Bernie Miklasz: Greatest Show On Turf

hello again I'm back Bernie michas here with another Bernie show video on my YouTube channel thanks for subscribing we're rolling along it's been wonderful love your comments really going to want your comments today after today's video it's kind of random little surprise here thrown in right well um I give the St Louis Cardinals credit uh For an upcoming promotion I I really do on Saturday night September the 21st they're having kind of a special theme night and all kinds of good stuff is there will be there they're honoring uh the 1999 St Louis Ram's greatest show on Turf and uh there'll be a bunch of players there and U there's theme tickets and all this other stuff there'll be autograph sessions um there'll be a kind of a VIP panel all these good things and when it comes to something like remembering and honoring uh what one of the great St Louis sports teams uh obious viously in the history of our town and something that someone who was pretty much at every game was at every game that season um it was just an extraordinary experience and we'll get into that in a second but anyway go to cardinals.com for that don't get mad that I'm plugging the Cardinals I'm plugging the St Louis Rams and the fact that those players and some of the coaches will be back for that and they deserve uh to be applauded and recognized and honored uh as I like to say we know that it ended poorly here for the Rams in St Louis these players who are going to be gathering on September 21st at Bush Stadium uh they had nothing to do with the bad stuff that went down all right this is to celebrate some incredible seasons of football in the NFL uh I have to take you back U I'm gonna you know tell a couple stories weave some stuff here I got to take you back to 1998 that was obviously the year before the greatest show on Turf Rams kind of just materialized and took over the NFL uh it it was unbelievable to contrast of as I go back in my memories you the 1998 Rams and how depressing it was and to think that a year later they would be raising lifting the Super Bowl trophy the Vince Lombardi Trophy and and then they would have a parade down Market Street which is just you know tens and tens and tens and tens of thousands of people there it was really something else but in 1998 let me go back to that uh that team uh under dick verm went four and 12 and they averaged about 18 points per game their offense was horrible just absolutely horrible I remember there was a game late in the season at Philadelphia and it was a Rams Road game obviously and it was a really big deal for dick F because he was going back to Philly the first time as coach of another team and they love him in Philadelphia he is an iconic figure in that town he still is so this is a game he wanted to win really bad and it's a game that meant a lot to him and Jim Thomas uh and myself at the post dispatch I was a columns he was a beat writer you all know Jim Thomas uh not including broadcast people like rights holders uh the weird one weird thing about that is Jim Thomas and and me were the only two members of the St Louis media there to cover that game because there was such a lack of interest and the team was so dull and the season was almost over and then the you know the only question hovering at that time would dick ver be back for another season or can they get him to change can they convince him to bring in a new coordinator and just do all these other things and so it was an uncertain time but it was a miserable time it was a miserable time I remember and Jim Thomas will you know verify this I remember that night at the old veteran stadium in Philly uh a lot of my friends in the Philadelphia media were just like they couldn't believe it it's like you St Louis only has two media people here uh we've never seen anything like this usually you know the visiting team the visiting City media is you know going to have like you know 8 10 12 15 20 media people it's only two never seen any like this and I never saw anything like this and you got to keep it in the context of 1999 what's what was to come uh that night it was so bad the Rams lost dick for poor dick for he lost 17- 14 and I remember looking out on the field and watching some of the action obviously but it's a specific series okay of offensive series and I turned to Jim Thomas and I said um my gosh can it can it get any worse than this you have Tony Banks the quarterback and he's handing off to June Henley if you remember him and he's throwing passes to JT Thomas that was like their top wide receiver so you had Banks handing off to June Henley and throwing it downfield or trying to to JT Thomas that was their offense my friends to think about this now a year later you had Curt Warner at quarterback throwing to Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt and Marshall faul and azak Keim and Ricky PRL and Roland Williams and Tony horn and I mean on and on and on and on um and of course you had Marshall faul you know carrying the ball on the ground he's handing it off flipping it to Marshall faul all the time one of the one of the great great running backs in the history of the league and it just shows you it's just remarkable to think back on that it's like how quickly things can change I mean this is just looking looking back on it yeah I don't need to pinch myself because I was there and it really happened but it's still one of the damnedest things I've ever seen in sports let alone St Louis Sports because like look the blues took forever to win a sty cup all right but and that was an extraordinary thing that was one of the the sweetest things that ever happened in St Louis and blues fans deserved every moment of joy and so many people waited uh you know just about 50 years for that but the blues always also had some really great teams and I know there were some bad years don't get me wrong but the 2019 team it wasn't like a situation where they were coming off of uh a season as bad as what the 98 Rams had so in other words the blues were always building towards something the 19 the 2019 Stanley Cup was a bit was certainly a surprise but it was not like a shocker other than the fact it was stunning that they finally won a Stanley Cup and it was one of the wonderful things most wonderful things I've ever seen in our terrific town so but to think about you go from Tony Bank June Henley and JT Thomas and no offense to those gentlemen they were trying to do what they could you go from that to what was at that time uh the greatest single season offense in the history of the league in 1999 um you go you go a year later from that awful night in Philly and in 1999 you had a couple of MVPs you know Warner would win two Marshall faul would win one you had let me count this now one to you you had um in 1999 there were four Hall of Fame players and one Hall of Fame coach CT Warner Marshall faul Isaac Bruce Orlando Pace and Dick f are in the Hall of Fame and Tory Holt will be in the Hall of Fame if the voters can get their heads screwed on right uh you also had he wasn't a member of the 19 1999 Rams but you also had anas Williams the outstanding cornerback and then safety for the Rams who who came along in 2001 to help them undergo basically a Revival defensively because the 2000 Rams had a horrible defense they made the playoffs anyway because their offense was so great so I I look at that 1999 but I also put it in kind of that three-year phase um from 1999 through 2001 the greatest show on Turf they were 37 and 11 in the regular season they won two NFC championships they won the Super Bowl should have won a second Super Bowl and they had all these Hall of Famers doing these these incredibly exciting things on the field and you know it it's to to be able to watch them to to go back into history and it's 25 years ago this is the 25th anniversary and I'm glad the Cardinals are doing what they're doing and I'm glad to have a chance to talk about the Rams and I think I'll be talking about the St Louis Rams with some random videos here and there because I have some incredible stories from that time but that group from 99 through 2001 um that offense scored more than 500 points every season now we have seen that happen since then there have been teams that scored over 500 and it's like I'm not saying it's ho home but it's it's more common now it's not something just out of like the the sky it's like how well I never thought I'd see a team score 500 points the Rams did it when it wasn't common the Rams did it three years in a row in fact over the three years in the regular season they averaged nearly 33 points per game I mean you can make the case and there would be other teams in the conversation and it is not this is not my my purpose to get into a debate and like list you know the greatest offenses in the history of the league but if you're going to have a conversation about the greatest offense over a three-year period especially and one of the years Trent green was played a lot of games at quarterback in 2000 because CT Warner had you know the broken pinky and he had all kinds of hand hand injuries or whatever their offense in 2000 actually scored more than they did in 99 and Trent green played a lot of ball that year um but to be able to the just the privilege of being able to watch that and write about it and write about it all the time and just see these things that uh just utterly Unforgettable magical stuff that you never thought you would see a St Louis ANL team do and I know that Don Corel big red the St Louis football Cardinals had their moments they had an incredible offense in their own right in their own time but that team unfortunately you know went to the playoffs three times and lost all three games and uh don Corel was a genius and Jim Hart was a hell of a player and Terry metf was a hell of a player and Dan D Dan deor was a hell of a player Mel gry I mean on Jackie Smith on and on and on and on and on and on right uh they just couldn't get to the promised land the the 99 Rams did and the 2001 Rams almost did and they're they're rolling up 500 points a season with all of these Hall of Famers on the field and still one more to come in Tory hope and I know I'm being redundant here but you man when you relive memories you know you just the same scenes keep playing out in my mind and I don't think I've ever seen a turnaround and I could be wrong I certainly have never seen a St Louis sports team turn around to the bleakness and the Despair and the defeat and the tedium of the 1998 Ram to what sprouted out of that in two excuse me in 1999 I mean forget about it I mean it was just crazy that this sort of like happened well how did it happen um John Shaw and the Rams Jay Zigman and the Rams they were running running the franchise for Georgia Frontier and I'm gonna I'm gonna have a Georgia Frontier video coming up uh you know at some point during this window the 25th year anniversary because uh some good stories about her too but anyway uh they convinced dick F to get a new offense coordinator and he was thinking about promoting one of his own guys Mike White and John Shaw and Jay Zim gently gently said Hey listen we think this guy we think this guy that used to work for us he's the Redskins offensive coordin they were called the Redskins and Mike Mar should you should at least talk to him you should at least talk to him dick you know you would feel better about doing what you're going to do if you knew you interviewed a couple people that we think are really good so they didn't say you have to you have to hire him so dick ver and Mike Marts got together and they hit it off and Dick ver was sold and he hired Mike Marts as the offensive coordinator now say what you want about Mike Marts and I know that you know the fact they lost that Super Bowl to New England Super Bowl 36 I I know that that left a bitter taste and some some mouths in our town I get it but Mike Mart's overall recor was outstanding but his when he was the head coach but his his work with this offense you can't there's nothing you can disparage about it even if you're looking to criticize something there absolutely nothing to disparage they had the Hall of Fame quarterback they had the Hall of Fame running back they had the hall of fame wide receiver they had a Hall of Fame left tackle on Orlando Pace made that made it possible for the greatest show on Turf uh to roll up all these points why because he was so good at left tackle that he he could X out that whole area of the field they never had to put a tight end to like Extra Protection on the left side and remember that's CT Warner's blind side right he could take care of that business all by himself they they never had to say well boy we can't protect the Blind Side here we get we we're gonna have to do something let's move a tight end over there let's put an extra tackle over no he he was able to blot out that that uh that pass rush on the right side his left side to give Kurt Warner with all these empty back fields and these high-risk passes uh to give him the chance to make those plays downfield make those throws because he had time because of Orlando Pace he had a time to make throws and the rest as we say is is history and so uh I I just um I'll just never get over that I mean uh there were times during the season we were at these games and they're doing all these incredible things and you know Jim Thomas and I one of my best friends we would just sit there and say can you believe this I mean can you believe this anyway let me get back to the story so they the first step was they convince dick for meal or they nudge dick for meal and he's the one who hired Mike Mars it worked out great to say the least the other thing is the Rams made the trade after 1998 1998 for Marshall faul uh I don't have to say more do I right M Marshall faul opened up that entire offense they drafted Tory Holt in the first round of the 99 draft he was terrific as a rookie um they had um I'm trying to think azak Keim was a second-year player I think that you some of the so some of the guys they had were were getting becoming more experienced and and things of that nature um the other thing they did and oh let me because again I I don't go by a script so I'm just remembering things Isaac Bruce was injured in 98 a lot he hardly ever played he had a bad hamstring and it was he ripped it it was a legitimate injury he took some heat locally I'll never understand dick F was kind of crabby about it I think uh because you know Isaac couldn't get back on the field in 98 well they had a full blast 100% healthy maximum athleticism performance Isaac Bruce on the field at 99 which did not have in '98 and the other thing of course is the story of Kurt Warner one of the greatest sports stories ever told and you know the Rams took a chance on him they signed the former arena league quarterback uh they put him in NFL Europe he played for Amsterdam and they signed him to a contract Charlie Army the general manager of the team led the way on that and it was CT Warner he had an interesting background we would watch him on the practice field but he wasn't getting many reps he was like the scout team quarterback in uh in 98 and 99 and we were like you know he looks boy he throws a nice Ball but that's all you could say look for anybody to sit here and like act like well we knew he'd be great no um so what happens in 1999 in the preseason and the Rams were looking really good they had Trent green a quarterback they signed him before the 1990 season they also brought in Adam Timberman as a free agent who really really really settled down the interior of that offensive line and they they had they were humming along and Trent green changed the culture of that team he really truly did his teammates especially on the offensive side you know throughout the offseason workouts throughout the you know the mini camps throughout preseason the the training camps he led by example and he was always talking to guys and he was setting a high standard and they saw how he went at it and how professional that he was and they were like wow you know we get it now we we have a leader we get it and Trent green would have done extraordinary things as the quarterback of the 1990 Rams too but the Warner story is amazing because Trent green gets his knee blown out in the third preseason game it was at the Dome Rodney Harrison of course with a cheap shot tackle went low on him in a in a preseason game are you kidding me and Trent green uh blows out his knees his knee sorry so I'll never forget that night it was a Saturday night and I'll never forget being on the phone pretty late pretty pretty late with John Shaw and Jay zet and I said all right what's uh what's the deal and they were just devastated they thought their season was over they just it's just like we can't break the bad luck that how why does this happened to us and they rebounded they rebounded they emotionally rebounded but they were so distraught the night that that happened and they spent all night together like talking about it they couldn't get to sleep they were so upset and then in the middle of all that dick verile was making a pitch he said ' listen I know Jeff Hostetler just retired but I know him I know his agent we ought to try to talk him into coming in here and sha and Zigman gave it some thought and it's not like they told you know dick oh forget that right but enter another figure okay enter another important figure in all this so when dick for and I don't blame him for wanting to bring in Jeff Hostetler right but when so when Dick F was kind of pushing for host dentler here comes another voice and this voice says listen you you can say I'm wrong you can think I'm being stupid whatever I'm telling you there's something about this Kurt Warner I'm hard on this guy and practice every day I know if I've ever been harder on a player and this guy is great Under Pressure he can handle adversity you can push him and push him and push him and and it actually makes him better nothing gets his confidence deflated he has he throws a great ball he's got a quick release he uh his accuracy is ridiculous and no he hasn't done it at the NFL level but I think we got something here we ought to give this kid a chance you probably figured out who that was that was Mike Marts right and he went to the mat for Kurt Warner and Dick verile trusted uh Mike Marts so much he trusted his judgment so much that he said you know I think Mike's right I think we ought to at least give we ought to give this guy a chance because he's done nothing but impress us even in practice only but he's done nothing but impress us so I'll never forget that night that was the Sunday there was the the day after Trent green uh went down and and just we thought everybody thought blew up the ram season they had something really special starting to build now they don't know who's going to play quarterback or if the quarterback could do it I'll never forget so the night after that was the the Sunday afternoon was the tearful uh the tearful press conference where you know God bless dick for meal by the way where he um I'm gonna misquote it but he was crying and he said like you know talking about Kurt Warner he said we're gonna rally around CT Warner you know and and we're gonna win or we'll be fine again I wish I would have memorized that and looked it up before I did the video but I'm kind of doing this random but anyway so I remember that night Jim Thomas and I were the last media people people at Rams Park and because we were both waiting for Kurt Warner and Kurt Warner finally came out and we got him outside the locker room it it was dark except for the light on in the hall and no one else was around not even a coach well they might have been upstairs and Jim Thomas and I talked to uh Curt Warner for about 15 minutes and listen it was only an interview okay but he was calm he was poised he was confident he said all the right things he pointed out that he had won championships in previous careers and I remember thinking and Jim felt the same way said you know this guy this guy is remarkably self assured about the situation is it you don't detect any nervousness not whatsoever no anxiety whatsoever so this the night before the season opener um the Ravens were in town and I was at canet pasta house with a few of my friends from Baltimore and one one of my friends who had a great name he still does veto stalino he said ah it's a shame it's a shame you know Marshall fa really good you well boy the Rams had a chance and boy they don't have a quarterback now that's a shame blah blah blah and I said listen VTO Godfather I'm not making any predictions so let's you know let let's understand what I'm saying here but this guy might be pretty good he might be pretty good I wouldn't be surprised if he was pretty good in fact I wrote a column a few days well about the night that uh the day after they lost Trent green I wrote a column and even I said something like I wrote a column that said like you know let's rally Around The Barnstormer because that was the nickname of the arena league football team he played on let's rally around the bar Barnstorm or give this guy a chance and I wrote a colum I was basically saying you know I'm intrigued by this guy um give I I want to see what he can do because I think he's very confident very self assured he's ready for this and let's not prematurely write him off so no I made no predictions other than having a feeling that you know with this offense with this coach all those weapons he might be just okay he might be fine he might play pretty well well did I predict did I think he was going to be uh win the 199 9 Super Bowl MVP did I think he would be the 1999 regular season MVP and that he would throw for like a zillion yards no I didn't think any of that would happen but it just shows you that some people in this world or some athletes in this world until they get a chance you just never really really really know and I always think about well how many guys were there like Kurt Warner who maybe if they just got not only a chance but in the right situation because the ram situation was perfect for him him and Marts had a great Bond they were on the same page the kind of offense Marts wanted to run with a lot of high pressure throws where the quarterback's got to be calm poised he's got to be willing to take a hit he's going a lot of empty back back fields limited pass protection knowing where the ball should go get it out be accurate hit these guys in stride you know Warner had those skills we didn't know to what extent but he had those skills and I just remember that entire season game after game after game after game after game Fox doing something crazy uh Warner's making crazy throws Bruce is running loose and wild and remember that big game they had to win where they beat the 49ers at the Dome Bruce had three touchdown passes by halftime and it was a blowout and I never forget the late great Bill Walsh came into the postgame uh news conference where dick FM was talking to us and he ducked his head and he said you're going all the way baby your team's going all the way and vermeil's laughing and you know and this wasn't all that this was not late in the season but Bill Walsh and dick for were friends Walsh by that point was a 49ers executive he he did he poked his head in the room he interrupted Dick's dick rem's news conference said you're going all the way baby I'm telling you you're going all the way and we're sitting there and we're like he's being nice to DV but then again this is pretty remarkable what's happening so we know what happened after that right and uh I'll never forget that Super Bowl first of all I'll never forget the way they had to sweat that that first home playoff game in the history of St Louis NFL football we on the first play Warner to Bruce you know whatever it was 80 yards and the route was on they just destroyed the Vikings and then everyone around the league all the pundants were s were thinking well they're pretty they're flashy they're fun they're entertaining but are they Tough Enough can they get can they if you hit them in the mouth will they fold well the Rams answered that question in the NFC championship game against Tampa Bay Tampa Bay gave them fits because they had great athletes on defense and they were fast it was a very fast defense plus they had the interior pass rush in Warren Sap and they gosh they hit hard I mean it was a hell of a defense you remember that game Tampa Bay spent most of it beating the snot out of the Rams and the greatest show on Turf and the Rams couldn't Crack the Code but the Rams kept fighting they turned into street fighting men that day and as you know in a very low-scoring game it looked like they were gonna go down and then Warner throws that perfect pass to Ricky PRL in the end zone to send him to the Super Bowl amazing just amazing they proved a lot that day they were more than just Glitz and glamour you wanted to get into a fight you want to brawl we can brawl with you and they did and Tampa Bay learned that lesson the Super Bowl itself was almost like a blur uh I still couldn't believe I'm sitting I covered a lot of Super Bowls over 30 of them but I but I I I couldn't believe that I'm actually covering a St Louis NFL team in the Super Bowl and I thought the Rams had a good chance to win I wasn't like overly confident I'm just talking about from a handicapping standpoint because they had played Tamp uh Tennessee really tough during a regular season they were down and almost came back and won the game they weren't afraid of the Titans uh the one thing I remember about that game of course is the last play when Steve McNair you know throw the the Rams defense was gassed and and and it really looked like Tennessee was going to tie the thing up and um it it was pretty amazing uh that final play because the Rams were on the ropes they really were because McNair and Eddie George had just tuckered them out just pounded them into fatigue and so that last throw decide the game so McNair throws to Kevin Dyson and Kevin Dyson gets you know almost immediately pounced on by Mike Jones but Dyson's trying to reach over and when you look at it now you you you'll see well he wasn't really that close I mean he was close but it wasn't like he was right at the goal line but from where we're sitting we saw him reaching out with the ball we I remember Jim Thomas S another everyone else was like did he get in did he get in did he get in and then you saw the referee that's it and the world's the the Rams are the world champions amazing and I'll never forget that Super Bowl Parade I wrote in I was I was assigned to do a column on Georgia Frontier who brought the team to St Louis and remember sitting in the the convertible that she was in and just kind of watching the way she was just treated and her emotional response to the whole day and the way the crowd was treating her great and I remember it was just really a memorable scene again surreal wait a minute I'm in St Louis in downtown St Louis and a team representing our city just won the Super Bowl what what really yeah it happened and there were some other good years to come you know if you look at St Louis I probably want to close on this this is why we should always appreciate the greatest show on Turf and we shouldn't let the fact that some bad people conspired to move the team out of St Louis right we shouldn't let that uh restrained our affection and our gratitude to the men the players and the woman Georgia Frontier who made that incredible magical season and that incredible three years of all these points 33 a game those people did not move the Rams out of St Louis those people did not have corrupt relocation rules so we should always treasure the memories of that team because it really was pardon the cliche but it it really was a once in a-lifetime adventure experience fairy tale totally unforeseen and this matters because between this the football Cardinals and the Rams we had an NFL team in St Louis for 49 Seasons only eight of the 49 teams made it to the postseason I'm not counting one of those stupid playoff goowls because that was not an elimination they had this thing in the 60s like the second best team that you know in each conference in the N NFL they would meet and play this thing called the playoff goal except there wasn't a playoff goal it meant nothing it was an exhibition but only eight of those 49 teams made the playoffs when we're talking about elimination playoff games eight out of 49 and then the other thing only 16 teams only 16 teams out of the 49 uh had a record above 500 so as I mentioned you know Eric Corel Jim Hart I mean the those teams were exciting and they were fun and they they were you know Innovative and brought things to the NFL from an offensive creativity standpoint because of Don Corel it it it was magical times I was not here but I know all about that history because I got immersed in it once I moved to St Louis and my friend Randy Carrick will talk about that with you for hours and then the Rams came and there was a five-year period you know they made uh they made the playoffs in 1999 through 2004 uh they made the playoffs in all but one of those Seasons I think and they won six postseason games and they lost four but those were the only six postseason season games that one of our NFL teams won and that's my point if you remember I know a lot of you were around or a lot of you were young but you remember or maybe you remember you know your your grandparents your uncles your aunts your grandmother I mean people that may be I hope not but may not be with us these days and you just you remember the the excitement at that time the Thrills they provided and it was really um I I speak on behalf of many of you um it was one of the greatest Thrills of our Sports Lifetime and I'm saying that as the proverbial grizzled sports writer sports caster person who's grouchy right that'll always be that team will always be in my heart so the Cardinals I give them credit Saturday September 21st they're going to honor the greatest show on Turf Rams they're GNA have autograph sessions with I with Tory Hol uh Marshall faul Isaac Bruce Mike Marts Mike Jones Ricky Pro a bunch of 1999 Rams players will be there including Ernie Conwell Andy McCullum Tom Newton Billy Jenkins Adam Timberman Ryan Tucker Roland Williams Tony horn that's the other thing they had a great kickoff for Turner Tony horn in 1999 and there's other names too so just go to cardinals.com you can find out more about it but that's a 615 game against the Guardians that night and with that note I will have more greatest show and turf story to tell during this season the 25th anniversary season I feel old I can't believe it's been 25 years but gosh the memories are fantastic that'll do it for now thanks for hanging in with me at 35 minutes of H story time but an extraordinary season like that deserves some really good conversation reviewing exactly how all this happened uh what a blissful memory it is that'll do it have a great night