St. Louis’ Success Creates Hope for the Hopeless

All across the NFL, teams are already at work trying to duplicate the unlikely success story of the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams.

The continuing theme in the world of the woebegone this offseason will be: “If they could do it, why can’t we?”

And that’s not a terribly unreasonable question.

In the NFL’s brave new world of parity, created by free agency and salary caps, the meek can flourish almost overnight. And they often do.

Nine teams finished at 8-8 last season. Three others were 9-7. A player here, another there and abracadabra, they could turn into next season’s Rams.

Last year, Philadelphia was a 5-11 have-not. Next season, who knows?

“The more the league strives for parity, the more you’re going to see teams do this type of thing,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said. “It’s different than the old dynasties we’ve seen for so many years. You’re going to have teams that rise and fall rapidly. It’s a trend right now of the way the league is set up. That’s the whole basis of the salary cap. It gives you an opportunity to be equal within a relatively short period of time.”

On the day after St. Louis completed its unlikely reversal of fortune, one NFL official noted how the Rams had injected hope all over the league. “Who knows?” he said, “If Akili Smith steps up, Cincinnati could be here next year.”

That might be a bit of a stretch considering the condition of the Bengals’ roster, but think back to the days after Denver won its second straight Super Bowl in January 1999. There was no one touting the Rams’ chances then.

St. Louis seemed anchored to a treadmill to oblivion with nine straight losing seasons, and there was no reason to believe it wouldn’t be extended to an even 10.

So, how did the Rams get so good so fast?

Well, they had assembled some pretty good players like Todd Lyght, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace and Kevin Carter. They traded for Marshall Faulk. They drafted two more good ones, Torry Holt and Dre’ Bly, in the first two rounds of last April’s draft.

And then they got lucky with Kurt Warner.

In their own private environment of x’s and o’s, schemes and seams, coaches watch films until they get bleary-eyed breaking down offenses and defenses play by play. Their message is that success in football is created by meticulous attention to detail.

But that doesn’t account for magical factors like Warner.

In last April’s draft, the league divided up the most promising class of rookie quarterbacks since the Elway-Marino-Kelly bonanza of 1983. Tim Couch went to Cleveland, Donovan McNabb to Philadelphia, Cade McNown to Chicago, Daunte Culpepper to Minnesota and Smith to Cincinnati, all in the first round.

And the best new passer of all turned out to be an unpretentious retread from the Arena League and NFL Europe, a guy who kept hearing he wasn’t good enough. He wouldn’t take no for an answer.

But before the Rams hurt their arms patting themselves on the back, remember that they invested $16.5 million in free agent quarterback Trent Green and left Warner exposed in the expansion draft, available to the Browns.

That’s how smart they were. And that’s how smart Cleveland was to pass him up.

Warner inherited the team when Green tore up a knee in the preseason and the next thing anybody knew, St. Louis was having parades and the Rams were getting measured for Super Bowl rings.

Football is not an exact science. Sometimes talent slips through the cracks. Sometimes it shows up hugging a couple of MVP trophies and riding down Main Street at Disney World.

Warner’s humble background made his success the feel-good story of the NFL season. And the message the have-nots must take from it is that maybe next year, it will be their turn.

Maybe there’s another Warner hiding on an NFL sideline some place, wearing a baseball cap instead of a helmet, relaying plays and waiting for a chance. The trick is to find him, plug him in and then sit back and wait for the people from Disney World to show up.