Lorenzo Neal #41, Full Back for the Tennessee Titans carries the ball over the line for a touchdown against the St. Louis Rams during the National Football League Super Bowl XXXIV on 30 January 2000 at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The Rams won the game 23 – 16. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
On this day 24 years ago, the Greatest Show on Turf changed the NFL forever. The Greatest Show on Turf was Kurt Warner and the St. Louis Rams and they won the Super Bowl by beating the Tennessee Titans on January 30th, 2000.
Warner may be the greatest underdog story of all-time. He was undrafted. And he bounced around NFL Europe and Arena football. Plus, he was bagging groceries for a living when he got the opportunity to join the Rams as a backup. Nothing was expected from the 1999 Rams. In fact, they were expected to be worse than the Browns who had just re-entered the league in Cleveland.
Things looked more bleak when the Ram's starting quarterback went down with an injury in the pre-season. But that's when Kurt Warner took the field with weapons like Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, and newly acquired running back Marshall Faulk. That season Warner had a passer rating of 109.2 and threw for 4353 yards with 41 touchdowns and only 13 interceptions.
EVERYTHING CHANGED
Following the Rams success, two things happened. First of all, the league noticed how much the fans liked the Rams air-show and they quickly changed the rules of the game to make it easier for offenses to pass the ball and score. Secondly, teams began to change how they built rosters with quarterbacks and speedy receivers in order to take advantage of the new rules. Thus we have the NFL we have today and it all really started a quarter of a century ago.
So let's take a look back at how the Greatest Show on Turf changed the NFL forever by winning a Super Bowl on this day in history in 2000 with trivia on Craig Shemon and Company on ESPN Southwest Florida.
GREATEST SHOW ON TURF TRIVIA
- Who was the game’s MVP? Kurt Warner
- Name the coach of the Titans? Jeff Fisher
- Name the coach of the Rams? Dick Vermeil
- What dome was the game played in? Georgia
- What are the Roman Numerals for 34? XXXIV
- The Titans only had one future Hall of Famer on the team. He played guard, center and long snapper and never missed a game due to injury. His 293 games started is third all time behind Brett Favre and Tom Brady. Who was he? Bruce Matthews
- The game ended with the Titans at the one yard line. Can you name the receiver or linebacker who made the tackle on the play? WR Kevin Dyson/ LB Mike Jones
- Who was the starting quarterback for the Titans? Steve McNair
- Who was the offensive coordinator for the Greatest Show on Turf? Mike Martz
- What quarterback and Indiana grad went down with a season ending knee injury that allowed Kurt Warner to take over the 1999 team? Trent Green
