Special Teams: The Greatest Show On Turf Closes

teams there playing it. And today we look back at the game that really closed the Greatest Show on Turf, one of the big playoff games of the past twenty years, January two thousand and four, when the Carolina Panthers beat the St. Louis Rams in double overtime, the big Steve Smith touchdown catch in ot doing it or in double overtime doing it, and that really was the official end of the Greatest Show on Turf, even though Kurt Warner was not the quarterback and Dick from me it was

not the head coach. So much craziness at that time, right the era flopping over Mike Martz, a guy with the genius tag until he really kind of became the head coach. Uh, and then that kind of waned pretty fast. A lot of fights. Uh, and then years upon years of futility. Uh for this Rams franchise. It's almost the went down to the crossroads, made the deal with the devil, and now the devil, you know, like paid up in that double overtime loss. So what happens when you get

front loaded deals? Man, it just don't work, you know those front loaded Hey, it's great, but I want to get out of this front loaded deal. No, no, no no, he's still gonna pay Johnny Damon even when he's not playing for you anymore. That So, how did each team get to this legendary playoff game? Carolina was extremely solid

in two thousand and three. It was a career year for Jake Delone at quarterback, Stephen Davis and Deshaun Foster, where that sledge hammering running game Moose and Mohammed was effective. He had Chris Jenkins and Mike Rucker and Julius Peppers on a dominant defensive line. Like they went from seven and nine and two thousand two to eleven and five and two thousand and three. Nobody thought they'd be this good.

Nobody thought Jake Delone was this good. But this is one of those years where that offense everything came together at once. And remember just how effective Davis and Deshaun Foster were, And I thought, these guys are gonna run rush out over the NFL for years. Well, and that's just it. Stephen Davis was a guy had a very brief, tremendous run in the National Football League. I mean four hundred plus yards rushing in in this particular season, and he was a horse man. But it was the question

of how long couldn't that roll? Much like we asked that question of any running back who touches the ball three hundred times in a years Like, yeah, it was on. They won't last with Jake delm I mean, he goes back to the year he had nineteen touchdowns, sixteen interceptions, and he completed fifty percent of his best yet yet through yards and they go ten and five with him. Our buddy Rod DP works over at AM five seventy l a sports uh Is was the quarterback for one

other start. So there you go. And this team went on a roll, all right. And and look, Stephen Davis. You probably remember him as uh the running back who got in a fist fight with Michael Westbrook on the Redskins sideline Davis went down. It was really really crazy. I mean, you look at so many different polls of hey, best training camp fights in the NFL history, that always comes out his number one. But you go and and just look at what he was though, Like he was

a beast. So yeah, I wouldn't want to mess with him. He had four seasons, four out of five years, he rushed for over thirteen hundred yards. Yeah, but it was still Westbrook was on top of him pummeling him. Yeah. No, I know he was losing the fight and why he had better range? Yeah, true, he was. This was a little more he yet Yeah, so so Westbrook we had a little bit out reach. So he was able to get that shot and that was it. Last training camp fights.

We don't get that much anymore. No, we should do that special teams training camp fights. I think there's plenty of them. I've got plenty of media member friends. As you do that. If we asked the right questions, we'll find about forty of them. We can do that series for a whole year. Carolina goes eleven and five and in the NFC Wild Card Game they thumped the Cowboys to ten. This is when Dallas had turned around under Bill Parcels, and it ended really fast for them here

in the wild card game. Quincy Carter, yes, he played quarterback in a playoff game for the Dallas Cowboys. He did. He was terribly through for a hundred and fifty four yards, got picked off sack three times. Dallas wasn't great, but Parcels was great and Carolina won this game, proving how good they are, setting them up for the showdown with

the St. Louis Rams. But just showing you know, the blips on the Dallas Cowboys radar, you know, you and I as we do on our show at Fox Sports Radio, having some fun of what might have been, uh in later years had Lebron James become a member of the Cowboys. Well, a lot of folks won't remember that. Joey Galloway was uh, just like you said, with Quincy Carter quarterbacking a playoff game, Yeah,

you would not expect. I mean, Michael Bates, I mean, there's not exactly a who's who along here, and Terry Glenn was part of this squad, most notably a member of your New England Patriots. So yeah, some guys in different runs, but went quietly into the good night here. So in front of seventy three thousand, a big effort by the Panthers in a route for the Rams. Well, this is where the story starts getting really good. This was the first year that Mark Bulger was their starting quarterback.

This is a guy who was a sixth round pick from Westford in two thousand. Right, uh, Kurt Warner is still in the midst of his run, first run, greatest show on turf. Everything is awesome. He's still setting passing records and he's still the biggest success story of the NFL had seen in years. Well, in the middle of the two thousand and two Warner breaks his finger. St. Louis is off to a really bad start and we're thinking, ah,

is Kurt Warner is still really this good. Jamie Martin comes in in relief of Kurt Warner, but he gets hurt. So then they turned to Bulger and they go, okay, Bulge save us. Yeah, great, like that's gonna happen. He comes in and wins six out of seven starts and St. Louis had started oh and five and suddenly WHOA. Mark Bulger is pretty good. Going into two thousand and three, Kurt Warner wins the quote quarterback Derby and he starts the season off, but in the opening game against the Giants,

he fumbles six times. He still couldn't grip the football, was still having trouble with his finger, and this opened the door for the team to say, Okay, you know what, we're going to Mark Bulger. And even though it happened and I get it, and I get that he still had trouble, this was the end of Kurt Warner as a starting quarterback with the Rams. And it was insane to think about a guy that went to the Hall of Fame, that went to another Super Bowl years later

in his career, went all kinds of crazy ways. After the Rams, you thought it was done. He goes to the Cardinals and suddenly that works out for him, But to see him lose his job after what he accomplished, I was still stunned at it. I said, I can't believe they're gonna go with Mark Bulger. And then Bulger goes in St. Louis, goes twelve and four in two thousand and three, and it's well, maybe it's not Warner. Maybe it is Mike Martz's system that is doing things.

Because Mike Marts at this point was the head coach of the St. Louis Rams. Came in as Dick for Meals offensive coordinator and look for Meal wins the Super Bowl. He retires, Mike Martz takes over, and he's Professor Mike Martz. He's the most intelligent guy who ever stepped on a football sideline, just ask him. And now he's the head coach.

And maybe it was his system, because here's a guy that was a sixth round pick out of West Virginia and now he's got the team twelve and four, just like where Kurt Warner had it, and they were streaky. Team ran twelve and four overall, just a couple of blips earlier, one and two out of the gate, and then out of the bye week, they're just out on fire. Where they win was that ten of eleven games before

dropping the season finale. Just a tremendous run and a guy stepping into his own But you know, always remember that he got a lot of help along the way, beyond the super brain of Mike Martz. Well, and that's what people forget about the Rams. As you know, Kurt Warner's story got the headlines. Obviously, a guy that played in and we laugh the world of American football and was bagging groceries. And here he comes and wins the Super Bowl after Trent Green gets hurt. But you look

at the weapons that the Rams had. This was still Marshall Fall, Call of Famer, Isaac Bruce, Hall of Famer, Tory Holt. Eventually he will be a Hall of Famer. Didn't make it in his first year um of eligibility. I mean, would you when your weapons are that good, if you could throw the football, you're gonna do pretty well, you know. So you know Marx, you know, it's Mark's system,

It's Kurt Warner boy, Mark Bulger. But you had guys that can really go get it and and and not that anybody would be good, but clearly you have a guy who was at the bottom of the barrel of the depth chart and Kurt Warner, and this guy becomes an All Pro and then he goes on to to validate and have a great career. And then you have Mark Boulger, who was just a guy hoping to stay in the league and suddenly here he is, and he winds up getting a big contract because he's throwing tons

of touchdowns. I mean, when you when you have those great players around you, but they really don't get the credit they deserve. Yes, Marshall Falk gets some of it. But you know, Isaac Bruce and Tory Hilton, they were fantastic. That's what made this team so great in that run they had. Yeah, Isaac Bruce is number five all time in receiving yards hold sitting at sixteen this particular year. Almost seventeen hundred receiving yards for Tory Holt and twelve touchdowns.

You know, when you talk about Marshall Falk, he's also a guy that was over eleven hundred totally yards with eleven total touchdowns in this season. So even though that was kind of getting towards its end run at least as constituted there, I mean, they were still putting up major points. Marshall folks. Seventh most touchdowns all time combine rushing and receiving, So a lot of heavyweights. And not to mention, you have that big old nasty Orlando pace

helping to anchor your old line. I mean, that's that's that's a nice way to go and set yourself up for some success. So the rams and the bulge welcoming in Jake alone for a game. I like that. I'm gonna get him the side of mini helmet. He's the bulge. Uh. And coming up next, the game itself and the way it ends. I can't believe Mike Martz wasn't fired directly after this game ended. We'll tell you why. Coming up next,

it's Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. It is Special Teams and the greatest show on turf closing thanks to the result of this game that we're gonna break down right now, a double overtime win by the Panthers in St. Louis three in January of two thousand and four. And at the end, you're gonna go yeah. I can't believe the head coach of the Rams wasn't fired. Um. This was a back and forth game, all right. This became a very famous game because of the way it ended, obviously,

which we'll get to. But this game all along had huge swings of momentum. I mean, muse and Muhammad recovered a fumble for a touchdown in the second quarter. Jeff Wilkins kicked five field goals in this game for the Rams, but overall Carolina played better throughout you could tell I remember watching this game, boy, Caroline is just better in St. Louis is kind of lucky to hold on. They were lucky to be in it late, however, a few places were as loud as the Edward Jones Dome, and it's

hey day and the Rams find their groove late. They're down twenty twelve and the fourth quarter and you're thinking, Okay, this might be it. Carolina looks like it's their time. But the Rams score eleven points in the final two and a half minutes. They score a touchdown, two point conversion, Jeff Wilkins recovers his own on side kick. The Rams are driving. They have the ball with one fifty five left to go in a first down at the Carolina

twenty five yard line. So, after this game in which the Panthers have outplayed them, suddenly St. Louis gets the momentum, They get the touchdown, they get the two point conversion, the on side kick. Everything is going well for them. The Panthers are on their heels. They're saying, what is happening to us? We were just dominating this game, and now you've got two minutes to go and the Rams have the ball on Carolina's twenty five yard line. Just

remember this is where we're at right now. They're down by three. A touchdown would win this game. Two minutes ago they got the ball on Carolina's twenty five yard line.

This should wind up being a touchdown, or at least you'd think the Rams would go for a touchdown in this point, which is gonna bring us to Mike Marks, Well, you would think, but that's where it's the old let's outthink the room, let's go again against logic, And really that became the hallmark of Marts after his run as a head coach, that he carried that back with him to coordinator when he should have just been worried about calling place. Uh. Like I said, he's the smartest football

coach ever. Just ask him. It's true. He's got a podcast now where you can you can probably ask him. Uh in in the liner notes as you go through as well, but you go through the tail of the tape and just the amount of yardage and just overall dominance here made over two hundred rushing yards for Carolina. I mean, how many times do you you just lean on the ball. That's hte for two sixteen in the game. Two ninety passing yards almost five hundred yards of total offense.

They should have been buried. But big play. It's big play opportunities, uh, and a solid, strong and true leg over the course of the game keep you in it and give you the opportunity here to well try to make something happen. Although as we know, uh it's Mike Marts. Uh. This is where things get crazy, all right. So they have the ball one fifty five left there at Carolina's twenty five yard line. Field goal sends them to overtime. But you're thinking, okay, they're gonna win this game. Now.

They let the clock Ticke and I get that because you don't want to leave too much time on the clock for Carolina to go back down field. After Marshall Falk runs for a first down to Carolina's fifteen yard line, there's thirty seconds left, right, plenty of time right here. You're at the fifteen yard line. You have thirty seconds left and you have a time out. Right. Carolina is on their heels, as I said, they don't know what's happening right now, and e J. Dome is going absolutely bananas.

So thirty seconds left in the time out, you think we got plenty of time to get in the end zone. Here, we're gonna be in the end zone in one play. Instead, Mike Marts lets the clock tick all the way down to three seconds so they can kick a field goal to force overtime. The crowd turns from insanity to what the hell is going on in a second? Why is Mike Martz deciding we're gonna go for a field goal at this point when you can score a touchdown and

win the game. I I don't understand. I don't understand how after this game was over, Mike Martz wasn't fired before we got to the press conference. After Mike, I'm sorry, but that was just stupid on so many levels. What the hell are you doing? How do you stop trying to win a game? I mean, he says after the game, I thought we were gonna go to overtime in our home crowd was gonna take us through and we were gonna win. Um, you had a chance to win. You had the ball in the fifteen yard line, you were

moving the ball. Well, it's not like you were throwing a bunch of picks and you had a tough time and you didn't want to make a mistake. No, you were playing downhill at this point. You were getting to a point where it was inevitable, you were getting too the end zone. And you do the Panthers a complete favor by letting the take down to three seconds left to kick a field goal. Now Wilkins comes in and makes the field goal to force over time. But why

you're doing it? I don't get it. Plus, you let the clock tick down to three seconds left, so if you have a bad snap, you can't fall on it and call time out and then kick it again. Right, So exactly, so you blow that twice and I really Mike Marts, you know you said it about out thinking each other, but this is this is just a brain cramp. I don't understand where this is out thinking a field goal here? What are you crazy? Yeah, the logic fails.

You've got two of the best receivers of all time and a running back who's also a good receiver out of the backfield. Right, you actually threw to him as part of this possession to get yourself in position as you are, So how do you not take a shot to try to make a play to try to get to the end zone? You know, not that you need

any more room for the field goal. It's a thirty three yard or it's a chip shot, but plenty of time and you had you had one time out remaining, al right, throw a sideline route, or even if you throw it down the middle, if he's tackled short of the goal line, you've still got time to either run up and spike it if you get another first store, or to call the time out. So it makes no sense. Yes, we thought our crowd would be behind us. That doesn't

like overtime. They're gonna run on the field and they get to play. Oh yes, sorry, we can crowd on the field. Okay, you don't get a twelve demand and you know, the rules of the game being what they are. All it takes is losing the coin toss and a big long toss, and all of a sudden, you're talking

about an l off one missed playing. Uh with your genius of Hey, the crowd was going to have us it really really, We've you know, the Jets, we've had some bad head coaches, but my goodness, no one's ever said anything like, Hey, no man, I'm I'm a Chicago guy. I've seen I think probably all every permutation of bad clock management and down in distance that you can possibly measure. Uh,

this one would rate right right alongside them. And you know, the funny thing about it is that getting the two point conversion turned out to be the worst thing for the Ramps because they get the two point conversion to cut the lead to three, So they need a field goal. If they don't get the two point conversion, they need a touchdown. What likely happens, they get in the end

zone and they win the football game. I mean, it's crazy, but if you would failed and not gotten the two point conversion, you could have overcome the fact that your coach just had a complete brain cramp. But you got the two point conversion, that was the worst thing for you. So this game goes to overtime, and this is where if you thought that was crazy, this is where things get amped up another level. Both teams miss field goals

in overtime. John Casey Panther's kicker mrs from forty five yards out and Jeff Wilkins who you know, Hey, he made five in this game. I had him in fantasy this year. I remember he was so good for me. I won a championship. I was like Jeff, I think he kicked three old goals in the final week for me, and I was like Jim Wilkin, um he missed. He misses from fifty three yards all right. Now, late in the first overtime, the Rams are driving, and here comes

a huge play. They had a first down to Carolina's thirty eight yard line. So already with Wilkins missing one from fifty three, you get a little bit closer. He's not gonna miss again. The guy was that good this year. They had first down to Carolina's thirty eight yard line and Mark Bulger makes a play that I've seen it now again, going back at it a few times, going I don't understand what he was doing, and it clearly showed that he and Tory Holt were not on the

same page. When it came to freelancing. Bulger drops back in the pocket, he hesitates, and he buys some time. He's gonna throw out to Tory Holt, who is wide open. Tory hold is wide open. It up a little bit inside the thirty yard line, He's gonna catch a pass and and it's gonna be now a forty seven yard field goal if they don't gain another yard right. This is gonna be very easy because Holt is wide open. There's nobody on him. Instead of throwing it to him,

because Tory Holt is expecting throw me the football. I'm wide open. He points Holt to go outside, and I didn't you. I watched Tory Hult going I don't know what he means. He wants me to run outside. And what I get what Bulger was trying to go for is that he's thinking, if you run outside, I can hit you with this pass. And it's not just gonna

be the thirty yard line. You're ready get another eight to twelve yards and suddenly now we're an easy field goal range because that part of the field was open. But it was clear that Tory Hult didn't know what he wanted to do, so Bulger hesitates. And what this does is this gives Ricky Manning Jr. The chance to

come in and make a play. So when Tory Holt doesn't run outside, Bulger kind of throws it a little bit outside of where Tory Holt is standing right there, and instead Manning comes in and closes the gap because of the hesitation, and he reaches up, snatches it and pulls it in for an interception that was a tremendously awful decision by Mark Boulger. You know that's where you know, hate the eight to nine yards, right, you've just got

in the first down, Take the eight to nine yards. Instead, you got greedy, and clearly you and Tory Holt weren't at that point where I get what my quarterback wants me to do. I'm gonna go outside and this is gonna be a twenty five yard play instead of an

eight to twelve yard play, said guy feeling himself. Now we're winding down towards the end of overtime, right, you had a couple of long drives that went for not in those miss field goals that you mentioned earlier, So maybe feeling himself right, the Manumala Yuna completion for nineteen yards and then fall catches one out of the backfield for twenty five yards. So chunk plays. We got them

on their heels. They're not gonna be able to recover and instead again out thinking it on the field this time, uh and coming up with a disastrous play that you know, snuff south that chance that said the one twelve mark, So this is your last possession, I mean that's it of this overtime period, and and failed in a big way because look, even if you were tackled right at that spot, I mean, it's a makeable field goal because we've seen him hit from that distance earlier. So Bulger

had a pretty good game. He threw for three thirty yards, but he did throw three picks, and this one clearly was the most damaging. I mean, and I mean this one. This was took the air out of the sales in the Edward Jones Dome. And now suddenly it's the Panthers football, and now you can you can tell, all right, maybe this is where the Panthers can finally put the Rams away, because the Rams have now had a couple of chances and they blew it. They settled for the field goal

at the end of regulation. All through a very tough overtime, both teams misfield goals for getting to the end of of of the first overtime. Hey, the Panthers get a pick. They have pretty good field position, so maybe now this is it. The last play of overtime. Jake diloone gets sacked and you can tell he is visibly frustrated. It's third and four teen, so Okay, well, Carolina had their chance, but they are gonna let St. Louis slip off. Look again,

they're gonna punt the football back to them. So it's now third and fourteen with the first play of double overtime. Now before we get to this play, uh, just for a second. Double overtime games don't happen that often in the NFL. Right, there have been six in NFL history. Don't ask me about the Jets and the Browns and six, the last one being when Joe Flacco and the Ravens

beat Peyton Manning and the Broncos. The big Joe Flacco through that that big touchdown pass It was like four thousand feet in the air at the end of regulation. Oh my goodness, what a big play. But double overtime games just don't happen. And this was clearly a rarity. Like every team's retired. They're trying to figure out punch counter punch to make the right play. So now this

game goes to double overtime. And just when you're sitting here looking at third and fourteen, alright, the Panthers are gonna wind up not getting a first down. They're gonna put it back to the Rams. The Rams are gonna have tough field position. I'm gonna go make a sandwich because that that's kind of where you're are. Okay, double overtimes coming, Yeah, there's gonna be a putty. I'm gonna

make a sandwich. Alright. Well, if you made that sandwich, you missed the biggest play of the game called X clown. Carolina is sitting in the third and fourteen, and I don't know if the Rams just relaxed, if they thought we're gonna get up. You know, we're gonna be able to make this play no matter where the ball is. You get that sometimes in the NFL where teams think, Okay, this is gonna be too tough for them to try to convert this play. Jake Dilom find Steve Smith wide

open four first down. Right now, what surprises me the most on this play is how open Steve Smith is between three defenders twenty yards down field. I mean this is not at the stick. This is not eight yards before the stick where we're gonna give him some room and tackle him. This is he is well past the

first down marker. He is between three defenders, and Jake Diloma is able to slip the ball into him, which blows me away because you could see how soft the Rams were playing, and you know, even though there's three defenders around him, there was clearly enough room for the

Loan to get the ball in. This is where the play turns from really bad for the Rams into tragic because Jason Sehorn, who had had a great career with the New York Giants, but clearly it was near his end here with the Rams, comes up to try to make the play and he slips and falls and Smith catches the past races by everybody into the end zone, sixty nine yard game winning touchdown on the first play of double ot And it was shocking. It was sudden, and it was one of those plays where you sit

back and go did that really just happen? Is there a penalty flaying that really just happened? The game just ended that way? Yeah, nobody around him. I mean, as you say that, it's like a boxing one, um, but nobody there to make a play, right And Smith, one of my favorite guys, Uh also a guy that likes sees a pugilist, Like we were talking about before with Uh. The out of the backfield and you got guys Steven Davison, he uh, they know how to it after it and

practices and training camp. But he finds the seam and he's gone to the races like there's no way the safety coming over the top can make a play. And you just see Smith's streak. After making one little cut back towards the center of the field, He's gone. There's no chasing him down sixty nine yards to pay dirt. I mean that that was the fact that he caught

a look. Steve Smith made a career of being able to even though he's a smaller guy, being able to body players off the ball, be able to make plays in the middle of the field. This play was just I caught it in a bunch of people and made a guy miss. I mean, that was it. This wasn't even one of those Oh what this was? I got this is what I do as a wide receiver, and and I make one play in Jason Shorn Suddenly it looked like in one play, the rams just went from

you know what we're done? Yeah. You know. It's like when you're playing pick up basketball and you play like three games in a row and you're like yeah, yeah, and then you start that fourth game and you run up and down the floor once and you go, yeah, no, I'm done that. I can't do it. That's kind of what the Rams defense looked like on this play. Yeah, just absolutely insane. One little stutter step to the outside and then a cut back towards the center of the

field catches it on a rope and he's gone. And so John Fox gets the huge win. Uh, stunned crowd and and a lot of standing around, I mean, and then you see Aeneas Williams as one of the first guys over to hug after it like that. You don't belong in that uniform. What are you doing that? You know? So you know again you and I have talked a lot about guys and uniforms that it just doesn't look right. Uh.

And that one you're you're always a cardinal. But it's just a game where you're thinking, all right, we're settling it for double ot. You probably still enjoyed your sandwich. I would bet when it was all said and done, time to make that sandwich of games over what racketback racket back. Well here they're gonna show five or six replays to show the heart break and the end of the St. Louis Rams. So the Panthers win, they move on the Rams. This really was the end of the

greatest Show on turf. Will tell you why coming up next and what happened as a result for both of these teams going in completely different directions and special teams with Jason Smith and Mike Army. What happened to both the Carolina Panthers and the St. Louis Rams following the Panthers double overtime wine, Well, Panthers went in one direction and the Rams went in the other. Carolina went on

to win the NFC Title Game over Philadelphia. This when they went into Philadelphia and it was coming off a fourth and twenty six a previous podcast here on special teams, whether you thought the Eagles were gonna win they were Destiny's team. Instead, Carolina bludgeon them with their running game, They made enough plays defensively, and they went on to lose that Super Bowl thriller to the New England Patriots. And still to this day, it's the Carolina Panthers finest

moment in their franchise history. This year getting to the Super Bowl. They come back to Earth and two thousand and four, Steve Smith gets hurt. They start one and seven, but this wasn't really the end. And you know, that's the last time we really remember thinking and talking about Jake diloone. But he actually had three really great seasons

in a row. From two thousand three to two thousand and five, they went twelve and four and won the NFC South and two thousand and eight, still with Jake Dilone. He had a much better career than he's remembered for. You know, but then right after that he got paid five years forty two million. Okay, Jake Dilome is still great, and then he fell off the face of the earth. But overall, you look back at Jake Delme's career and you just think of this one year and how good

he was. But he was really good for a while. This guy doesn't get the credit he was at the kind of quarterback he played in National Football League nine percent completion rate for his career, almost twenty one thousand passing yards, hundred twenty six touchdowns against a hundred one interceptions, but combined with some some great work on the defensive end and that running game fifty six and forty for

his career as a starter. Uh fifty three thirty seven uh seven years in Carolina and then a little bit with New Orleans, Cleveland and then the planet Houston. Uh is where things ended up in twenty eleven. But yeah, he he had a couple of great seasons attend in five year and eleven and five year at twelve and four year uh seven and six in thirteen starts in two thousand and six. Uh. Not a brilliant touchdown to interception rate, but winning football and a guy that was

always there to make a play. I know he showed up on fantasy rosters for a couple of years there, uh touchdowns seven and nine touch he threw twenty four the year after that. I mean he was he was still pretty good and with a couple of the receivers that that gave you some run. I mean you mentioned Smith and the injury. Uh he you know I actually

put him on the cover, so there's a harmon cover jinks. Well, they gave me the budget to go out and get one picture like that for the cover, and then a couple of guys that I was able to threat within the text. But I made Steve Smith the cover guy and the Garett Uh. Well that happens like sports illustrated harms.

You know, DeLoone was one of those guys, not quite a game manager, but clearly he's someone if he came around now, you would say, he's somebody that could really do damage as long as he has weapons around him. Almost like he was kind of like a poor man's Tony Romo. You know, it's kind of how I look back at at Dilone. Look what Romo was able to do. He had weapons around him. For a long time in Dallas, Dilome had good players around him. Look he had Steve Smith,

he had a good running game. Mussi Mohammed was good for a few years. He's that kind of guy where you would say, now, no, if you have good, good weapons around him, he could win you a lot of football games. That's who you'd be right now. Yeah, he would had a nice long career. I mean, and he did here obviously, you know, getting getting a full one eleven years in the league before he's out, uh and making himself some some pretty good coin along the way.

But like anything, the evolution of the position as to where the guys would would push forward. This is this is one where if you had that defensive minded coach like he did here with John Fox, he'd be able to do quite well. It's like, just just don't throw it away. Just don't just don't give it away. We will be in a position to win games for the Rams. It was a little bit different in the offseason. Kurt

Warner is released, right he signed with the Giants. He starts briefly for them before he loses the job to Eli Manning. Again. He had trouble holding onto the football and he fumbled a lot. I thought this was the end of Kurt Warner all right. Now he had that late career resurgence with Arizona that saved his Hall of

Fame career. You know, I can't say the Rams and the wrong thing by releasing him, because it looked to me that the like the NFL adjusted to him, and he got beat up and he couldn't readjust or was slow to readjust. He had the one speed he played at, and once the NFL adjusted, it took him a while to find Okay, what do I need to do to readjust?

Because that's what all star players do. If they come out and they play great right away, eventually the league will adjust to you and then how do you adjust and stay that great player. It just took him a long time. But Kurt Warner leaving the Rams, it was even though you could see it coming, it was, well, this is the end. This Rams team had been so entertaining that came out of nowhere, winning the Super Bowl, beating the Titans, being that offense that that really turned

the NFL on. It's here. I mean, you know, we had a good four or five year run of how exciting they were. But even though they made the playoffs one more year, this was really the end because now Warner is gone, and you know, we're moving on and how good is Mark Bolger we don't know. And you could tell they're starting to get ready to move on from Marshall Falk as well. So this game, this was their chance. This was they win. They go to the

NFC Championship Game and they're playing in Philadelphia. You saw bad Philadelphia played in the NFC Title Game. The Carolina was able to win. I mean, the Rams could have had it in the Super Bowl. I mean, this was a Super Bowl year for them. This was where they should have been a team today. We still have all the talent, we're rolling Bulger's playing well. Our weapons are

still good, our defense is still good enough. This is a super Bowl year for us, and instead it turned out to be a couple of steps short, and that really was the finish of this for them. Yeah. I mean the big thing with the Rams is, you know they achieved despite the fact two thousand three and two thousand four they turned the ball over a ton. That was one thing, you know, with the offense March was running.

It was the let's take our shots down field, and you have a guy in Vulgia said, Okay, I'm gonna put the shots up down field, which is what's gonna happen. You're gonna turn the ball over a bunch. Not quite Jamis Winston esque, um, but to that level where you're gonna have some bad things happen in between some of the big pushes. So you have back to back years of playoffs and they don't go again. Uti. I mean, you've got a long run of futility and changing faces

and eventually locations. But you got a three year period where you went three three wins, two wins, one win. Then you bring in Sam Bradford, he got wins, the rookie of the year you go seven and nine under Spagnolo because you want to say seven and nine, Oh yeah, Jeff Fisher was seven and nine. Well no, because then he goes seven and nine with Bradford eleven, they go to and fourteen, which then brings us to Jeff Fisher

his first year. He goes seven eight and one, then seven and nine, then six and ten with Aaron Donald as a Rookie of the Year, then seven and nine with Todd Gurley has a Rookie of the Year, you know, like what I'm doing with that? And then he come to the come to Los Angeles. Look, it was. It was a definitely a period of what is happening in the Rams are turning into one of the downtrodden franchises? Are they ever gonna win again? That's how big a

year this was. Losing this game, Kurt Warner is gone right. They give Mark Bulger a contract extension for four more years. They give nineteen million dollars, which back then was a pretty big deal for a quarterback. He actually starts six more years with the Rams and he was just okay, mainly because his weapons aged and couldn't really be replaced. Because the next invention of the Rams wasn't as good. And this is why we make the point earlier about how, hey,

Warner and Bulger look how good they were. Well, when they had great weapons, they were really really good. When they had Hall of Fame type weapons, they were good. When they didn't have Hall of Fame weapons, they struggled. So here's Bulger, who has now got to do it. Hey, I gotta figure out how to make it work without Marshall Falk being the guy because he wasn't the guy anymore. He had gotten a year older. And after this playoff loss, the Rams decided we needed somebody else because he was

getting older. They draft Steven Jackson. You know, Jackson comes in, he runs for six hundred yards his rookie year, but you could tell, hey, the Rams want to make him their feature back. Somehow, they finished eight and Night and they squeak into the playoffs. They win the wild card game at Seattle, and maybe this is all right the Rams, but no, then they get pummeled seventeen by Atlanta and that becomes the last year. They finished in five as you said, until seen, so that was kind of like

the death cry of the Greatest Show on turf. It was really done, but nobody knew it. Uh, you know. And then but this was the real year when you could say, okay, where they achieved and they were really good because there was a big drop off from this year and next year where they were lucky to squeeze in at five hundred and hey you win one playoff game and all right, that's that one little death rattle.

Hey we're still here. And then you lose by thirty of the week after to the Falcons, and then it's really over. So you get that eight and eight season. You'd lose by thirty points, and it's the organizational review of all right, where are we at the next year? After five games marks you know, he he has to leave,

so you have it. Then Lenahan, who has an eight and eight season, but then he goes three and thirteen and he gets bounced, is like the Cleveland Browns and many of these other teams where it's like, you don't you don't get a run, right, even if you had a good season, right because Lenahan goes eight, the eight that usually buys you a little or at least at the time, they would buy you a little more. Instead, he goes three and thirteen the next year, and then

in two thousand and eight their start ohing four. He's done. Then has it comes in, He goes to intend he didn't get to stick around. That means Steve Spagnola takes over. And then you go through this entire thing where you know there's no organizational stability, direction and the building a program idea that is so novel a concept to see it at least attempted now in Miami with Brian Flores. But for the most part this became or if you

don't win immediately, you're done. Not to mention the whispers of them moving in this whole thing, right for those last few years of how long are they sticking around? So you get all of that and it becomes a very troublesome time for the franchise. And this is what happens when your head coach leaves. Who was the last real link to that offense and that era. Because Mike Martz leaves, it was his baby, was his plays. But

he kind of had to go. This is a guy that's gonna go down as the greatest offensive coordinator ever. What he did with journeyman quarterbacks and taking talent that nobody thought he could put together and what they did for that run that was outstanding. But he was so ill suited to being a head coach right. He didn't have the charisma, didn't have the ability to deal with other things, and added responsibilities outside of play calling that

you need to be when you're the head coach. You'd be able to take care of all kinds of things. You can't just be someone calling plays. He was aloof he was above it all. He was elitist, he was at odds of the front office. He was a hard guy to get along with. And when you do that, you cut your half life in half when you are a coach. If you're tough to get along with and and and make things difficult, eventually teams gonna go, we don't need you if you're not winning over the top.

And you know, case in point, as you mentioned, he had to leave the team a couple of years later for a hard issue. Five games in. He said he felt well enough to return for the final game of the season in two thousand and six, and the team said, yeah, no, we don't want you back, and you're fired. And that's how it ended from Mike Marks. You know, he went on to be an offensive coordinator again with the Bears never reaching these heights. Neither did the St. Louis Rams.

But this is what it was like from Mike Martz, who had he just been a little bit different, a little bit better suited for being a head coach instead of just blind power, I want to be the head coach, maybe it would have worked out different for him. Yeah, I mean he goes and he's a coordinator for the

Lions and coordinator for the Bears. But you know, the end with it with the Rams goes to just personality issues, to where he wanted to help call plays while he's sitting from his couch, He's got the it like, I'm feeling better. Put me. I want to put me on speaker. I wanted they gotta be able to hear me on the sideline, right, And then it's, hey, you know, I want to coach the finale, uh New Year's Day? And they told him to beat it and then they fired

him right after. So just a weird end. And and really there's a lot of stories in the city as related to Mike Marts and his handling of personnel. But yeah, just curiosity. I think I can do a ten hour documentary on him. I think there's enough battles and people that that could fight with him. Let's do that. The last last last dance with Mike Mars. Yes, I like this.

So that's what happened in the Rams and took him that long, as you said, to get back to respectability and where they were when they moved to Los Angeles. But for some of the guys in this game, where are they now? Mike Carmen, alright, we got Fred weary, defense and back. He is part of On the Grind L l C helping guys with sports marketing and branding opportunities. Saw you like that? Great Joey good speed? You know, Joey great speed, just good speed running back out of

Notre Dame. Uh He is a financial advisor in Chicago helping with retirement investor advice at ray for Raymond James uh Lamar Gordon working for Delta Airlines in terms of support and logistics. I like that. Add that to your list of fund And then Dane Looker school board director. His wife's the high school basketball coach in pull Up, Washington. I think I said that right. It's d p U L L y U p Appy a double l u P. Yeah. Uh, based on a Native American tribe and it means the

generous people. How about that. There's another guy that came from we left from the world of American football. Yes, certainly. I mean you got guys between you know, Warner and his Iowa barn Stormers and World League and me getting stung by a b so he couldn't work out for the Packers. Made all of these things of folklore, uh to make this unit what it was. But yeah, Dan, looker school board director. There you go, he's making making a difference in the classroom. I wonder how he's handling

zoom calls and all the problems within his district. Maybe we'll have to look him up. So there it is. The Special Teams that took part in a legendary playoff game in two thousand and four, the end of the Greatest Show on Turf. I'm Jason Smith, He's Mike Harmon. Our show has heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday, ten b into two am on the East coast, seven to eleven on the West coast. You got an idea

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