Ram Battle Is Historic

This isn’t a Super Bowl, it’s a coronation.

The real intrigue last week wasn’t whether Tom Brady or Drew Bledsoe would start at quarterback for the New England Patriots today in Super Bowl XXXVI. It was whether the St. Louis Rams, the belle of the bowl, was the most complete team in NFL history.

Kurt Warner and Co., favored by two touchdowns, have only themselves to blame for their two losses this season. They had eight turnovers in a loss to New Orleans, and six in a loss to Tampa Bay.

“It’s tough to say whether you can be a dynasty in this day and age with free agency,” said quarterback Warner, on the verge of his second Super Bowl title in three seasons. “But I think we’re in great position.”

Standing in the way are the Patriots, who overcame a 1-3 start to win 12 of their last 14 games--including their last eight. The starting quarterback job goes to Brady, who sprained his left ankle in the first half of the AFC championship game last Sunday at Pittsburgh. Bledsoe, the $107-million backup, will be waiting in the wings.

In a way, the Patriots feel right at home. The whole town is bathed in red, white and blue, including the Superdome, illuminated in those colors all week. The game was postponed a week in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the Super Bowl logo was changed to an American-flag-striped outline of the United States. Security is at all-time high, and the pregame and halftime shows will reflect the mood of the country. Four of the five living former U.S. presidents--Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Bill Clinton--will be in attendance. President George W. Bush considered coming, but his office informed league officials Tuesday that he would be unable to make it.

The matchup between St. Louis and New England, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said, is a game between “middle America, which epitomizes America’s values, versus the birthplace of America’s values.”

Warner directs an offense that has led the league in yards the last three seasons. And although he was chosen the NFL’s most valuable player, he wasn’t the league’s offensive player of the year. That honor went to teammate Marshall Faulk, the first player in NFL history to gain 2,000 yards from scrimmage in four consecutive seasons.

Oh, yes, then there are the supersonic Ram receivers, fast enough to leave vapor trails.

“They’ve got a lot of thoroughbreds,” Patriot safety Lawyer Milloy said upon arrival in New Orleans. “It’s going to be a week where we’ll probably eat a lot of salads instead of steaks to try to stay light.”

The Patriots took a buffet-line approach to building their team. Since Coach Bill Belichick and General Manager Scott Pioli took over in January 2000, they have brought in 20 veteran free agents who are still with the team. They rummaged through the bargain bin for such players as guard Joe Andruzzi, receiver David Patten, defensive end Anthony Pleasant, running backs Antowain Smith and Marc Edwards, and linebackers Bryan Cox and Roman Phifer, all key additions.

“Coach Belichick knows the game and has been around for a while,” said Phifer, a former UCLA standout. “I’m sure that he knows talent when he sees it.”

And Belichick, who has been a defensive assistant coach on three Super Bowl teams, sees a Ram offense teeming with talent. The only team with comparable speed, in his eyes, was the 1980 San Diego Chargers, with players such as Charlie Joiner and Kellen Winslow.

“The thing about the Rams is they bring guys off the bench who are just as fast, or faster, than the guys out there,” Belichick said.

Most dangerous is Faulk, who can line up just about anywhere and is among the league’s most difficult players to bring down. He was the NFL’s most valuable player in 2000 and the league’s offensive player of the year the last two seasons.

Last week, he broke his string of ho-hum playoff performances with a 159-yard rushing effort against Philadelphia. All that, and he’s playing the Super Bowl in his hometown.

Faulk thinks the Rams are not only playing the Patriots, they’re playing for their place in the annals of NFL history.

“If that’s what excellence is, that’s what we’re trying to achieve,” he said. “That’s what we do. We hold a standard of high achievement. We try to be perfect in everything we do.”

History awaits, and so do the Patriots, who vow to make a game of it. And maybe more.

“The only way we’re going to gain respect is to win the whole thing,” Milloy said. “That’s the bottom line.”