns chose not to select
the unprotected signal-caller in their expansion draft,
and now, five years after going
undrafted out of Northern Iowa,
Green's injury provided the opportunity
he'd spent so much time preparing for.
He'd immediately capitalize,
passing for more TDs through four career starts
than anyone else ever on his way
to authoring one of the greatest seasons
a quarterback's ever had.
It was a Cinderella run beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
Head coach Dick Vermeil then retired,
leading to the promotion of
Greatest Show on Turf architect Mike Martz,
and there was no slowing down this
runaway locomotive over the next two years, either.
They were a embarrassment of riches on offense,
with Warner flanked by Pro Bowl wideouts
Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt,
explosive slot receiver Az-zahir Hakim,
ol' reliable Ricky Proehl,
whose game-winning touchdown over Brian Kelly
in the NFC Championship propelled them to the Super Bowl,
and electric tailback Marshall Faulk,
who also doubled as a star receiver,
even topping 1,000 yards in '99 when he broke
the single-season record for yards from scrimmage,
and of course, Warner needed sufficient time
to execute all the seven-step drops in Martz's offense,
which human brick wall Orlando Pace provided at left tackle.
By the close of the '01 season,
a snapshot of this three year reign of terror
shows an offense that led the league
in points and yards each year,
including the league's first ever
7,000 yard season in Y2K while lording over
the rest of the league by scoring
583 points more than they allowed
with no one else even in their solar system.
Warner book-ended these years with MVP trophies
sandwiched around a season when Faulk won it
in the wake of breaking Emmitt Smith's
single-season touchdown record.
Throughout this time, they won a NFL-high
37 regular season games, two conference titles,
and that Super Bowl 34 championship.
They were flying high, on top of the world,
until they weren't.
(foreboding music)
After advancing to Super Bowl 36,
where the Rams were down a touchdown
with just a minute and change left,
Warner connected with Proehl for a game-tying touchdown,
but then Tom Brady did what Tom Brady does,
Adam Vinatieri did what Adam Vinatieri does,
and just like that, an era with so much winning
and fireworks and fun vanished in a puff of smoke.
A month later, on March sixth, 2002,
the Rams lost the heart and soul of their defense
when the Bills lured middle linebacker
London Fletcher away, and St. Louis missed him.
Coordinator Lovie Smith's unit,
which was ranked third in 2001,
slipped down to the middle of the pack in '02.
On the offensive side, Az Hakim left for a lucrative deal
and the opportunity to start in Detroit,
while Kurt Warner completely lost his mojo
as his magical carpet ride from
undrafted fourth stringer to grocery store restocker
to Super Bowl and league MVP came to an abrupt end.
The Rams lost each of the first three games in '02
with the reigning MVP throwing just one touchdown
against seven picks heading into
a Week Four game against the Cowboys
that would turn out to be his
final Rams start in St. Louis.
Warner broke his right pinky from a hit
on just his second pass of the game
which knocked him out of action for nearly two months.
Jamie Martin started the next week in San Francisco
and bruised his knee in a loss that dropped them to 0-5,
so in stepped Marc Bulger the next week
for his first career game action,
and he'd go on to start and win the next five games,
evening up their record at 5-5,
but they hit some serious speed bumps along the way.
Aeneas Williams, their All-Pro corner
who never missed a single game
in any of his first 11 seasons,
was already hampered by turf toe,
victimized by the very playing surface
that helped spark their offense to unprecedented success.
Then in Week seven, with the outcome clinched
and less than two minutes remaining
'til their bye week would provide
a chance to get healthy,
Williams suffered season-ending leg and ankle injuries.
In a Week 10 game versus the Chargers,
Marshall Faulk messed up his left foot and right ankle
and was lousy down the stretch
once he came back from those injuries
in what marked the beginning of the end
for the future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
During their Monday night win the next week,
Bulger sprained his right index finger,
but despite Warner's dismal play
early in the season burying the Rams
before Bulger resuscitated 'em,
Martz insisted there was no quarterback controversy
and the plan was to return to Warner
for their next game anyway,
and like clockwork, the Rams' losing ways
returned as they came up short in DC and Philly.
Another broken bone in his hand
ended Warner's season while bringing a dark cloud
of needless drama to the organization.
See, Martz had explained it was he who ordered
x-rays for Warner's hand,
only for the quarterback's wife Brenda
to call up a sports talk radio show
the next day to basically call
the team's head coach a liar, that
"Martz did not insist that he get an x-ray.
"Martz had nothing to do with it.
"The doctors never once said that
"he should get an x-ray.
"All week long, I said,
"Kurt, I am a nurse.
"You should get an x-ray.
"He said the doctors just think it's bruised."
Thanks, Brenda.
Anyway, with Bulger returning to the lineup in Week 15,
he got his sixth win in as many starts
before he hurt his spine on the first drive
the following week in Seattle,
ending his season as the Rams fell
from the remarkable highs of '99 through '01 to 7-9 in 2002.
So while both QBs were each injured multiple times in 2002,
among their starts where they
weren't knocked out in the first few plays,
Warner was 0-5 and Bulger was 6-0.
Despite that, in February 2003,
Martz let it be known early in the offseason
that Warner was his guy going into the next season
with no competition for the job necessary,
but he'd lose another key weapon
in free agency the next month.
Post-season hero Ricky Proehl,
who came up clutch time and time again,
signed with the Panthers.
In their opener, on just the second time
that season Warner dropped back to pass,
he was clobbered by Giants defensive end
Michael Strahan with a hit that
jarred the ball loose and left Warner concussed.
He'd go on to play the entire game with the
two-time MVP unable to hold onto a football,
fumbling another five times,
and was even confused when Martz called plays,
leading to an overnight hospitalization.
He'd be cleared to return for their following game,
but Bulger got the nod to start in Week Two.
Though initially trying to handle
a brewing quarterback controversy
by taking things week to week,
Martz sort of tipped his hand.
After Bulger and the Rams beat the Cardinals
in his third start of the season,
Brenda Warner again took to the radio,
this time to publicly inform the world
that her husband wanted to play,
and if that wasn't in the cards in St. Louis,
he'd welcome a trade elsewhere.
Those remarks led to Kurt's admission
that he was starting to imagine moving on
from the Rams a little more every day,
but the wins kept coming under Bulger,
who still had the league's top
wide receiver duo to throw to,
and following their Week 12 victory in Arizona,
their eighth in 10 games with him under center,
Martz officially made the change permanent,
effectively ending the Warner era in the process.
Three weeks later, they clinched the NFC West
after beating the Seahawks with a little help
from the back judge who tripped
Seattle wideout Bobby Engram on
a potential game-winning touchdown,
but in their first playoff game,
Marc Bulger threw not one but two
hideous fourth quarter interceptions,
then added a third in OT
before this Steve Smith walkoff touchdown
on the first play of the sixth quarter
ended the Rams' 14-game home
winning streak and their season.
Four days later, Lovie Smith,
who orchestrated a monstrous defensive turnaround
immediately upon his arrival,
left to take the head coaching job in Chicago,
and as much as they'd miss
Brenda Warner's lovely radio bits,
the time had come to move on
from their legendary quarterback
and they cut Kurt Warner on June first, 2004.
They'd regress from 12-4 to 8-8 that season,
which would be the final one for Aeneas Williams,
who retired in the '05 offseason to kick off
a year of change and tumult both on and off the field.
For starters, second year stud Steven Jackson
took over as lead back for the 2005 season,
relegating Marshall Faulk to backup duty.
A day after a Week Five loss left them at 2-3,
an ailing Mike Martz needed to step away
from the team to treat a bacterial infection of his heart,
with linebackers coach Joe Vitt filling in.
His first game as interim head coach was a disaster.
Not only did they get blown out
on Monday night in Indy,
but Marc Bulger hurt his throwing shoulder
early in the second quarter,
knocking him out of the next two games,
during which it was also announced
Martz wouldn't be returning that year,
and it was during this time away from the team
that Martz's relationship with management deteriorated.
In Week Seven against the Saints,
during just their second game
without Martz on the sideline,
Martz tried to have a cellphone
brought to his offensive coordinator
to talk to him in the middle of the game.
Executive Jay Zygmunt put the kibosh on that
and brought the issue to team president John Shaw,
who refused to allow an
open phone line in the coach's booth.
Blocking that communication pissed an ill Martz right off,
especially since he wasn't given any sort of heads up.
He'd already been butting heads
with his front office and now reached the point
where he was unsure if they could even coexist.
So with turmoil surrounding the organization,
it didn't help matters when about a month later,
Kurt Warner, now a Cardinal, made his
first trip back to St. Louis since they cut him.
Warner carved up his old squad in his finest game
since his '01 MVP season four years earlier,
and the loss not only dropped the Rams to 4-6,
virtually killing any postseason dreams,
but also saw Bulger re-injure his throwing shoulder,
knocking him out for the rest of the season.
Then, with just a couple games left,
Martz had gotten medically cleared to return
for the season finale,
but the Rams chose not to let him,
then fired him the day after their 6-10 season concluded.
To replace him, St. Louis hired Nick Saban's
offensive coordinator, Scott Linehan.
A few days before Linehan's first
training camp as a head coach,
Marshall Faulk underwent major
reconstructive knee surgery,
wiping away his 2006 season while
putting his career in serious jeopardy.
They did kick off the Linehan era
by winning four of their first five games,
teasing their fan base into thinking
they'd perhaps turned a corner, but nope!
They'd immediately lose seven of their next eight
en route to an 8-8 season
and another January on the couch.
The Rams would head into 2007 having lost
17 of their previous 29 games,
but those would seem like the good old days
compared to what was coming.
First, in late March, Faulk's career
did indeed succumb to his knee problems,
and the Hall of Fame back officially retired.
Then in the next month's draft,
picking 13th overall, the Rams chose
Nebraska defensive lineman Adam Carriker,
who played two years in St. Louis,
missed a third with a shoulder injury,
then was shipped to Washington
for a couple of late round pick swaps.
The very next selection was Darrelle Revis,
who quickly became the top cornerback in the game
and the best player on a squad that reached
multiple AFC Championship games.
Oops.
When the '07 season rolled around,
the wheels totally came off.
They got horrific quarterback play from
Bulger and Gus Frerotte, and they finished
a 3-13 season a couple weeks before
team owner Georgia Frontiere passed away in January 2008.
The next month, they said goodbye
to the aging Isaac Bruce, who in his time with the Rams
had become the third leading receiver of all time.
With Bulger coming off a pitiful season
and quarterback a glaring need
heading into the 2008 draft,
they opted to again go D-line,
using their second overall pick on Chris Long.
Though Long would go on to have a nice career,
future MVP quarterback Matt Ryan
was taken with the very next pick.
They'd get blown out each of the first
four games of the '08 season,
at which point they fired Linehan
and promoted D-coordinator Jim Haslett,
which was simply rearranging
deck chairs on the Titanic amid a 2-14 season.
Steve Spagnuolo was the lucky winner
who got to try and clean up the rotten sewage
that the organization had descended to,
and for those who thought surely it was impossible
to sink to even lower depths,
the '09 Rams inspired folks everywhere
by proving nothing is impossible.
With a couple long-time stalwarts aging,
the Rams had some painful decisions to make.
Four-time All-Pro left tackle Orlando Pace,
who was once an indestructible force
and started every game in
seven of his first nine seasons,
had now missed 24 of the Rams' previous 39 games,
and they cut the Hall of Fame
blindside protector on March 10th.
Three days later, they cut wideout Torry Holt,
the only man to ever post six consecutive
seasons of at least 1,300 receiving yards.
Again owners of the second overall pick in the draft,
the Rams chose Baylor tackle Jason Smith
in an effort to replace Pace.
He started 26 games for them before the team
moved on from their turnstile in pads.
They'd go 1-15 in 2009, the first team
to ever lose at least 13 games in three straight years,
but the most delightful thing is that
they barely ever even put up a fight,
instead usually just laying down for their opponent.
In the quarter century prior to the 2008 season,
the entire NFL combined for just one instance
of a team losing seven games
in a season by over 20 points.
Then the Rams did so in both '08 and '09.
They draft quarterback Sam Bradford
first overall in 2010, and in August
minority owner Stan Kroenke, who helped
get the team moved from L.A. to St. Louis in 1995,
bought the majority share of the team
from a couple of Frontiere's kids.
The Rams sort of rebounded with a 7-9 season
behind their Rookie of the Year quarterback,
but that was their apex under Spagnuolo,
and topping out at seven wins is
just not acceptable football for the Rams.
So they went out and hired Jeff Fisher.
He'd get one healthy season with Bradford
before his quarterback's ACL started exploding
any time someone looked at him wrong,
which doomed any chance of success together.
Following the end of Fisher's fourth season in St. Louis,
and a dozen straight seasons
failing to post a winning record,
Kroenke pushed Command+Z on the move
21 years earlier, and on January 12th, 2016,
the Rams said goodbye to St. Louis
to return to the City of Angels.
The Rams were a cheat code for three years,
but relentless injuries at the most
important position in sports,
drama and resentment engulfing the organization,
Father Time, and embarrassing draft miss
after embarrassing draft miss caused everything
to collapse in the blink of an eye.
(soft music)