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October 7, 2023 15 mins
In this episode of Rams Iconic, D’Marco Farr is joined by Rams Legend Nolan Cromwell. On the episode, Nolan talks about spending his entire NFL career with the Rams, his favorite playoff memories, and what it was like playing in Super Bowl XIV.

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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Rams Iconic, presented by eighteen hundred Tequila, the
best taste in tequila. Please drink responsibly. I'm DeMarco Farr
and welcome to another episode of Rams Iconic where we
get to chat with some of the greatest players ever
to wear the horns, and they are so pretty. My
next guest is a four time Pro bowler, three time
first team All Pro. He was a member of the

(00:28):
nineteen eighties NFL's All Decade Team, and before that, he
was a Kansas High School Athlete of the Decade in
the seventies. Tell me he didn't have fun. He played
his entire eleven year career with the La Rams. His
thirty seven picks second all time in franchise history. Sticky
hands He's Hollywood handsome, Dodge City tough. Please welcome former

(00:50):
Rams defensive back Nolan Cromwell. What's up, mister Cromwell?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Oh, thank you, thank you, not much.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
I'm just enjoying retirement and and you know, having fun,
enjoying my grandkids and just having having a great time.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
My god, look at you. You're still pretty. I love it.
You're still handsome. Come on, eleven years.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
You're killing me now.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, you're killing me that that that saying is uh
is hunted me forever?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Which one Hollywood Handsome it fits?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Come on?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Which one do you like? Hollywood Handsome or Dodge City Tough?
I think I think you like Dodge City tough, don't you?
Oh yeah, you hated the handsome part. Come on, if
it fits, it fits? Hey, eleven years and we have
something in common. Tell me if I'm wrong. You've played
for only three teams your entire life, high school, college
and pro right correct? Wow? I mean, so with the

(01:51):
Rams building that up, being here, being with the guys
being in the locker room. When I ask you what
does it mean to be a Ram, what's the first
thing that comes into your mind?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Togetherness?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
I came in in the seventies, you know, and I
joined a team that had dominated defensively, and we're in
the I think they had the best defense last five
years in a row. I came in seventy seven and

(02:26):
and I joined a team that they did things right,
they did they played for each other. I mean, it
was it was really special for me to come in
and I was coming to a team that was very good,
and I got a chance to learn the defense before

(02:46):
I was thrown into action, so had Dave Elmendorf and
Billy Simpson were the two safeties when I got there,
and they took me under their wing and just and
told me and showed me and really explained what the
responsibilities were and how to play the game.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
You know, I I think I know one of your teammates,
Rod Perry, he was there with you. Yeah, he talks
about you quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
No, I tell you what, Rod, And at that time,
Rod and uh Monty Jackson were the two corners when
I got there my my rookie year with Pat Thomas
as the third corner. And in those days, we only
kept six dbs on the on the roster.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Wow, it was it was.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It was different. It was really different.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
I think they keep more specialists now six that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
You're exactly right.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Oh wow, Well I remember like during my career, I mean,
the Rams were down and we desired to get into
the postseas. I mean we we like damn near killed
ourselves to make the posties, make the playoffs. You were
there eight out of eleven season. To be in La
Ram on a team that was that good for that long,
I mean, what must have been like for you to

(04:07):
play in that era, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
It was special because everybody kind of put their their
egos to the side and said, hey, let's play as
a team. And anytime you know that happens, even today,
you can I think I can really look out there
and watch a team and see how they interact on

(04:34):
the sidelines, see how they they play together, and you
know who's catching it, who's not catching that type of deal,
and shoot, we it didn't matter all we all we
cared about is winning the game, getting to the playoffs,
and then having a chance to go to the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
See when we were good, I had a teammate named
London Fletcher, and he was intense. I was intense, and
I think we had won eleven twelve games, so we
were kind of, you know, we were feeling it a
little bit towards the end of the year and we
almost got into a fistfight on a Friday practice because
I smiled and he was like, what are you smiling about?
You know what I mean? Do you have any stories
like that with teammates.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
No, Well, we had a few tussles going on out there,
of course, but.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
It was nothing like that.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think everybody just and I'm sure you know, London,
Fletcher and you and all your team at that time
felt that, hey, we're good. We just can't beat ourselves.
We just go out and play on and do our
thing and perform to the best that we can perform.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
We're gonna win.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
And I really felt that's how we entered the game
every week, was that we stepped on the field we
felt we were gonna win it, and if we had
to win at seven to nothing or or ten to seven,
we'd do it.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
See yeah, see that was the difference. We hadn't become
a good team. This was just our first year of winning.
So I think London was afraid to go back, so
he thought I was taking my foot off the gas
a little bit. So that was our little disagreement. So
for me, when I see eight years going to the
postseason out of eleven, I'm like, wow, I would love

(06:28):
to be on an in an era like that, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
You know what it was? It was exciting.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
You know, we went to Super Bowl fourteen and play
and that was the ultimate for that seat for that season,
and for me, I thought, you know, we're going to
be back in the super Bowl, no problem. You know,
with the team that we had and everything, and but

(06:56):
when I look back from nineteen seventy three was when
Chuck Knox started as a head coach, they were number
one or number two in the defense and just went
and for those years, five or six years, the defense
was number one or number two in the league. So

(07:18):
we kind of felt that we're going to be back
in the Super Bowl to just go.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
But we never did make it. We just didn't couldn't
get over the hump.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
You guys made the Super Bowl on a nine and
seven season? How you barely outscored every game was tight?
How do you guys make the Super Bowl from nine
to seven?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (07:40):
That year that in the middle of the season, we
were we were five and six, and we ended up
every offensive lineman early in the season, if if I
remember correctly, all but one offensive lineman, starting offensive lineman

(08:02):
had surgeries. Through in the season, we got everybody back
at that five and six record, and we went ended
up winning the next four in a row. We won,
and that solidified our division and we ended up resting

(08:26):
a lot of guys the last game who we got beat,
but we go into it. We won the division with
nine and seven, and then we went into the playoffs
as strong as we've ever been, and shoot, it just
went went crazy.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
And you beat Dallas. That had to be cool.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, we beat Dallas.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know, it was either the Dallas Cowboys or the
Minnesota Vikings back then and the Rams. Those three teams
were in there, and one of those three teams was
probably going to the Super Bowl, and the those the
Cowboys or the Vikings ended up beating the Rams in
all those years on a field goal, either a field

(09:11):
goal block, ah, some type of specially team play.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
So we do this on every show with every icon
we have on the show, I'll ask them your favorite play.
Do you have a favorite play from your career, one
that you can remember and describe it. Who was it,
what was it? What happened?

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, probably the one memorable, you know, memorable. The play
was Worth versus Tampa Bay. I ended up intercepting a
pass and I'm running down the side the sideline and
all of a sudden, I see the guy coming and
I'm getting ready to make a move to cut back

(09:52):
inside and somebody hit my foot and it tripped me.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
So I'm just kind of floating there and.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
And uh, the running back, the little running back guysh
Dartings from Markans I think, uh uh, I can't remember
his name, but he drilled me right in the ear
and bowl and this was this was halfway through the
first quarter, and I go, uh. I ended up on film.

(10:26):
I'm watching my safe self play for a quarter and
a half. The next thing I remember was there was
six seconds left to go in the half. Wow, they
are on our like five yard line and they're lining
up to kick a field goal. And I have no
idea what that, you know. Finally, that's kind of when

(10:48):
the lights came on and I'm kind of looking around.
I played the best quarter and a half of football
I ever played in my life. From the standpoint of
if I would Johnny Johnson was uh was rookie safety
along with me, and I'd be at free stage. I'd
be standing back here and I'd go, Johnny, what do

(11:11):
I do? Just cover the tight end? And it was
like a glove and I made, you know, tackles, boom hit,
you know, stand the guy up, put him on his back.
I go, I went, holy smoke.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
All on instinct. See see all all on instinct?

Speaker 2 (11:29):
All right?

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Two more, I got to ask you about Rammit. Whose idea?
Come on, when you first heard about it, you thought
it was a joke, right, come on?

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Oh yeah, yes, I I you know, we we got
informed of it. I think like a week before or whatever.
And they're going to do it on our day off
and everything and and uh and I said, you know,
of course I went along with it. But guys, it's

(11:58):
haunted me forever.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Do you remember your line?

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Well? I think I think I kind of do.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Come on, well, let me be.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
It was Hollywood, handsome, Dodge City tough. You throw up
my way. It's going to get rough.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
I like the rabbit.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
I like the rabbit. As you can see, nobody likes
Rammitt anymore than me.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yes, sir, come on, I want to skip church on
Sunday after that. Wow wow, wow wow. I remember when
you came to Saint Louis in twenty ten. I went
gy guy when I saw you. Yes, that is no.
One blank and Cromwell unbelievable. Yeah. How did you like coaching?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
I loved coaching, I tell you, uh it was. I really.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Enjoyed my first my first years at Green Bay. I
went with Mike Homegrin. We were in Green Bay and uh,
in nineteen ninety two, and I was probably the worst
coach ever that year. And I, you know, coaching, especially
teams and and but I got the first year under

(13:10):
under under my belt, and I realized that you've got
to learn to get your point across quickly in very
few words. Bang, tell the guy what what he has
to do or what he needs to do, and then
make everything simple as simple as you can make it.

(13:32):
And I had some some better years, you know, the
next two or three years. And then when we went
to the super Bowl super Bowl thirty one, Desmond Howard
was uh our returner and uh, I think he had
six touchdowns I think that year punt and kickoff returns,

(13:53):
and uh, you know he ended up being the MVP
of the super Bowl. And uh that was that was
huge for me and and uh.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
I think for Desmond.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
And and I bet Desmond was on fire. Did you
teach him that that touchdown celebration days whatever? What was that?

Speaker 2 (14:15):
That was a Heisman poems now Heisman pose? He did
that college?

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Wow? Wow, that was dope. Yeah, man, I heard this
joke from one of your old coaching mates. I think
it was coach Chrome that said, what do you call
a big eight quarterback in the NFL, A big eight
wishbone quarterback in the NFL. Nolan Cromwell, no doubt, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Well it was you know what I was like, I said,
very fortunate when I went to the Rams, and and
I played us, as you said, the quarterback of the
line my last two years in college.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
And uh.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
I played safety my freshman and sophomore year and then uh.
But when I got to the Rams, I I wasn't
trusted in in there. I was like, I was the
second pick in the in the in the second round, but.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
I wasn't thrown in there. They told me I would
start my third year, and you did. It's exactly, It's
exactly what happened.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Look at you. Well, look, I'll go with Hollywood handsome
because you are handsome, but you are dodged the stuff man.
No one crime will Thank you for joining us in
Rams Iconic. This was special.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Thank you so much, Malcolm.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
And that's a wrap on this episode of Rams Iconic
presented by eighteen hundred Tequila, the best taste in tequila.
Please drink responsibly. Hope you enjoyed our conversation with Rams
Legend Nolan Crimewell. I'm DeMarco Farr and we'll see you
next time.
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