Image of a St. Louis Rams football game
How did we fall so far so fast?
By Leslie Gibson McCarthy
It remains, arguably, the single greatest unexpected moment in St. Louis sports history: a tackle on a football field.
But it wasn’t just any tackle, and it wasn’t just any football field. It was the tackle, on the biggest field of them all: the Super Bowl. Rams linebacker Mike Jones brought down the Titans’ Kevin Dyson when he was agonizingly close to a touchdown, and, just like that, the Rams were Super Bowl champions.
That’s how the first February of the new millennium dawned on the St. Louis sports scene: with the iconic Vince Lombardi Trophy safely tucked away in a display case at Rams Park. Downtown at Stadium Plaza, fans were feverishly buying tickets, mainly because of a gargantuan slugger named Mark McGwire; and a young Albert Pujols was packing for his first spring training. A few blocks away, at what was then Kiel Center, gap-toothed defenseman Chris Pronger was having an MVP season for the Blues and would lead them to the President’s Trophy for most regular-season wins.
Times were good—so good, in fact, that the venerable Sporting News tapped its home, St. Louis, as “Best Sports City in North America” later that year.
Six Februarys later, my, how things have changed. The Rams are a front-office mess and missed the playoffs for only the second time this decade. Spring training starts in a few weeks with Cardinals fans anguished over an exodus of key players and McGwire’s image tarnished by steroid allegations. Coming off a lockout season, the Blues are at an all-time low, flirting with the NHL’s worst record.
Best Sports City? This year we’d settle for Good Sports City—or even OK Sports City.
Our anxiety starts with the Rams, who were one big dysfunctional front-office family in 2005, a soap opera of “he said, he said” complete with backbiting and intrigue. And, like it or not, some of that unrest spilled over onto the field.
The Mike Martz era ended officially on January 2, the day after the season ended. But Martz calling the shots for the Greatest Show on Turf was a lot of fun. Fans came to expect Torry Holt running a slant across the middle, catching the ball in midstride, then running for a huge gain. Or Isaac Bruce sprinting down the sideline with a defender on his back, his outstretched hands catching the ball oh so softly, then racing into the end zone.
Martz was called an offensive genius, and he deserved the title. He turned Kurt Warner into an MVP quarterback, developed Marc Bulger into one of the league’s leading passers and made Pro Bowlers out of Bruce and Holt. But his weakness was his inattention to defense and special teams. When defensive coordinator Lovie Smith left in 2003, the defense did, too. And except for kicker Jeff Wilkins, special-teams play has been painful at best.
So how did the Rams fall so far so fast? It didn’t happen overnight. The reality is that, despite missing the playoffs only twice since 1999, the Rams have had only one season over .500 in the last four years.
And look at the draft, particularly the first-rounders. Of eight players picked in the first round since 2000, not one has been the impact player hoped for. Adam Archuleta, Jimmy Kennedy, Damione Lewis, Ryan Pickett and Steven Jackson have all contributed, but first-round picks are expected to do so much more. And Robert Thomas and Trung Canidate? Trung who?
Can the Rams turn it around? Absolutely. There’s plenty of young offensive talent, including quarterbacks Bulger and Ryan Fitzpatrick. But a fiery leader on defense is essential, either through the draft or by way of free agency. And whoever is on the sideline in 2006 must pay attention to all aspects of the game, especially defense.
As for those other St. Louis teams? Baseball will be just fine. We still have the best manager in baseball in Tony La Russa, the best player in Pujols and, in 2005, the best pitcher in Chris Carpenter.
The Blues? Well, that may take a while. Barring a miraculous turnaround in the next eight weeks, the longest playoff streak in professional sports is about to be broken. So we’ll cry for a bit and hope that the new ownership group can build around the talented crop of young players the Blues have stockpiled in the minor leagues.
Meanwhile, the folks at the Sporting News will pick some other town as Best Sports City in 2006. That’s OK—as Jones’ tackle reminded us, anything can happen.
