On this episode of Rams Iconic, Rams legend wide receiver Torry Holt joins D’Marco Farr to reflect on his career with the Rams. Holt talks about being an under-looked receiving prospect, getting to be a key part of 'The Greatest Show on Turf,' winning a Super Bowl in his rookie season, and what it would mean to finally be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to RAMS Iconic presented by eighteen hundred Tequila, the
best taste in tequila.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Please drink responsibly.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm DeMarco Farr and this is the podcast where we
catch up with some of the most iconic players in
Rams history. My next guest is a seven time pro bowler.
He had eight straight one thousand yard receiving seasons with
the Rams. In ten years in horns, he finished with
over twelve thousand receiving yards and seventy four touchdowns. He
is truly one of the greatest of all time. Please
(00:34):
welcome Big Game Tory Holt. What is up, big Man
show the champ. How are you, man Man?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm good and I'm good. I'm trying to keep up
with my kids. How about you too? Well, My kids
are out of the house. As we were talking before
we came on. Kids are out of the house a week.
My wife and I empty nessus and I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
So when you were a rookie in Saint Louis, when
you were drafted nineteen ninety nine, first of all, I
read something It said that you had a chip on
your should You were drafted six overall and you had
a chip on your shoulder.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
About what, Well, what I was really most upset about
was I didn't get invited to New York. Oh, So
that bothered me. And then you know, I didn't win
the blittanikof Award that that year. I felt like I
was the best wide receiver in college football my last
year of college football, and so I felt like I
had deserved that award.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I played consistently.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You know, it is week out against you know, top
flight teams, but our school, our team wasn't a national
ranked team. So I think I lost some of the
luster for me. But I felt like I was the
best wide receiver in that year's draft. So that's I
carried that with me throughout my entire career in the
(01:37):
National Football League. I wanted to continue to prove or
continue to show folks that I was the best receiver
in that in that year's draft class.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So you felt like, you know, you didn't get it.
And I wonder, now, the Bulletina Croff people, I mean,
sitting here a tory hole, you know, twelve thousand receiving yards.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Maybe they made the mistake.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Well, that was my whole I was trying to prove
then that Joab made a mistake. By playing better than
Troy and any other receiver that was in my draft class.
I think, I think I when I was doing some
stats reading, I think I outpaced my entire draft class.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
To receive a position by like four thousand yards. Wow.
It was something sick, you mean, career wise, career career something.
It was something sick. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I see, I thought that was the only one that
did that. I went back and looked absolutely everybody that
was drafted ahead of me. I went back and look,
I buried everybody except for like six guys.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. Yeah, still mad about it, absolutely exactly. Yeah, still
mad about it. Yeah you're right.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
See now you got me all mad again. See, yeah,
you messed up. So you get the Saint Louis in
nineteen ninety nine, and we know this story. So there's
Isaac Bruce, there's a guy who's established, and here's Tory Holt.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
We just drafted.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
How do you go about being respectful to the guy
that's there and also saying this is my time?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I think, for one, the way I was was was
raised was always to respect those that came before me.
Even when I went to my freshman union Inity stateium
was Mike Guffy and all those guys that I respected,
and Jimmy Grizzon, those guys that I looked up to
and look for guidance. So I carried that same mentality
into the National Football League. But at the same time,
I was very confident and very sure of who I
was as a football player. So I wasn't I was
(03:11):
never I was. I was never intimidated or overwhelmed by
Isaac or Ricky and those guys as presidence, though I
respected UH their president, but I knew I was just
as good wow. And the best way for me to
be able to do that was to go out and
practice the way that I practice, carried myself the way
that I did have the n G, the enthusiastic of
playing football and playing the position, and and and and
(03:33):
and that way. I knew if I did that that
I would get the respect from Isaac, I would get
the respect from Ricky, I would get to respect from
DeMarco Farr Todd, like.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Keith Lele, etcetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
By the way, as a rookie player, I presented myself
on the day to day basis, which was to go
out keep my mouth shut because you barely hurt me
say anything, no, keep off, shut at work and ball
h and prove again why coach vermil who we're honoring
this weekend, and coach uh sand Coach Al Sanders, and
Mike Martin, why they believed in Charlie Army, why they
(04:02):
believe I was the sixth overall draft pick. I wanted
to come out and prove that to you guys every
single day, and.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I think you did. I mean, we didn't talk much
about you because we didn't have to. You know what
I'm saying. You were one of us from day one.
You know what I'm saying. So it wasn't this thing
where we had to get to know you or get
to like you. Yeah, he's here, He's going to be
one of our guys.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
My fame, DeMarco was if I can as a rookie player,
If I can, if I could get somewhere close to
Isaac and Ricky and Marshall terms of their production, in
terms of their mentality, I could get half way there.
We're a better team, right, I'm a better player. So
it was more about me wanting to get my level
(04:44):
up to theirs to elevate our team. And I knew
if I did that, then I knew I was going
to be pretty good.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I always felt disrespected way back in the day when
they put somebody in front of me that I know
I could be. You know what I'm saying, Why you
put this guy in front of me? How you looking
at me? Did you ever have that same thing like
are you kidding me? This is the guy you got
trying to cover me right now?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Really a lot, actually, But that was the mentality that
you had to have in order to be to dominate
an opponent, opponent or show up an opponent. Isaac had
that same mentality wrecking them, had that same mentality.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Marshal.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
The list goes on, I was an assassin. I had
those examples in front of me all the time. So
it was it was it was no way that I
was going to have or adopt any of the mindset
already was driven, already was competitive, and I'm now sitting
across guys that have the same mentality that.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
So I knew that if I just stuck with it,
kept my head down, just kept working, kept asking questions,
watched the watch the vets, do it, keep working, I
knew that I could do something really special with my career.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
See, we hung in there was a group of us
that came from LA and the guys that were there
before you got there. So we always were hanging on
to this Super Bowl nugget. We want to win so bad.
We wanted to beat the Niners so bad. We wanted
to be one of those teams. I'll tell you remember
they used to advertise in the NFL mugs, get your
your t shirts, your beach towels with your team's logo.
They would never show the rams. Yeah, they wouldhow thirty
(06:14):
one teams or thirty seas.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And never us.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It would just drive us crazy. We can't wait to win.
We can't wait the women, we can't wait to win.
So ninety nine, we knew we were going to be
pretty good, especially after we got Marshall. This is when
Trent Green was our quarterback, So we knew then the
guys that were there, we knew we were going to
be pretty good or very good or playoff football team.
When did you know in ninety nine that we were
going to be special?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I knew it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Started to formulate in my mind that we could be
really especially when I got there and I saw all
the talent. I've set this story before, and I saw
all the talent, and I couldn't understand why y'all.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Was three and thirteen, four and twelve.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
All of this talent, the makeup, the competitiveness, the type
of beans everybody were, the type of humans everybody was.
I couldn't understand you know that, what that, but why
that was the case. And then when I got out
on the field and the ball wasn't hitting the ground
and the defense was flying around, you guys were talking
about how we were, how you guys had made us competitive,
(07:12):
and how we were making you guys more competitive in
that environment, and we were sharpening each other up.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I knew then.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I said, Okay, I don't know what we'll do. I
don't know if we'll win the super Bowl. It' super bowled.
It actually didn't even come to my mind. I don't
know how many games will win. Yeah, but I know
we're going to win some games. Yeah, yeah, just because
of the talent that we had and how we were
going at each other and how we were preparing to
go out for war.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, So we go thirteen to three, we get the
first round, by we make it to the playoff. We
make it through the playoffs, we're in the super Bowl.
It still doesn't hit me that we're in the super Bowl.
It really doesn't. It does not hit me that we're
in the biggest game of the year until we're in
the tunnel getting ready to come out. And I'll tell
you the story. I'm standing next to Ryan Tucker of
all people. Yeah, and you know, he's six foot whatever.
(07:54):
He is, big man, big dude. So I look to
my right and it's his shoulder pad right in my
face because he's so all. And I saw that Super
Bowl thirty four, like.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Patch on this. I'm like, Yeah, this is the big game.
This is it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So when you see us running out and you see
me with my hands above my head, I'm hyperventilating, Like
it hit me right then, this is the super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
How about for you? And I would say for me.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
When we went out for warm ups because a lot
of us came back in because we had to get
ivs because we had we had exhausted ourselves on the top, right,
I was like, right.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Oh, this is different.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Like you can just you can you can sense the
the atmosphere, all of the celebrities that was on the
sideline and and you know, being in the lant and
and it was just like, whoa, this is everything that
I thought it was going to be. Because as a
little kid, you know, you're sitting down and you're watching
the super Bowl. You see these Yeah, you see this big,
huge dome and the inside and people are standing and
(08:53):
cheer lights are going up. It's like, Wow, that's the
super Bowl. And then when we was out there, woman,
and I was like, wow, I met the super Ball.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It's different. And I'm burnt out. You know what I'm saying.
You know, I went too hard.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I went too hard and had to get an IV
to go back out. Oh yeah, but I tell you
what that I'm glad. I'm glad I exerted myself in
that way because I never I didn't. I didn't leave
anything out there. I experienced it, all the highs and
the lows of everything.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
The one you caught all their face mask, the one
you I keep telling you about this. I can see
your smile from fifty years away. What went through your
mind when you caught this. Hold on to this freaking ball.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I don't care how you have to do it, you
better hold on to this ball because Isaac is looking
at me, DeMarco was looking at me, everybody's looking at
me to.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Make this play. Hold on to the ball. Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And I was able to hold on just enough, put
it right on my fast face mask and brought my
other hands into to corral and bringing it for with
a touchdown. But I had gotten beaten up the week
before against the Tampa Bay Bucket and they were hitting.
Oh it was hitting, but we weren't stopping them.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
We got up off that turf and we got right
back in that huddle and we came right back at them.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It's just as they was coming at us.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
But uh, but no, I was fortunate enough to have
enough strength man to hold it there on the face man,
which is an iconic photo of you have seen it.
But that's again it was what was going through my
mind was to finish the play.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
The Tampa win, the biggest win of our lives outside
of the Super Bowl, because of who we beat them.
You see Warren's Apple Lot, Derek Brooks, all them. They're proud,
absolutely they are, but they're not allowed to speak when
we're around.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You can talk, but when we come in with the
conversation changes just a little bit, just a bit.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I'm proud of that too, absolutely, because yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
I mean, I mean, just think about how we were
respected offensively.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's how they were respected on the other side.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
To be able to go out and to go toe
to toe with them, pound pound with them, blow for
blow with them, and to be able to win that game.
Come on, man, it puts a that certainly put a
that's certainly allowed me to buff my chest out a
little bit more around.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Them they say, yeah, we're super Bowl champions. Yeah you
got it after that's right after us. Yeah you didn't
go through us, yeah, big time. So how's the Hall
of Fame weight thing going for you? I mean, knowing
that you're deserving. It's weird receivers. It's a log jab,
It's just how it goes.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
How are you doing with this, man?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I mean you, I mean, we sit inside each other
and me feel my vibe, I hope, Yeah, I feel
yours gracefully.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Man. Yeah, you know, I'm just just leaning on my
faith with it.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Certainly is time, Yeah, and I think this I said
last year was the time. Here we are again this
year it's time. But you know, the voters have to
it's it's in their hands. So hopefully, hopefully this year
we'll get enough folks that are champion for me for
the right reasons, get the right voters. Uh, and more
voters too, you know, to feel that I'm deserving and
(11:50):
to get me across the finish line.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's crazy. I just we're just I just thought of it. So, yeah,
you're drafted six overall and you're mad about the bull
in the car. I deserved it. And here we are
at the end. Yeah, here we are again. But the
same thing. It's up to the motors. But yeah, I mean,
you know this, you're deserving. I could line up a
list of corners and safeties and coordinators a mile long
and they will all say, Tori is of that cloth, right,
(12:13):
thank you. But just getting the gold jacket, what do
you think that.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Will mean for you? When you be huge?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yea U and it And it'll be huge for me,
It'll be huge for you, my teammates, my coaches, all
that have helped me get to this point to even
be considered a Pro Football Hall of Famer. But it
valid it's certainly put. It would certainly put the stamp
on that chapter of my life as a football player.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I think back to when I was a kid in Gibsonville.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
North Carolina, just throwing the ball up around the neighborhood,
throwing it off of the buildings, just dreaming to play sport,
just dreaming to compete and to do it at a
high level. Ever since watching Michael Jordan and David Thompson,
James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, all those guys in the.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
ACC then going on and playing in the ACC.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So it'll bring back all it a valid it will,
it will validate all of those feelings and all those
emotions that I had of the youth, wanted to play
sport and be recognized as one of the best. No
doubt this gold jacket certainly with service down.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
You you guys have made my life in the media hard.
You Isaac Marshall, Kurt Orlando because when they talk about
good offenses or good receivers or good left tackles, really.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Saw it right right.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And the thing that I love too, DeMarco too, when
you talk about those guys and we saw them every day.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
They work though man like hard, like God. We put
our work in. Gee, I'm not, I'm not. I'm being serious.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
If you were ever in the room with us, if
you were ever at practice with us, and you saw
how we went about it daily.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
We were professional. We was probe. So these guys are
these guys are more than certain, more than worthy of
being into profoo ball the team. Man, you getting me
fired up? Sir.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
We do this thing and it's on rams iconic. We
do it every time. My favorite play, did you just
give me your favorite play with the catch in the
Super Bowl? Give me another one, Give me another one.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
My favorite play, I give you my favorite play was
in the Super Bowl. The they brought the they brought
the safety blitz. Kurt and I saw it. We knew
if they brought the safety blitz. We had a slant
that was a sight adjustment. He looked at me. I
looked at him, very subtle. I ran the correct route.
He put it right on me, right on the face.
Man's that's my first first that was my number one
catch being that it was.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So you looked at Kurt and he looked back like
we were saying this. We're seeing what we're seeing.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So we get up, we get up to the line
of scrimmage. That's pre snap, right, So he's pre snapping.
He's looking and seeing what the linebackers are do.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I'm looking. This is Tennessee. So curses for blitz ye.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Greg Williams is known for blessing down and some other
stuff information that we and some other stuff, some information
that we knew. And when that situation presented itself, and
as prolific as he and I was prolific as our
offense was, he saw the safety come down.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I looked at him. He looked at me. Okay, cool.
I ran the slant, he dropped back, the safety jumps up.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
He puts it right underneath his arm, put him up,
a man up, catches right on the face mask touchdown Rams.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Is that that video where Phoenix is getting blocked when
he's blitzing and he but yeah, that's the.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
One that's Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So the safety, the safety all of a sudden, and
I'm sitting there, I'm on the line of swimmers.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I'm saying, is he gonna come? Come?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
If he come, I'm killing his man. And he came
and we made him pay. So that was that was
That's my number one. And then I'll go back to college.
We played Florida State. Yeah, seventeen seventeen seven or something
like that. Fourth quarter, we call a timeout. Coach says, toy,
what you want to run? Deep posts? The coach asked
(15:44):
you what you want do you want to do to finish?
It wasn't gonna be no receiver screen going nowhere else.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Right to me? Right right? What do you want to run?
Deep posts? Wow?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
We ran a deep post. Jamie Barnett sets his feet,
They give him enough time. He throws it right over
to dB right into my arms. We finished Florida State.
Those are probably my two top memorable catches in my career.
Absolutely gorgeous, no doubt. Give me that look real quick,
I'll be Kurt. Give me the look. So I'm looking,
so I'm looking at you. Yeah, and the safety's acting
(16:14):
acting as if he wants to come down.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
On this side. Okay, yeah, and I say give it
to me again. You see this? Do you understand what
my and he's like. I don't miss yes, sir, yes, sir? Wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You know outside everybody else, I think I might have
been the happiest for well Isaac number one.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
That's my guy.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
You're seeing Kurt go in because of his story and
everything else.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah. Yeah, Now, Kurt Kurt's uh, Kurt's dope man. Kurt
worked at it man, and Kurt look good now he
does look good. He does look good. But all of
you guys, man, when we won that Super Bowl. We'll
now finish on this, but we won that Super Bowl.
DeMarco and I often tell you guys how much I
appreciate y'allah. Actually, every time I see you, I say
thank you, how much I appreciate playing with y'all on
(17:03):
what I was able to learn.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But to see the jubilation on your face, Brother.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Ray Agnews Fame, Kevin Carter, Keith loud t Light, Adam Timmerman,
Marshall All, Orlando, all the guys who had put in
a lot of work to get to that moment and
then to finally be able to hoist that trophy.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
It was. It was so satisfying. We celebrated January thirty
in my house. It's a birthday, absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's a wrap on this episode of Ramsey Contact, presented
by eighteen hundred Tequila, the best taste in taquila. Please
drink responsibly. Hope you enjoyed our conversation with Big Game.
Torri helped one of the all time greats the goats.
I'm DeMarco Farm. We'll see you next time on Ramsey Cony.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Take a chimut
Welcome to RAMS Iconic presented by eighteen hundred Tequila, the
best taste in tequila.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Please drink responsibly.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm DeMarco Farr and this is the podcast where we
catch up with some of the most iconic players in
Rams history. My next guest is a seven time pro bowler.
He had eight straight one thousand yard receiving seasons with
the Rams. In ten years in horns, he finished with
over twelve thousand receiving yards and seventy four touchdowns. He
is truly one of the greatest of all time. Please
(00:34):
welcome Big Game Tory Holt. What is up, big Man
show the champ. How are you, man Man?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm good and I'm good. I'm trying to keep up
with my kids. How about you too? Well, My kids
are out of the house. As we were talking before
we came on. Kids are out of the house a week.
My wife and I empty nessus and I love it.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
So when you were a rookie in Saint Louis, when
you were drafted nineteen ninety nine, first of all, I
read something It said that you had a chip on
your should You were drafted six overall and you had
a chip on your shoulder.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
About what, Well, what I was really most upset about
was I didn't get invited to New York. Oh, So
that bothered me. And then you know, I didn't win
the blittanikof Award that that year. I felt like I
was the best wide receiver in college football my last
year of college football, and so I felt like I
had deserved that award.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I played consistently.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
You know, it is week out against you know, top
flight teams, but our school, our team wasn't a national
ranked team. So I think I lost some of the
luster for me. But I felt like I was the
best wide receiver in that year's draft. So that's I
carried that with me throughout my entire career in the
(01:37):
National Football League. I wanted to continue to prove or
continue to show folks that I was the best receiver
in that in that year's draft class.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So you felt like, you know, you didn't get it.
And I wonder, now, the Bulletina Croff people, I mean,
sitting here a tory hole, you know, twelve thousand receiving yards.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Maybe they made the mistake.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Well, that was my whole I was trying to prove
then that Joab made a mistake. By playing better than
Troy and any other receiver that was in my draft class.
I think, I think I when I was doing some
stats reading, I think I outpaced my entire draft class.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
To receive a position by like four thousand yards. Wow.
It was something sick, you mean, career wise, career career something.
It was something sick. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I see, I thought that was the only one that
did that. I went back and looked absolutely everybody that
was drafted ahead of me. I went back and look,
I buried everybody except for like six guys.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. Yeah, still mad about it, absolutely exactly. Yeah, still
mad about it. Yeah you're right.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
See now you got me all mad again. See, yeah,
you messed up. So you get the Saint Louis in
nineteen ninety nine, and we know this story. So there's
Isaac Bruce, there's a guy who's established, and here's Tory Holt.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
We just drafted.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
How do you go about being respectful to the guy
that's there and also saying this is my time?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
I think, for one, the way I was was was
raised was always to respect those that came before me.
Even when I went to my freshman union Inity stateium
was Mike Guffy and all those guys that I respected,
and Jimmy Grizzon, those guys that I looked up to
and look for guidance. So I carried that same mentality
into the National Football League. But at the same time,
I was very confident and very sure of who I
was as a football player. So I wasn't I was
(03:11):
never I was. I was never intimidated or overwhelmed by
Isaac or Ricky and those guys as presidence, though I
respected UH their president, but I knew I was just
as good wow. And the best way for me to
be able to do that was to go out and
practice the way that I practice, carried myself the way
that I did have the n G, the enthusiastic of
playing football and playing the position, and and and and
(03:33):
and that way. I knew if I did that that
I would get the respect from Isaac, I would get
the respect from Ricky, I would get to respect from
DeMarco Farr Todd, like.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Keith Lele, etcetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
By the way, as a rookie player, I presented myself
on the day to day basis, which was to go
out keep my mouth shut because you barely hurt me
say anything, no, keep off, shut at work and ball
h and prove again why coach vermil who we're honoring
this weekend, and coach uh sand Coach Al Sanders, and
Mike Martin, why they believed in Charlie Army, why they
(04:02):
believe I was the sixth overall draft pick. I wanted
to come out and prove that to you guys every
single day, and.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I think you did. I mean, we didn't talk much
about you because we didn't have to. You know what
I'm saying. You were one of us from day one.
You know what I'm saying. So it wasn't this thing
where we had to get to know you or get
to like you. Yeah, he's here, He's going to be
one of our guys.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
My fame, DeMarco was if I can as a rookie player,
If I can, if I could get somewhere close to
Isaac and Ricky and Marshall terms of their production, in
terms of their mentality, I could get half way there.
We're a better team, right, I'm a better player. So
it was more about me wanting to get my level
(04:44):
up to theirs to elevate our team. And I knew
if I did that, then I knew I was going
to be pretty good.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I always felt disrespected way back in the day when
they put somebody in front of me that I know
I could be. You know what I'm saying, Why you
put this guy in front of me? How you looking
at me? Did you ever have that same thing like
are you kidding me? This is the guy you got
trying to cover me right now?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Really a lot, actually, But that was the mentality that
you had to have in order to be to dominate
an opponent, opponent or show up an opponent. Isaac had
that same mentality wrecking them, had that same mentality.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Marshal.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
The list goes on, I was an assassin. I had
those examples in front of me all the time. So
it was it was it was no way that I
was going to have or adopt any of the mindset
already was driven, already was competitive, and I'm now sitting
across guys that have the same mentality that.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
So I knew that if I just stuck with it,
kept my head down, just kept working, kept asking questions,
watched the watch the vets, do it, keep working, I
knew that I could do something really special with my career.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
See, we hung in there was a group of us
that came from LA and the guys that were there
before you got there. So we always were hanging on
to this Super Bowl nugget. We want to win so bad.
We wanted to beat the Niners so bad. We wanted
to be one of those teams. I'll tell you remember
they used to advertise in the NFL mugs, get your
your t shirts, your beach towels with your team's logo.
They would never show the rams. Yeah, they wouldhow thirty
(06:14):
one teams or thirty seas.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
And never us.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
It would just drive us crazy. We can't wait to win.
We can't wait the women, we can't wait to win.
So ninety nine, we knew we were going to be
pretty good, especially after we got Marshall. This is when
Trent Green was our quarterback, So we knew then the
guys that were there, we knew we were going to
be pretty good or very good or playoff football team.
When did you know in ninety nine that we were
going to be special?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I knew it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Started to formulate in my mind that we could be
really especially when I got there and I saw all
the talent. I've set this story before, and I saw
all the talent, and I couldn't understand why y'all.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Was three and thirteen, four and twelve.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
All of this talent, the makeup, the competitiveness, the type
of beans everybody were, the type of humans everybody was.
I couldn't understand you know that, what that, but why
that was the case. And then when I got out
on the field and the ball wasn't hitting the ground
and the defense was flying around, you guys were talking
about how we were, how you guys had made us competitive,
(07:12):
and how we were making you guys more competitive in
that environment, and we were sharpening each other up.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I knew then.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I said, Okay, I don't know what we'll do. I
don't know if we'll win the super Bowl. It' super bowled.
It actually didn't even come to my mind. I don't
know how many games will win. Yeah, but I know
we're going to win some games. Yeah, yeah, just because
of the talent that we had and how we were
going at each other and how we were preparing to
go out for war.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, So we go thirteen to three, we get the
first round, by we make it to the playoff. We
make it through the playoffs, we're in the super Bowl.
It still doesn't hit me that we're in the super Bowl.
It really doesn't. It does not hit me that we're
in the biggest game of the year until we're in
the tunnel getting ready to come out. And I'll tell
you the story. I'm standing next to Ryan Tucker of
all people. Yeah, and you know, he's six foot whatever.
(07:54):
He is, big man, big dude. So I look to
my right and it's his shoulder pad right in my
face because he's so all. And I saw that Super
Bowl thirty four, like.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Patch on this. I'm like, Yeah, this is the big game.
This is it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So when you see us running out and you see
me with my hands above my head, I'm hyperventilating, Like
it hit me right then, this is the super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
How about for you? And I would say for me.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
When we went out for warm ups because a lot
of us came back in because we had to get
ivs because we had we had exhausted ourselves on the top, right,
I was like, right.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Oh, this is different.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Like you can just you can you can sense the
the atmosphere, all of the celebrities that was on the
sideline and and you know, being in the lant and
and it was just like, whoa, this is everything that
I thought it was going to be. Because as a
little kid, you know, you're sitting down and you're watching
the super Bowl. You see these Yeah, you see this big,
huge dome and the inside and people are standing and
(08:53):
cheer lights are going up. It's like, Wow, that's the
super Bowl. And then when we was out there, woman,
and I was like, wow, I met the super Ball.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
It's different. And I'm burnt out. You know what I'm saying.
You know, I went too hard.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I went too hard and had to get an IV
to go back out. Oh yeah, but I tell you
what that I'm glad. I'm glad I exerted myself in
that way because I never I didn't. I didn't leave
anything out there. I experienced it, all the highs and
the lows of everything.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
The one you caught all their face mask, the one
you I keep telling you about this. I can see
your smile from fifty years away. What went through your
mind when you caught this. Hold on to this freaking ball.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I don't care how you have to do it, you
better hold on to this ball because Isaac is looking
at me, DeMarco was looking at me, everybody's looking at
me to.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Make this play. Hold on to the ball. Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And I was able to hold on just enough, put
it right on my fast face mask and brought my
other hands into to corral and bringing it for with
a touchdown. But I had gotten beaten up the week
before against the Tampa Bay Bucket and they were hitting.
Oh it was hitting, but we weren't stopping them.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
We got up off that turf and we got right
back in that huddle and we came right back at them.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It's just as they was coming at us.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
But uh, but no, I was fortunate enough to have
enough strength man to hold it there on the face man,
which is an iconic photo of you have seen it.
But that's again it was what was going through my
mind was to finish the play.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
The Tampa win, the biggest win of our lives outside
of the Super Bowl, because of who we beat them.
You see Warren's Apple Lot, Derek Brooks, all them. They're proud,
absolutely they are, but they're not allowed to speak when
we're around.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You can talk, but when we come in with the
conversation changes just a little bit, just a bit.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I'm proud of that too, absolutely, because yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
I mean, I mean, just think about how we were
respected offensively.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's how they were respected on the other side.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
To be able to go out and to go toe
to toe with them, pound pound with them, blow for
blow with them, and to be able to win that game.
Come on, man, it puts a that certainly put a
that's certainly allowed me to buff my chest out a
little bit more around.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Them they say, yeah, we're super Bowl champions. Yeah you
got it after that's right after us. Yeah you didn't
go through us, yeah, big time. So how's the Hall
of Fame weight thing going for you? I mean, knowing
that you're deserving. It's weird receivers. It's a log jab,
It's just how it goes.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
How are you doing with this, man?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I mean you, I mean, we sit inside each other
and me feel my vibe, I hope, Yeah, I feel
yours gracefully.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Man. Yeah, you know, I'm just just leaning on my
faith with it.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Certainly is time, Yeah, and I think this I said
last year was the time. Here we are again this
year it's time. But you know, the voters have to
it's it's in their hands. So hopefully, hopefully this year
we'll get enough folks that are champion for me for
the right reasons, get the right voters. Uh, and more
voters too, you know, to feel that I'm deserving and
(11:50):
to get me across the finish line.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
It's crazy. I just we're just I just thought of it. So, yeah,
you're drafted six overall and you're mad about the bull
in the car. I deserved it. And here we are
at the end. Yeah, here we are again. But the
same thing. It's up to the motors. But yeah, I mean,
you know this, you're deserving. I could line up a
list of corners and safeties and coordinators a mile long
and they will all say, Tori is of that cloth, right,
(12:13):
thank you. But just getting the gold jacket, what do
you think that.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Will mean for you? When you be huge?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yea U and it And it'll be huge for me,
It'll be huge for you, my teammates, my coaches, all
that have helped me get to this point to even
be considered a Pro Football Hall of Famer. But it
valid it's certainly put. It would certainly put the stamp
on that chapter of my life as a football player.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I think back to when I was a kid in Gibsonville.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
North Carolina, just throwing the ball up around the neighborhood,
throwing it off of the buildings, just dreaming to play sport,
just dreaming to compete and to do it at a
high level. Ever since watching Michael Jordan and David Thompson,
James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, all those guys in the.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
ACC then going on and playing in the ACC.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
So it'll bring back all it a valid it will,
it will validate all of those feelings and all those
emotions that I had of the youth, wanted to play
sport and be recognized as one of the best. No
doubt this gold jacket certainly with service down.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
You you guys have made my life in the media hard.
You Isaac Marshall, Kurt Orlando because when they talk about
good offenses or good receivers or good left tackles, really.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Saw it right right.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And the thing that I love too, DeMarco too, when
you talk about those guys and we saw them every day.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
They work though man like hard, like God. We put
our work in. Gee, I'm not, I'm not. I'm being serious.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
If you were ever in the room with us, if
you were ever at practice with us, and you saw
how we went about it daily.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
We were professional. We was probe. So these guys are
these guys are more than certain, more than worthy of
being into profoo ball the team. Man, you getting me
fired up? Sir.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
We do this thing and it's on rams iconic. We
do it every time. My favorite play, did you just
give me your favorite play with the catch in the
Super Bowl? Give me another one, Give me another one.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
My favorite play, I give you my favorite play was
in the Super Bowl. The they brought the they brought
the safety blitz. Kurt and I saw it. We knew
if they brought the safety blitz. We had a slant
that was a sight adjustment. He looked at me. I
looked at him, very subtle. I ran the correct route.
He put it right on me, right on the face.
Man's that's my first first that was my number one
catch being that it was.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So you looked at Kurt and he looked back like
we were saying this. We're seeing what we're seeing.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
So we get up, we get up to the line
of scrimmage. That's pre snap, right, So he's pre snapping.
He's looking and seeing what the linebackers are do.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I'm looking. This is Tennessee. So curses for blitz ye.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Greg Williams is known for blessing down and some other
stuff information that we and some other stuff, some information
that we knew. And when that situation presented itself, and
as prolific as he and I was prolific as our
offense was, he saw the safety come down.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I looked at him. He looked at me. Okay, cool.
I ran the slant, he dropped back, the safety jumps up.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
He puts it right underneath his arm, put him up,
a man up, catches right on the face mask touchdown Rams.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Is that that video where Phoenix is getting blocked when
he's blitzing and he but yeah, that's the.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
One that's Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So the safety, the safety all of a sudden, and
I'm sitting there, I'm on the line of swimmers.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I'm saying, is he gonna come? Come?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
If he come, I'm killing his man. And he came
and we made him pay. So that was that was
That's my number one. And then I'll go back to college.
We played Florida State. Yeah, seventeen seventeen seven or something
like that. Fourth quarter, we call a timeout. Coach says, toy,
what you want to run? Deep posts? The coach asked
(15:44):
you what you want do you want to do to finish?
It wasn't gonna be no receiver screen going nowhere else.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Right to me? Right right? What do you want to run?
Deep posts? Wow?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
We ran a deep post. Jamie Barnett sets his feet,
They give him enough time. He throws it right over
to dB right into my arms. We finished Florida State.
Those are probably my two top memorable catches in my career.
Absolutely gorgeous, no doubt. Give me that look real quick,
I'll be Kurt. Give me the look. So I'm looking,
so I'm looking at you. Yeah, and the safety's acting
(16:14):
acting as if he wants to come down.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
On this side. Okay, yeah, and I say give it
to me again. You see this? Do you understand what
my and he's like. I don't miss yes, sir, yes, sir? Wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You know outside everybody else, I think I might have
been the happiest for well Isaac number one.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
That's my guy.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
You're seeing Kurt go in because of his story and
everything else.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah. Yeah, Now, Kurt Kurt's uh, Kurt's dope man. Kurt
worked at it man, and Kurt look good now he
does look good. He does look good. But all of
you guys, man, when we won that Super Bowl. We'll
now finish on this, but we won that Super Bowl.
DeMarco and I often tell you guys how much I
appreciate y'allah. Actually, every time I see you, I say
thank you, how much I appreciate playing with y'all on
(17:03):
what I was able to learn.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
But to see the jubilation on your face, Brother.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Ray Agnews Fame, Kevin Carter, Keith loud t Light, Adam Timmerman,
Marshall All, Orlando, all the guys who had put in
a lot of work to get to that moment and
then to finally be able to hoist that trophy.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
It was. It was so satisfying. We celebrated January thirty
in my house. It's a birthday, absolutely all right.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That's a wrap on this episode of Ramsey Contact, presented
by eighteen hundred Tequila, the best taste in taquila. Please
drink responsibly. Hope you enjoyed our conversation with Big Game.
Torri helped one of the all time greats the goats.
I'm DeMarco Farm. We'll see you next time on Ramsey Cony.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Take a chimut
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