Ep. 31: Isaac Bruce talks about winning the Super Bowl XXXIV, Torry Holt belonging in the HOF & more
December 7, 2024 • 35 mins
On this live episode of Rams Iconic, Rams legend wide receiver Isaac Bruce joins D’Marco Farr to reflect on his career with the Rams. Bruce details his time with "The Greatest Show on Turf", winning the 1999 Super Bowl, his relationship with former head coach Dick Vermeil, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to RAMS Iconic Live, presented by eighteen hundred Tequila,
the best taste in tequila. Please enjoy responsibly. I am DeMarco,
and we are so excited for all of you to
join us here to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of
our Super Bowl championship team in nineteen ninety nine. Can
you believe it's been twenty five years? Man, twenty five years? Unbelievable,
and you still look exactly the same. My next guest
(00:29):
needs no intro, but I'm gonna do one anyway. Fourteen
seasons with the Rams, four time pro bowler, eight seasons
of one thousand yards receiving or more, fourteen thousand, one
hundred and nine receiving yards and eighty four touchdown receptions
is a franchise record. I didn't know you had gone
that far. Man. Man, that's awesome. I pushed it out
that pretty good. I think so. Cooper and Pooka got
(00:50):
some work to do, work, whole lot of work. Please
welcome in Hall of Famer, Isaac Brews Ramsai con Yes, sir,
thank you man. How do you not age you look
exactly the same as you did in nineteen ninety four?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
How is that possible. Hey, I read my Bible every day, man,
so that helps me. Yeah, yeah, give it up for that.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Look at you see check bite again. I love it.
So ninety four, what do you remember about our rookie
year in Los Angeles rookie year? Yeah, Chuck Knox.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You know he had these sayings, and one was, if
you want to get your mail at Rams Park, you
better do this, you better do that. Yes, but yeah,
just having guys like Sean Gilbert, having guys like Jackie Slater,
just watching Jackie get dressed every day for practice was
it was instrumental for me because I learned how to
be a pro just watching him. I had the great mentors,
(01:43):
Jesse Hester, I had Flipper Anderson as another one of
my mentors taught me how to get open versus his own.
Taught me just a lot of little things on and
off the field. So but I love being here in
La trust me. I went to Santa Monica City College
for two years, then I went to Memphis and then
got drafted by the Rams again.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So I went from a.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Broke student college student to a professional athlete in the
city of Los Angeles with you know, pretty nice check
on man.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I didn't know that because when we talked up when
we were rookies, it was always Memphis, memphiss. I didn't
know you'd played in California before. Absolutely, man.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I did my first two years of college one at
West l A and then I transferred to Santa Monica
City College. Wow, a lot of a lot of great
players have come out of Santa Monica SMC, Chad Ocho, Cinco,
Steve Smith.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
We all had the same coach, same position coach, and
same head coach at that time.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I'd rather have you yeah, me too, than anybody else
in the world. I keep saying, did I say this,
I'll send this in front of him when people ask
me about who's the best receiver, best best player I
ever played with? I no, no, I was. This is
my Michael Jordan right here because of how hard he worked. Seriously,
I've never seen a dude compete so hard in just
about anything and don't steal anything from his locker. I
(02:55):
just want to let you know about that. So, those years,
those formative years ninety four, five, ninety six, ninety seven
before before we became champions, what do you remember most
about those building block years? For you? As a player.
You know what, our first.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Year we were done at U c Irvine, right, and
it was like it was like a cakewalk. I was like,
this is the NFL. I mean I met that. From
a standpoint of the weather, it was seventy degrees every day.
I couldn't really relate with some of my other teammates
from Memphis who are in training camps, uh, talking about
just how hot, hot and hard it was. So you know,
we had that. But then the second year when we
(03:31):
went to Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Little did we know, Yeah, my god, you got we
got a we got a first time NFL head coach
and coach Brooks and he had to really set the
tone just about what about how what type of coach
he was was gonna be.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
And it was humid hot in Saint Louis And I'm
talking ivs every other day for guys, And I got
my awakening, uh and my welcoming to the NFL that
second year of my career.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Where were we in training camp? What Mary Gerryville had.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
To go down into the into the little cavern deal
they practice in the heat just sat right there right there.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It was so hot, so humid. I'd never been through
humidity before? Was that Troy Drayton our tight end. Remember
when he was laid out in the middle of the
mall and we thought he was like sunning, but he
was cramping.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Up, cramping up, trying to laugh in the middle, in
the middle of the cafeteria where we were eating it.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yes, you know, just just start.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Laughing and before you know it, the paramedics were there,
somebody in his arm.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We're like, somebody needs to go check on him. I
thought he was just laying out. It was like, where
have you guys been? I am dehydrated? It was so hot,
but I mean that was like it could have been hotter.
I mean, we were trying to make it in the NFL.
We could care less. This is what I mean. So
I'm on the defensive side and Isaac's on the office
side obviously, But the what he would do to our
(04:51):
DB's and how he would just torture them. What was
his name, Ryan McNeil, my man. I loved him to death.
We had brought him in to be one of our
top corners and I Isaac, you turned him inside out
and training we had to like talk him up, talk
his confidence back up.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Well, listen, every player in the National Football League goes
through what we call a baptism.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I had mine.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It was Steve Israel, it was Robert Bailey, it was
Todd Light guys who really baptized me from a defensive
standpoint to just let me know, listen, you're not gonna
run up and down the field like this is Myths
versus Tulsa. It's not gonna happen like that every day.
So we had to work to get where we were.
You know, I saw other guys get baptist.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I saw you.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I saw Jackie Slater baptize you in nine o seven.
You know my brothers here, and I felt I felt
sorry for you. I was like, oh my god, you
got about to kill Demarcos.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Tell the story.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
But I mean he fainted, he feinted, and the classic
head butt Jackie Slater.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You guys know who Jackie is, right, of course, Yeah,
Jackie could have been my daddy. But go ahead, Yeah
he was that old, but go ahead. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But but just those moments, everybody got baptized and I
got I took my baptism, But it was world well
worth it because I felt like I learned a lot
of lessons learning from people and taking those hard roads
to really know what it was to be like to
be a professional.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So I keep telling people that those teams ninety four,
ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight, leading up to this,
I didn't know we weren't a good football team. I
didn't I did not know we weren't a good football team.
I thought we were one or two players away, one
or two players away. Did you have the.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Same feeling, Well, you know, I was in a huddle
one game my second year in nineteen ninety five. Whill
it where it really hit me how we might have
been playing San fran and you know, we're pretty confident,
but then it was like in the first half they
shattered our confidence completely to the point where they were,
you know, showing their arrogance about being the big dog,
(06:45):
big dog in that Ken Norton GA that was Ken
Norton kind the gold post, and oh yeah, I just
I just really it just really hit me.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That we we sucked.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know, we were a long ways from really competing
inside the division and you know, trying to push to
the full long time. I never watched the playoffs after
that because you know, either yeah, it hurt my feelings.
I was jealous of that team up North because of
what they were accomplishing, and you know, I guess you
could say I want to be like them, But at
(07:16):
the same time, we just didn't have what we needed
to really start to make any noise in that division
at that time.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That was Dannis Stubblefield, same old sorry ass ran.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh yeah, that was a bunch of those on inside
the NFL. Yeah, there's a lot of those guy's name
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I'm with you, so with you it was it was
so much fun. So okay, so rich Brooks and gets
two years, they let him go and walks Dick for
Mill Now that was a Yeah, that was a different deal.
I mean training camp was rough. I mean he was
trying to run guys off. He was trying to make
us better. We didn't know it, but it was hard.
I mean, you guys went through I guess a relationship
(07:50):
arc that was.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That was a weird deal. Tell me about that. It
was a roller coaster at the beginning. I guess he
didn't know me. I really didn't know him. You know,
he was fourteen years out of the GAIN and coming back.
You know, it's gonna change you take a decade away
from something that you did for so long and then
come back. The people change the way we play the
game changed. So he came back and introduced us to
(08:14):
you know, seventies football as far as being prepared and
being ready to play, and he added drills to to
the stuff that we were already doing. So we probably
go from seven periods to about nine periods, from a
seven on seven to a nine on seven. I've never
heard of a nine on seven. But at the same time,
the practice times were three and a half hours long,
and you know, he cried the drop of a hat,
(08:35):
which made me even more upset. But you know who
knew what he was building at that time. He was
he was building inner fortitude on the inside of us.
And uh, it really started to show, you know, towards
the end of football games when we were playing, because
not many quarterbacks finished games that we were playing against
and they didn't play the following week after that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, we beat you up, Yeah we did. I remember
he said we're going to develop a deeper level of conditioning.
He's saying this in the team setting, so I'm thinking,
oh man, tomorrow's gonna be hard. And then he said,
we're gonna bang the lactic acid out of you. Yeah,
I mean this is this is us getting ready for practice. Right.
So that sounds a little spooky, that sounds hard. Yeah,
(09:15):
it was hard, but that we did. We did develop
that deeper level of conditioning. We developed that callous that
we needed to be tough. You were coming off the
the the hamstring correct situation. That was rough. That was
ninety seven nine.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
For ninety seven and ninety eight, I had major hamstring issues.
I missed a total about twenty games at that time. Yeah,
so you know, twenty games down the drain and uh,
you know, being having a young mind at that time,
I want to point my finger and blame people, but
you know, no one else to blame but myself and
not really being in tip top shape like I knew
I could have been.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oh really, of course. Oh I didn't know that. You
never told me that before. I didn't know. I keep
some stuff a secret. I didn't know that. I wait
till the book comes out, see seventy five eighty. Our
lockers are right next to each other for like seven years.
I didn't know this. We never talked about this stuff.
But okay, so jump to ninety nine. We get Marshall,
we get Trent Green. And I remember that first practice
(10:09):
when Marshall and Trent lined up and I'm looking, I'm like,
we got Isaac, we drafted Toy, we got Orlando, we
got a tough and ready defense. I mean, this might
be our best opportunity to make the playoffs. I didn't
say super Bowl yet, just to be a winning football team.
Did you have that same feeling?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, I thought the biggest addition that year, and this
may sound funny, but the biggest edition that year was
the development of Orlando Pace because he really became professional
pancake at that time, because up to that point, you know,
he hadn't made a Pro Bowl, you know, so and
then in nineteen ninety nine, here he comes, he comes
into his own and he starts wrecking shot. You know,
he's moving people out of the way. We can slide
(10:47):
to the right and leave him on the backside with
a guy like Dwight friendI and he can ask him out,
no problem, no touching. But you know when you bring
those guys in and what I saw on paper just
that summer and just that spring, I was like, I
was really about what we had. You know, up until
that point, we had been known as a defensive team.
You know, we rely on our defense to win games
for us, keep us in it, and hopefully we score
(11:08):
a couple of touchdowns and have an opportunity to win.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
A football game.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
But when those guys came in Marshall, when Tory came
in Trent, and another big addition was Adam Timmerman, a
big man, Yeah, we were ready to go. I thought
we were ready to make some noise inside the division,
just like you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Adam was. He's on my football card when he was
in Green Bay. Well he's spinning off getting far. I
send it to him every Christmas for that. But yeah, yeah,
I mean we were ready to roll. And do you
remember what Orlando did the Chuck Smith that year in Atlanta?
Of course, Chuck Smith was if you think trash, who's
the best trash talker now in the NFL? Anybody thrown
name out? Anybody? Okay, nothing compared to Chuck Smith right
(11:47):
as far as trash talk.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
He was a bright skin, red eyed motor mountain all
game long, four quarters long. I mean it was still
one of my better friends. Yeah, and you know, you know,
he had a great career you know he was fantastic athlete.
Ten sacks a year, Yeah, Willie Rope he played against consistently.
Oh yeah, big o'. And you asked me, do I
remember what he did?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah? Of course. He was the first guy to shut
chuck up, I mean quiet, Yeah, went talking to nothing
and just broke him in half. Yeah. So, I mean
Orlando had arms that could reach you from me here,
it was just amazing. So okay, so let's go to
week five of that year and we knew. Let's go
back to that preseason when Trent got hurt and I
(12:30):
was up in the stands. I was hurt and I
saw Trent get hit. I didn't know the extent of it,
but what I did see was you out there banging
on the turf. What was that about for you? When
you were banging on the Was it just Trent being hurt?
What did that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Okay, So let's let's just put it this way. In
our division, we talk about the team up north, we
talk about the personnel that they had, right, they had
superior personnel than then then the other teams in that division, Uh,
the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Path. You talk about at
quarterback wide receivers from tight end, and they had a
number of superstar guys on their defense.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So that was the first year that I felt like,
you know, we can really compete because you know, you
go out and get Trent Green, who knows the offense right.
He's been in the offense probably two years under Mike
Martz in Washington. So we bring Trent home, who's actually
from Saint Louis. And then at the same time, you
talk about a guy who can add lib in that offense, right,
(13:27):
different from what Kurt Warner was at that time, because
you know, I could line up with Trent in training
camp and we can call a certain play five twenty
five Z post, but he could wink at me and say, yo,
just do this. We could do that. We had that
feeling in training camp. So to lose a guy like that,
I was I was frustrated because I was like, We're
gonna have to go back.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
To what we had.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I'm a guy that played with twenty five starting quarterbacks
in my career, so that's a lot and I didn't
want to go back there. So I felt like we
had the guy in Trent Green to really lead us
to the promised land that time, you were entire twenty
five quarterbacks twenty five start. How many did we have
for the seven we played together? Probably eighteen nineteen, eighteen
nineteen quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, but I thought we were gonna load up and
run the football, play defense because we've done it before, right, correct,
that was our deal. But then in walks Kurt Warner
and you had no idea that this thing was going
to take off to the point where he was going
to have a movie. There was only there was only
one Kurt one I knew, and I thought when I
first seen Chris Clawson's he was at strength closed, right, Yeah,
(14:32):
so I see where you go and get your workout
from that for that day out of his cabinet, I
see Kurt Warner. I'm like, Dann Kirk got to be
old man running back.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, okay, all right, but yeah, I really didn't know
who Kurt was and probably til you know, probably the
third week of nineteen ninety nine's training camp.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, yeah, that was pretty much it. I remember him
the year before in ninety eight, they let him in
at the end of the year versus San l and
he played pretty good, you know, he didn't get himself killed,
so I'm like, he was our backup. So he Trent
go Kirk going in. I had no idea he was
going to be that good. Okay, So jump to week five.
Here come those guys up North again. Okay, so this
was the big moment. We're pretty good. That's the true test.
(15:14):
This is the true test. This is it, right, this
is the big moment. They had beaten us personally ten
times in a row, correct, ten times, ten times in
a row.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
So so leading up to that game, we were what undefeated, yeah,
four victories. We had beat a ray Lewis Baltimore Ravens team.
I think we ran ran by Ravu Kennon and Atlanta
Falcons at that time, or you did. Yeah yeah. But
but now now you have the team up north. They're coming,
They're coming in town. And the only thing I regretted
(15:46):
about that day is that Steve Young didn't play. Yeah, yeah,
he didn't play that game. So we got we got everybody.
I didn't but go ahead, yeah yeah I didn't. We
got everybody else. And by the time, you know, the half,
about the time halftime ruled around, you know, we were
well up in that game. You know, I had a
pretty good game that game, and you know, that game
was one that really cubmitted to me in my mindset
(16:09):
that we had a team and that we can really
make some noise in the division for the first time
in our careers.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Do you remember what you had that day? Your numbers?
I had a pretty good game. I think you got
it written down there. So five catches so everybody, one
hundred and thirty four yards and four touchdowns. Yeah. Yeah,
So watching him go out there and do that, not
only did we beat them, we beat We slayed the
(16:34):
dragon that night. We did. Yeah, we got that monkey
off our back. We did. We became the big brothers
of that division that day.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
That was the first time Tim McDonald and Merton Hanks
actually ran me down, stripped my hand and say, man,
good job.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Wow in four years wow.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, yeah, that was the first time, the first time,
the first time.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Did you know after that? Because I had this feeling
once we beat them, who else can stop us?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was that was our measuring stick? Yeah, you know,
because they had they had made multiple playoff runs, they
go to Super Bowl since we had been in the
league and in that division, but that was pretty much it.
No one because the only team that could beat us
at that moment.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Was us Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it happened twice that
year in Carolina we had a tough one and then Detroit. Yeah, Detroit,
that was a turney. Tennessee got to Yeah. No, we
beat Carolina. We lost to Tennessee, correct, and we said
we want to see those guys again. Okay, so talking
about the hammy. Now, let's go to our first postseason
football game, our first playoff game in Saint Louis. We
(17:37):
got the Minnesota Vikings and we've got history with them,
we played them before. Now that's a loaded football team. Yeah,
big time, big time loaded. I mean he had Chris Carter,
Randy Moss, Jeff George at the time, who could throw
it anywhere. Uh, one of the best lines in football.
Their defense was great, Dolman Randall. I mean, they were
Super Bowl ready. So they're coming to town. So let
me tell you from my perspective. So I had my
(17:58):
own issues. I'm getting ready to go again. Another Hall
of Famer guard. Yes, yeah, I'm getting ready to go
out there. And Corey Stringer was out there, so we
had battled before, so I'm locked in. I got to
get to Jeff Jors before he gets this ball out
because on the other end is Chris Carter and Randey Musk. Yeah,
So I'm heading out now. When we leave the locker
room in Saint Louis, it wasn't really a tunnel. You
had to kind of walk around and then you walk
(18:19):
between where the seats are and there's like an erector set,
so it's metal under there. So I'm walking out and
I'm locking in and I look to my left and
there you are under the stands, and I think you
were praying right, And I'm like, why is he over there?
But I can't worry about it. And then I go
out on the field warm up and they say Isaac
may have tweaked his hamstring again. Now, we had been
(18:41):
through the hamstring thing in ninety seven ninety eight, and
I knew what it did to him. I'm like, oh, no,
he heard his hammy again. We're gonna be without Isaac.
I think we can still beat these dudes, but I
wish we had our guy out there. So what happened
with you? And warm up? When did you tweak your hammy?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I actually pulled my hamstring in warm up, So
as smart as I am, I go out and I
tell myself, you know what, this is gonna be my
first playoff game, so I'm not gonna stretch. I'm just gonna,
you know, just enjoy the moment and just watch people,
you know, Yeah, which is what I did. But right,
probably two minutes before pregame ended, I do just a
(19:17):
mini stretch and my hamstring pops on me right, and
I'm like, oh my goodness, if you ever pulled the hamstring,
trust me, you know what it feels like. You can
barely walk. So I'm tipping. I make a bee line
to the to the locker room, but walking real slow.
I walk right by Jim Anderson, our trainer, and he
looks me in the eyes, and he's like, what's going on?
And I say nothing to him because if I tell him,
(19:39):
he's gonna go run and till my coach, my position coach,
Al Sanders, my son's gonna go tell Dick Vermill, and
then Dick ver Mill's gonna tell Mike.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Martz, and we had a play call.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
The first player of the game was already called since Thursday, Wow, right,
we already knew it.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
The first place is action eight thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Mety on outside, I'm inna slot we're gonna action eight,
and so I just go.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
In the locker room. Man.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I called my sister and I let her know what happened.
I actually was looking for my mother, but my sister
answers the phone, and you know, we had a moment
of prayer. We prayed, but I never allowed myself to
say that I wasn't gonna play. In fact, I kept
telling myself that I'm gonna play, and I'm gonna play. Well,
kickoff happens. They get the ball. They have a long drive, right,
and it's like, you know, they eat like seven eight
(20:24):
minutes into the first quarter, drive into the red zone.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
They kick a field goals three nothing all right, So
we go to go to you know, a commercial break.
They kicked the ball off. Toy Tony hornk Tony Horns
catches the ball. It runs about to the seven or
the twenty twenty yard line. Still haven't played, right, I
still haven't tested my hamstring. So I go out and uh,
we called the play. I lamped to the line of scrimmage.
If you ever look at my footwork is changed because
(20:48):
I normally put my inside foot up where the ball is.
So I switched to at that moment because my my
hamstring is so in pain. But at that moment when
he said hut, when I saw that ball snap boom,
I shot out like a fire, like a like a bullet,
and that ball hit me right in the chest. So
and I outrun Toy, you know, a young Tory Hope.
I outrun the safety on the backside. Tat's coming, you know,
(21:10):
one of the cornerbacks.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
He's coming. I outrun him. Griffin, I outrun him.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And I'm just looking at the jumbo trun at that
moment and giving God some praise because he performed a
miracle for me right there.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
You you were in the hold and you didn't feel
paying the whole way down. If you ever pulled the hamstring,
yus never you know what it feels like. I've never
anybody pulled a hamstring before somebody's pulled the hand. I'm
not fast enough. I don't I've never pulled a hamstring,
but I do remember, yeah, you catching it, Yeah, looking
up because we're watching, We're going crazy. That the entire
dome was going nuts, and then you did this.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It was no man, Remember that I looked twice before
I did that. Yeah, Yeah, I didn't want to get
You know, what were you saying right there? I was
giving the Lord thanks. I was like, thank you, Lord Jesus,
because he performed a miracle for me. I mean, I like,
I keep saying, if you ever pulled the hamstring, We've
had injuries in this game to the point where you
know it makes you immobile. I mean, but a hamstring
(22:03):
for a wide receiver guy known for speed like myself,
you don't want a hamstring, and a hamstring would put
you down for six weeks. Hamstring didn't make I didn't
miss a play. I didn't miss a snap.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
At all at all. Wow. I remember looking at Kevin
me and Kevin I said, I think we're gonna win this. Yeah,
I think we got this from Okay, so jump to Tampa.
We're in the NFC Championship game. Dogfight, right, sir? Is
that is that the best defense you ever faced in
your life? I mean, sap Brooks Lynch Barber. Yeah, let's
take it back to the to the locker room. Okay, right, yeah, let's.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Take it to the locker room of the first playoff game.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, we were loose.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You know, we're excited about playing that game. And then
that following week you know, we go right into the
NFC Championship.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
The mood in.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
The locker room we were tight. Man, I felt like
we were tight as a team. Uh, there were not
many smiles. But at the same time, you mentioned those
guys like Sap, like Lynch, like like Barber, I mean
Hall of Fame guys. It was a dogfight of the
greatest magnitude. It showed toughness, mental toughness from both sides
of both teams. Not only that, I thought the evolution
(23:08):
of Tory Hope in that game. I mean for a
guy to get hit, you know, Brooks hit him one
and he's spitting up blood. Yeah, coming back to play.
It was one of those epic games that you know
when they show it on on a NFL network, Man,
you just got to stop and watch it and appreciate
what's happening in that game and the Hall of famers
that are on the field at that day.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
So I remember that week and it was Mike White.
Mike White was Dick Vermill's assistant, right, So Dix in
the front and Mike White is standing kind of behind
us on this rail. There was a rail that kind
of surrounded our team room and we're getting ready to
play Tampa, and I guess we're tight. I mean, we're
moving forward. But I remember Mike White leaning over and said, Okay,
(23:50):
if we win, we're gonna have to be on the
plane to go to Atlanta like X, Y and Z,
and we only get ten tickets. Like we're talking about
the super Bowl before we played the Buccaneers. So I
guess that's what tightened everybody up, Like we just realized
we're one game away from the super Bowl. We were
in a dream until then, so it kind of woke
us up. But yeah, I mean, so that game was
a Pier six brawl. It was so much fun to
(24:12):
be in. It was who was gonna blink first? But
so that played a Ricky prol oh Man. Tell me
about that. I mean, because I'm thinking, I'm watching from
the bench, the balls in the air, I'm like, that's
gotta be going to that's Isaac over there, that's Marshall,
that's Tory Well, who's he throwing to? Ricky? Wow? Tell
me about that play.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, you said it's the first one to blink, right, Yeah,
I mean it was a chess match that entire game.
Coach Dungee, coach Martz to two play callers, the offense
coordinator and defense coordinated for the Bucks. And all night
long they had this vaunted defense where they can rush
the quarterback with for for D lineman. And when you
(24:52):
have that and you can cover on the back end
play zone, you got a pretty good defense. Plus with
the personnel that they had, so pretty much all that
game we never broke. I think they blinked first because
at that very moment, that's when they send John Lynch,
finally send him.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And all year.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Long, Ricky Pole had not caught a touchdown pass, had
not gotten the end zone.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And uh, you know he was alive.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I mean because he could have fell asleep because that
played that the scenario of that play had never happened
the entire season. So I just remember every Wednesday, you know,
Mike coach, Mike Martz with Warren Ricky. He was like, Rick,
just just remember on this play. Remember on the backside,
safety comes, you're the guy, and that scenario happens in
that game, and Rick is alive. He beats the corner,
(25:37):
made made what I called the biggest catch of my
career to push me into the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I mean, great catch, phenomen You guys saw that, right, Yeah,
phenomenal catch real quick before we move on to the
super Bowl. Tell me about that room. So it's you,
it's Torri, it's Ricky, it's Oz, Tony Horn, Tony Horn.
I mean, Tony Horn had a big return and versus Minnesota,
Tony Horn.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Might have been the fastest the group. He's probably the
fast lead out of all of it. If we all
had to line up and race. Yeah, Tony Horn, I
mean just that whole room. Two Hall of famers were
one and soon to be Tory. Tory's got to get
in Oh. Absolutely, Tory's got to get in it, right.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. How did you guys, I mean, when
you saw Tory your first day rookie, This guy is
gonna be pretty good. How did you guys get along
and just gel that fast? Well, listen, I welcome his approach.
I mean he was the second first round pick that
I played with. I played with Eddie kinin Cidi Kelcher years. Yes,
and trust.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Me, nineteen ninety five showed me that you just can't
have one receiver because what happens is they'll roll the
coverage to your side. They'll beat you up at the
line of scrimmage. They make sure they take you out
of the game. It's easy to take a wide receiver
out of game and make someone else beat you. So
I welcome Tory. I mean, Toy was the first guy
that we drafted that I seen in college have like
(26:54):
a super great game versus a Florida team, and he
did it against Florida State and College. So what I
saw in him at that moment was determination. And then
when he came in, he was coachable. He wanted to learn,
he wanted to be the best. So everything you know
that he saw someone do like Oz or myself as
far as playing the position, he added it to him
(27:16):
his game and it wasn't long before he became a
number one receiver in his mind. So having him having os,
having the experience of a Ricky Prole, it made us
all better. And Ale Sunders was probably one of the
better coaches that I've ever had outside of Henry Ellad
at that time. So those guys and in that room,
I mean, we all could have been starters around the league.
(27:37):
Just so happens we were all together with the Rams
at that time.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Do you help Toy through his process right now? Because
I know the Hall of Fame. That whole process was rough. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, you know, you go through every gamut of emotions,
you know what I'm saying, of excitement, anger, disappointment. Yeah,
so I helped with the disappointing times. I helped with
the excitement of being actually selected as another as a
finalist again, because that's that's not easy. I mean, you
think about the number of guys that have played in
this league over thirty thousand and just it's only what
(28:07):
one hundred and maybe seventy Pro Football Hall of Fame
is walking the earth. Wow, you know what I'm saying.
So that's that's a great place to be. So you
celebrate being a finalist. But at the same time, I
think it's due time. It's due time for Toy to
cross that finish line because I think he's definitely earned it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Absolutely. I remember seeing you in Atlanta when the Rams
went and played the Patriots that one year and I said,
I don't know really, And when you got in, I
was so happy, so much fun. Did you have Popeye's
Chicken or is that Marshall? Marshall had Popey's Chicken at
the thing. That was fun that was our thing. That
was funny. Cream Donuts, Krispy Kreme Donuts, Popeye's Chicken, and
Penn State's Penn Station sandwiches. That was our thing. All right,
(28:44):
royalties there we go. Okay, so this right here, Super Bowl.
We played Tennessee before. Now we're in the big game
in Atlanta. You have a fantastic game. You scored with
what two minutes left in the game to put us
ahead two minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I mean, it's it's the play that I think every
kid that's ever held the football or played football, you
always imagine yourself catching the winning touchdown pass. I don't
think many people imagine themselves unless you're a quarterback throwing
the past. But it's either catching them. You probably had
your defensive line. You probably had the same dream, you know,
catching a game winning touchdown pass, which is a moment
(29:19):
that I've had in my backyard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
for tons of years. But it was always Dan Marino
throwing me the ball. So you know, just that moment itself,
just being in that moment, just the just the atmosphere,
the smoke that was still in the ceiling from the
halftime show, and just having an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
You know, I always say about that play is that
that was a play.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
That's that's It's called to get the chains moving twins
right ace right nine ninety nine eah balloom. So it's
a Marshall play. It's not an Isaac player or a
toy play. What we do is we run them all
off and let Marshall do his thing. We dump it
down to him. It's only two minutes left, so we
can you know, kind of matriculate down the field kick
a winning field goal.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
That's that's the way we looked at it.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
But you know, just at that moment when I heard
the play in the huddle, I was like, you know what, boom,
this is it. This is my moment right here, and
this ball is coming to me.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Now how did I know that? I just knew it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
And then you know the way they played it, It's
set the play up perfectly. They played middlefield clothes or
they started off with a with a with an open field,
dropped the safety down middlefield, close press man. They're not
restricting our progress off the field. He's just turning and
running with me. So we're just running down the field
for about twenty yards. We're in stride Stryder's stride. I'm
(30:33):
not going full speed. He's not going full speed, and
so when the ball comes up, that's when you turn
it on. That's when the game starts for me. So
you know, just so it happens, you know, when you're
running to play like that. We're always coaching never to
give body language. I don't know how it is with defensivelignment,
but you don't want to give anything you're looking for it.
You don't want to have the big eyes like you
see the balls coming. That's gonna alert him, right, So
(30:56):
I make sure my eyes don't get big. I make
sure that my hands don't I'm not running like this.
We teach the young receivers don't run like this, just
run and then at the last second stick your hands out.
But we're running stride for stride. I see the ball
coming and I my insight arhim is on his back,
so I push him and he kind of his he
kind of clicks his feet that he falls, right, trust me,
(31:19):
that's the wrong thing to do in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Listen, don't fall down against the greatest show on turn.
Go do that. So he falls and I get the
ball in my hand. You know.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Another one of the biggest things that we were really
emphasized that year was blocking for each other, the receivers
in that group. I had thrown so many blocks for
ods just to pop O's and let ods just run.
And uh, you know you don't get credit for that.
You don't open Sports Center with that. They're showing odds, right.
So he finally paid me back in the Super Bowl
and he gets this block on tomriw Roll. He hits him,
(31:52):
knocks him, knocks him off his off his spiel. And
then I make Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony dor
sets his son.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I make him miss, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And as I'm running by him, I'm like, man, you
should be you should be a running back anyhow, not
a safety.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So Anthony door set, Oh my god, yes, I'll never
forget him.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And then once again, you know, my eyes go to
the jumbo trun I mean, it's a bad habit if
you got kids out there that play football. I mean,
that's not a habit to put pick up and you
could probably get yourself hurt. But you know, my eyes
go to the jumbo trun and I just see everything.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Man.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I see myself running, I see you know, guys getting
up off the mat behind me. I see guys chasing me,
and then my eyes go down, you know, my guys
go down from the jumbo trun to the fans. I
see all the fans. I see RAM fans like this. Yeah,
I see Titan fans surrender Kobra, you know what I mean, Like,
(32:47):
oh my god, what just happened?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And then it's a mob after that. I mean, I
got all my teammates. Tommy Newton was always in the mix, always,
you know, we didn't even thank the Bob and weave
at that moment, you know, but was just a moment
of celebration. And another thing I always remember about it
is that our owner at that time, Georgia Frontier, you
know it first time she was on the sideline, you know,
(33:09):
and we're walking. She's like walking from the end zone,
walking me back to the side, and I'm like, shock, you.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Know, what are you doing here? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
You know, but that those are moments in that play
that really stick out to me. And then when I
sit down and look at the clock, I see one
fifty four second and we got to deal with Steve McNair.
Oh man, I'm like, oh, here we go. Here's the anxiety.
Right here, nightmare, the toughest assignment in my life. That
man right there. Okay, so where were you for the tackle?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
I h okay. I was on the opposite end. Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
If the play was down here, I was on the
opposite end.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Here.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I never liked standing in the crowd because it's hard
to see, right, so I'd stand on the opposite end,
and I just watched the Jumbo trun I'd watched the
beginning of the play on the jumbo tron, and then
I watched the end of the play actually happen in
live and you know, in live motion. But I see
the snap and I turn and I look, and I
really couldn't tell what happened. So my eyes go to
(34:02):
the Titan sideline and I see no reaction from them,
and I immediately go back to our sideline and I
see big London Fletcher running out helmetless. I see a
lot of guys helmetless and helmets going up. Yeah, so
that let me know that he was stopped. He didn't
get an end zone, and the game was over. And
at that moment, I was a Super Bowl champion, and
(34:22):
I was guaranteed one of these.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
One of these and I got one of these and
they can't take it back. Got one of these, yes, sir,
we got one of these to get a set of these.
Oh see if we can't tell that story right there,
oh my god. But yeah, I do remember coach for
Mel saying that's it, we got it. And then the
the they brought out that podium so fast, so fast.
I mean we had just finished playing and there was
(34:45):
like like an eight foot podium right there. It was
so much fun, confetti everywhere. Can you believe it's been
twenty five years?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Twenty five years, it's been you know, it's been a
glorious twenty five years. Yeah, I mean I thank God
for being here for these twenty five and another twenty
five to come. However, but a lot of great things
have happened in that twenty five. Just to be around
in be's moments again and be able to celebrate with
my teammates again for this moment is special big time.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Every time I'm in so far and I see that
banner and it says us, I just start smiling or
highlights of you, and yeah, Tony Horn was the fastest one. Though.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Let me ask us as I came about that, Yeah,
we never lined up. No, I would say I was
a fascet until we line up. I still think you
owe me money. Remember we used to do that jam game.
Remember that I started jam you in the chest I do.
I don't think you had to touch me. It was
one hundred bucks of jam and I think you owe
me money.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
All right. That's a rap on RAMS Iconic Live presented
by eighteen hundred Kilo, the best taste in to Kilo.
Please enjoy responsibly. I hope you enjoyed our convo with
RAMS Hall of Famer and legend Isaac Bruce. Wow. I'm
DeMarco Farr and we will see you next time
Welcome to RAMS Iconic Live, presented by eighteen hundred Tequila,
the best taste in tequila. Please enjoy responsibly. I am DeMarco,
and we are so excited for all of you to
join us here to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of
our Super Bowl championship team in nineteen ninety nine. Can
you believe it's been twenty five years? Man, twenty five years? Unbelievable,
and you still look exactly the same. My next guest
(00:29):
needs no intro, but I'm gonna do one anyway. Fourteen
seasons with the Rams, four time pro bowler, eight seasons
of one thousand yards receiving or more, fourteen thousand, one
hundred and nine receiving yards and eighty four touchdown receptions
is a franchise record. I didn't know you had gone
that far. Man. Man, that's awesome. I pushed it out
that pretty good. I think so. Cooper and Pooka got
(00:50):
some work to do, work, whole lot of work. Please
welcome in Hall of Famer, Isaac Brews Ramsai con Yes, sir,
thank you man. How do you not age you look
exactly the same as you did in nineteen ninety four?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
How is that possible. Hey, I read my Bible every day, man,
so that helps me. Yeah, yeah, give it up for that.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Look at you see check bite again. I love it.
So ninety four, what do you remember about our rookie
year in Los Angeles rookie year? Yeah, Chuck Knox.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
You know he had these sayings, and one was, if
you want to get your mail at Rams Park, you
better do this, you better do that. Yes, but yeah,
just having guys like Sean Gilbert, having guys like Jackie Slater,
just watching Jackie get dressed every day for practice was
it was instrumental for me because I learned how to
be a pro just watching him. I had the great mentors,
(01:43):
Jesse Hester, I had Flipper Anderson as another one of
my mentors taught me how to get open versus his own.
Taught me just a lot of little things on and
off the field. So but I love being here in
La trust me. I went to Santa Monica City College
for two years, then I went to Memphis and then
got drafted by the Rams again.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So I went from a.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Broke student college student to a professional athlete in the
city of Los Angeles with you know, pretty nice check
on man.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I didn't know that because when we talked up when
we were rookies, it was always Memphis, memphiss. I didn't
know you'd played in California before. Absolutely, man.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I did my first two years of college one at
West l A and then I transferred to Santa Monica
City College. Wow, a lot of a lot of great
players have come out of Santa Monica SMC, Chad Ocho, Cinco,
Steve Smith.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
We all had the same coach, same position coach, and
same head coach at that time.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I'd rather have you yeah, me too, than anybody else
in the world. I keep saying, did I say this,
I'll send this in front of him when people ask
me about who's the best receiver, best best player I
ever played with? I no, no, I was. This is
my Michael Jordan right here because of how hard he worked. Seriously,
I've never seen a dude compete so hard in just
about anything and don't steal anything from his locker. I
(02:55):
just want to let you know about that. So, those years,
those formative years ninety four, five, ninety six, ninety seven
before before we became champions, what do you remember most
about those building block years? For you? As a player.
You know what, our first.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Year we were done at U c Irvine, right, and
it was like it was like a cakewalk. I was like,
this is the NFL. I mean I met that. From
a standpoint of the weather, it was seventy degrees every day.
I couldn't really relate with some of my other teammates
from Memphis who are in training camps, uh, talking about
just how hot, hot and hard it was. So you know,
we had that. But then the second year when we
(03:31):
went to Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Little did we know, Yeah, my god, you got we
got a we got a first time NFL head coach
and coach Brooks and he had to really set the
tone just about what about how what type of coach
he was was gonna be.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
And it was humid hot in Saint Louis And I'm
talking ivs every other day for guys, And I got
my awakening, uh and my welcoming to the NFL that
second year of my career.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Where were we in training camp? What Mary Gerryville had.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
To go down into the into the little cavern deal
they practice in the heat just sat right there right there.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It was so hot, so humid. I'd never been through
humidity before? Was that Troy Drayton our tight end. Remember
when he was laid out in the middle of the
mall and we thought he was like sunning, but he
was cramping.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Up, cramping up, trying to laugh in the middle, in
the middle of the cafeteria where we were eating it.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yes, you know, just just start.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Laughing and before you know it, the paramedics were there,
somebody in his arm.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We're like, somebody needs to go check on him. I
thought he was just laying out. It was like, where
have you guys been? I am dehydrated? It was so hot,
but I mean that was like it could have been hotter.
I mean, we were trying to make it in the NFL.
We could care less. This is what I mean. So
I'm on the defensive side and Isaac's on the office
side obviously, But the what he would do to our
(04:51):
DB's and how he would just torture them. What was
his name, Ryan McNeil, my man. I loved him to death.
We had brought him in to be one of our
top corners and I Isaac, you turned him inside out
and training we had to like talk him up, talk
his confidence back up.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Well, listen, every player in the National Football League goes
through what we call a baptism.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I had mine.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It was Steve Israel, it was Robert Bailey, it was
Todd Light guys who really baptized me from a defensive
standpoint to just let me know, listen, you're not gonna
run up and down the field like this is Myths
versus Tulsa. It's not gonna happen like that every day.
So we had to work to get where we were.
You know, I saw other guys get baptist.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I saw you.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I saw Jackie Slater baptize you in nine o seven.
You know my brothers here, and I felt I felt
sorry for you. I was like, oh my god, you
got about to kill Demarcos.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Tell the story.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
But I mean he fainted, he feinted, and the classic
head butt Jackie Slater.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You guys know who Jackie is, right, of course, Yeah,
Jackie could have been my daddy. But go ahead, Yeah
he was that old, but go ahead. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But but just those moments, everybody got baptized and I
got I took my baptism, But it was world well
worth it because I felt like I learned a lot
of lessons learning from people and taking those hard roads
to really know what it was to be like to
be a professional.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So I keep telling people that those teams ninety four,
ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight, leading up to this,
I didn't know we weren't a good football team. I
didn't I did not know we weren't a good football team.
I thought we were one or two players away, one
or two players away. Did you have the.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Same feeling, Well, you know, I was in a huddle
one game my second year in nineteen ninety five. Whill
it where it really hit me how we might have
been playing San fran and you know, we're pretty confident,
but then it was like in the first half they
shattered our confidence completely to the point where they were,
you know, showing their arrogance about being the big dog,
(06:45):
big dog in that Ken Norton GA that was Ken
Norton kind the gold post, and oh yeah, I just
I just really it just really hit me.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That we we sucked.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know, we were a long ways from really competing
inside the division and you know, trying to push to
the full long time. I never watched the playoffs after
that because you know, either yeah, it hurt my feelings.
I was jealous of that team up North because of
what they were accomplishing, and you know, I guess you
could say I want to be like them, But at
(07:16):
the same time, we just didn't have what we needed
to really start to make any noise in that division
at that time.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That was Dannis Stubblefield, same old sorry ass ran.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Oh yeah, that was a bunch of those on inside
the NFL. Yeah, there's a lot of those guy's name
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I'm with you, so with you it was it was
so much fun. So okay, so rich Brooks and gets
two years, they let him go and walks Dick for
Mill Now that was a Yeah, that was a different deal.
I mean training camp was rough. I mean he was
trying to run guys off. He was trying to make
us better. We didn't know it, but it was hard.
I mean, you guys went through I guess a relationship
(07:50):
arc that was.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
That was a weird deal. Tell me about that. It
was a roller coaster at the beginning. I guess he
didn't know me. I really didn't know him. You know,
he was fourteen years out of the GAIN and coming back.
You know, it's gonna change you take a decade away
from something that you did for so long and then
come back. The people change the way we play the
game changed. So he came back and introduced us to
(08:14):
you know, seventies football as far as being prepared and
being ready to play, and he added drills to to
the stuff that we were already doing. So we probably
go from seven periods to about nine periods, from a
seven on seven to a nine on seven. I've never
heard of a nine on seven. But at the same time,
the practice times were three and a half hours long,
and you know, he cried the drop of a hat,
(08:35):
which made me even more upset. But you know who
knew what he was building at that time. He was
he was building inner fortitude on the inside of us.
And uh, it really started to show, you know, towards
the end of football games when we were playing, because
not many quarterbacks finished games that we were playing against
and they didn't play the following week after that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, we beat you up, Yeah we did. I remember
he said we're going to develop a deeper level of conditioning.
He's saying this in the team setting, so I'm thinking,
oh man, tomorrow's gonna be hard. And then he said,
we're gonna bang the lactic acid out of you. Yeah,
I mean this is this is us getting ready for practice. Right.
So that sounds a little spooky, that sounds hard. Yeah,
(09:15):
it was hard, but that we did. We did develop
that deeper level of conditioning. We developed that callous that
we needed to be tough. You were coming off the
the the hamstring correct situation. That was rough. That was
ninety seven nine.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
For ninety seven and ninety eight, I had major hamstring issues.
I missed a total about twenty games at that time. Yeah,
so you know, twenty games down the drain and uh,
you know, being having a young mind at that time,
I want to point my finger and blame people, but
you know, no one else to blame but myself and
not really being in tip top shape like I knew
I could have been.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oh really, of course. Oh I didn't know that. You
never told me that before. I didn't know. I keep
some stuff a secret. I didn't know that. I wait
till the book comes out, see seventy five eighty. Our
lockers are right next to each other for like seven years.
I didn't know this. We never talked about this stuff.
But okay, so jump to ninety nine. We get Marshall,
we get Trent Green. And I remember that first practice
(10:09):
when Marshall and Trent lined up and I'm looking, I'm like,
we got Isaac, we drafted Toy, we got Orlando, we
got a tough and ready defense. I mean, this might
be our best opportunity to make the playoffs. I didn't
say super Bowl yet, just to be a winning football team.
Did you have that same feeling?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, I thought the biggest addition that year, and this
may sound funny, but the biggest edition that year was
the development of Orlando Pace because he really became professional
pancake at that time, because up to that point, you know,
he hadn't made a Pro Bowl, you know, so and
then in nineteen ninety nine, here he comes, he comes
into his own and he starts wrecking shot. You know,
he's moving people out of the way. We can slide
(10:47):
to the right and leave him on the backside with
a guy like Dwight friendI and he can ask him out,
no problem, no touching. But you know when you bring
those guys in and what I saw on paper just
that summer and just that spring, I was like, I
was really about what we had. You know, up until
that point, we had been known as a defensive team.
You know, we rely on our defense to win games
for us, keep us in it, and hopefully we score
(11:08):
a couple of touchdowns and have an opportunity to win.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
A football game.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
But when those guys came in Marshall, when Tory came
in Trent, and another big addition was Adam Timmerman, a
big man, Yeah, we were ready to go. I thought
we were ready to make some noise inside the division,
just like you.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Adam was. He's on my football card when he was
in Green Bay. Well he's spinning off getting far. I
send it to him every Christmas for that. But yeah, yeah,
I mean we were ready to roll. And do you
remember what Orlando did the Chuck Smith that year in Atlanta?
Of course, Chuck Smith was if you think trash, who's
the best trash talker now in the NFL? Anybody thrown
name out? Anybody? Okay, nothing compared to Chuck Smith right
(11:47):
as far as trash talk.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
He was a bright skin, red eyed motor mountain all
game long, four quarters long. I mean it was still
one of my better friends. Yeah, and you know, you know,
he had a great career you know he was fantastic athlete.
Ten sacks a year, Yeah, Willie Rope he played against consistently.
Oh yeah, big o'. And you asked me, do I
remember what he did?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah? Of course. He was the first guy to shut
chuck up, I mean quiet, Yeah, went talking to nothing
and just broke him in half. Yeah. So, I mean
Orlando had arms that could reach you from me here,
it was just amazing. So okay, so let's go to
week five of that year and we knew. Let's go
back to that preseason when Trent got hurt and I
(12:30):
was up in the stands. I was hurt and I
saw Trent get hit. I didn't know the extent of it,
but what I did see was you out there banging
on the turf. What was that about for you? When
you were banging on the Was it just Trent being hurt?
What did that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Okay, So let's let's just put it this way. In
our division, we talk about the team up north, we
talk about the personnel that they had, right, they had
superior personnel than then then the other teams in that division, Uh,
the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Path. You talk about at
quarterback wide receivers from tight end, and they had a
number of superstar guys on their defense.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So that was the first year that I felt like,
you know, we can really compete because you know, you
go out and get Trent Green, who knows the offense right.
He's been in the offense probably two years under Mike
Martz in Washington. So we bring Trent home, who's actually
from Saint Louis. And then at the same time, you
talk about a guy who can add lib in that offense, right,
(13:27):
different from what Kurt Warner was at that time, because
you know, I could line up with Trent in training
camp and we can call a certain play five twenty
five Z post, but he could wink at me and say, yo,
just do this. We could do that. We had that
feeling in training camp. So to lose a guy like that,
I was I was frustrated because I was like, We're
gonna have to go back.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
To what we had.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I'm a guy that played with twenty five starting quarterbacks
in my career, so that's a lot and I didn't
want to go back there. So I felt like we
had the guy in Trent Green to really lead us
to the promised land that time, you were entire twenty
five quarterbacks twenty five start. How many did we have
for the seven we played together? Probably eighteen nineteen, eighteen
nineteen quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, but I thought we were gonna load up and
run the football, play defense because we've done it before, right, correct,
that was our deal. But then in walks Kurt Warner
and you had no idea that this thing was going
to take off to the point where he was going
to have a movie. There was only there was only
one Kurt one I knew, and I thought when I
first seen Chris Clawson's he was at strength closed, right, Yeah,
(14:32):
so I see where you go and get your workout
from that for that day out of his cabinet, I
see Kurt Warner. I'm like, Dann Kirk got to be
old man running back.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, okay, all right, but yeah, I really didn't know
who Kurt was and probably til you know, probably the
third week of nineteen ninety nine's training camp.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, yeah, that was pretty much it. I remember him
the year before in ninety eight, they let him in
at the end of the year versus San l and
he played pretty good, you know, he didn't get himself killed,
so I'm like, he was our backup. So he Trent
go Kirk going in. I had no idea he was
going to be that good. Okay, So jump to week five.
Here come those guys up North again. Okay, so this
was the big moment. We're pretty good. That's the true test.
(15:14):
This is the true test. This is it, right, this
is the big moment. They had beaten us personally ten
times in a row, correct, ten times, ten times in
a row.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
So so leading up to that game, we were what undefeated, yeah,
four victories. We had beat a ray Lewis Baltimore Ravens team.
I think we ran ran by Ravu Kennon and Atlanta
Falcons at that time, or you did. Yeah yeah. But
but now now you have the team up north. They're coming,
They're coming in town. And the only thing I regretted
(15:46):
about that day is that Steve Young didn't play. Yeah, yeah,
he didn't play that game. So we got we got everybody.
I didn't but go ahead, yeah yeah I didn't. We
got everybody else. And by the time, you know, the half,
about the time halftime ruled around, you know, we were
well up in that game. You know, I had a
pretty good game that game, and you know, that game
was one that really cubmitted to me in my mindset
(16:09):
that we had a team and that we can really
make some noise in the division for the first time
in our careers.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Do you remember what you had that day? Your numbers?
I had a pretty good game. I think you got
it written down there. So five catches so everybody, one
hundred and thirty four yards and four touchdowns. Yeah. Yeah,
So watching him go out there and do that, not
only did we beat them, we beat We slayed the
(16:34):
dragon that night. We did. Yeah, we got that monkey
off our back. We did. We became the big brothers
of that division that day.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
That was the first time Tim McDonald and Merton Hanks
actually ran me down, stripped my hand and say, man,
good job.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Wow in four years wow.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, yeah, that was the first time, the first time,
the first time.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Did you know after that? Because I had this feeling
once we beat them, who else can stop us?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I was that was our measuring stick? Yeah, you know,
because they had they had made multiple playoff runs, they
go to Super Bowl since we had been in the
league and in that division, but that was pretty much it.
No one because the only team that could beat us
at that moment.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Was us Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it happened twice that
year in Carolina we had a tough one and then Detroit. Yeah, Detroit,
that was a turney. Tennessee got to Yeah. No, we
beat Carolina. We lost to Tennessee, correct, and we said
we want to see those guys again. Okay, so talking
about the hammy. Now, let's go to our first postseason
football game, our first playoff game in Saint Louis. We
(17:37):
got the Minnesota Vikings and we've got history with them,
we played them before. Now that's a loaded football team. Yeah,
big time, big time loaded. I mean he had Chris Carter,
Randy Moss, Jeff George at the time, who could throw
it anywhere. Uh, one of the best lines in football.
Their defense was great, Dolman Randall. I mean, they were
Super Bowl ready. So they're coming to town. So let
me tell you from my perspective. So I had my
(17:58):
own issues. I'm getting ready to go again. Another Hall
of Famer guard. Yes, yeah, I'm getting ready to go
out there. And Corey Stringer was out there, so we
had battled before, so I'm locked in. I got to
get to Jeff Jors before he gets this ball out
because on the other end is Chris Carter and Randey Musk. Yeah,
So I'm heading out now. When we leave the locker
room in Saint Louis, it wasn't really a tunnel. You
had to kind of walk around and then you walk
(18:19):
between where the seats are and there's like an erector set,
so it's metal under there. So I'm walking out and
I'm locking in and I look to my left and
there you are under the stands, and I think you
were praying right, And I'm like, why is he over there?
But I can't worry about it. And then I go
out on the field warm up and they say Isaac
may have tweaked his hamstring again. Now, we had been
(18:41):
through the hamstring thing in ninety seven ninety eight, and
I knew what it did to him. I'm like, oh, no,
he heard his hammy again. We're gonna be without Isaac.
I think we can still beat these dudes, but I
wish we had our guy out there. So what happened
with you? And warm up? When did you tweak your hammy?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So I actually pulled my hamstring in warm up, So
as smart as I am, I go out and I
tell myself, you know what, this is gonna be my
first playoff game, so I'm not gonna stretch. I'm just gonna,
you know, just enjoy the moment and just watch people,
you know, Yeah, which is what I did. But right,
probably two minutes before pregame ended, I do just a
(19:17):
mini stretch and my hamstring pops on me right, and
I'm like, oh my goodness, if you ever pulled the hamstring,
trust me, you know what it feels like. You can
barely walk. So I'm tipping. I make a bee line
to the to the locker room, but walking real slow.
I walk right by Jim Anderson, our trainer, and he
looks me in the eyes, and he's like, what's going on?
And I say nothing to him because if I tell him,
(19:39):
he's gonna go run and till my coach, my position coach,
Al Sanders, my son's gonna go tell Dick Vermill, and
then Dick ver Mill's gonna tell Mike.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Martz, and we had a play call.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
The first player of the game was already called since Thursday, Wow, right,
we already knew it.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
The first place is action eight thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Mety on outside, I'm inna slot we're gonna action eight,
and so I just go.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
In the locker room. Man.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I called my sister and I let her know what happened.
I actually was looking for my mother, but my sister
answers the phone, and you know, we had a moment
of prayer. We prayed, but I never allowed myself to
say that I wasn't gonna play. In fact, I kept
telling myself that I'm gonna play, and I'm gonna play. Well,
kickoff happens. They get the ball. They have a long drive, right,
and it's like, you know, they eat like seven eight
(20:24):
minutes into the first quarter, drive into the red zone.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
They kick a field goals three nothing all right, So
we go to go to you know, a commercial break.
They kicked the ball off. Toy Tony hornk Tony Horns
catches the ball. It runs about to the seven or
the twenty twenty yard line. Still haven't played, right, I
still haven't tested my hamstring. So I go out and uh,
we called the play. I lamped to the line of scrimmage.
If you ever look at my footwork is changed because
(20:48):
I normally put my inside foot up where the ball is.
So I switched to at that moment because my my
hamstring is so in pain. But at that moment when
he said hut, when I saw that ball snap boom,
I shot out like a fire, like a like a bullet,
and that ball hit me right in the chest. So
and I outrun Toy, you know, a young Tory Hope.
I outrun the safety on the backside. Tat's coming, you know,
(21:10):
one of the cornerbacks.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
He's coming. I outrun him. Griffin, I outrun him.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And I'm just looking at the jumbo trun at that
moment and giving God some praise because he performed a
miracle for me right there.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
You you were in the hold and you didn't feel
paying the whole way down. If you ever pulled the hamstring,
yus never you know what it feels like. I've never
anybody pulled a hamstring before somebody's pulled the hand. I'm
not fast enough. I don't I've never pulled a hamstring,
but I do remember, yeah, you catching it, Yeah, looking
up because we're watching, We're going crazy. That the entire
dome was going nuts, and then you did this.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It was no man, Remember that I looked twice before
I did that. Yeah, Yeah, I didn't want to get
You know, what were you saying right there? I was
giving the Lord thanks. I was like, thank you, Lord Jesus,
because he performed a miracle for me. I mean, I like,
I keep saying, if you ever pulled the hamstring, We've
had injuries in this game to the point where you
know it makes you immobile. I mean, but a hamstring
(22:03):
for a wide receiver guy known for speed like myself,
you don't want a hamstring, and a hamstring would put
you down for six weeks. Hamstring didn't make I didn't
miss a play. I didn't miss a snap.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
At all at all. Wow. I remember looking at Kevin
me and Kevin I said, I think we're gonna win this. Yeah,
I think we got this from Okay, so jump to Tampa.
We're in the NFC Championship game. Dogfight, right, sir? Is
that is that the best defense you ever faced in
your life? I mean, sap Brooks Lynch Barber. Yeah, let's
take it back to the to the locker room. Okay, right, yeah, let's.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Take it to the locker room of the first playoff game.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, we were loose.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
You know, we're excited about playing that game. And then
that following week you know, we go right into the
NFC Championship.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
The mood in.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
The locker room we were tight. Man, I felt like
we were tight as a team. Uh, there were not
many smiles. But at the same time, you mentioned those
guys like Sap, like Lynch, like like Barber, I mean
Hall of Fame guys. It was a dogfight of the
greatest magnitude. It showed toughness, mental toughness from both sides
of both teams. Not only that, I thought the evolution
(23:08):
of Tory Hope in that game. I mean for a
guy to get hit, you know, Brooks hit him one
and he's spitting up blood. Yeah, coming back to play.
It was one of those epic games that you know
when they show it on on a NFL network, Man,
you just got to stop and watch it and appreciate
what's happening in that game and the Hall of famers
that are on the field at that day.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
So I remember that week and it was Mike White.
Mike White was Dick Vermill's assistant, right, So Dix in
the front and Mike White is standing kind of behind
us on this rail. There was a rail that kind
of surrounded our team room and we're getting ready to
play Tampa, and I guess we're tight. I mean, we're
moving forward. But I remember Mike White leaning over and said, Okay,
(23:50):
if we win, we're gonna have to be on the
plane to go to Atlanta like X, Y and Z,
and we only get ten tickets. Like we're talking about
the super Bowl before we played the Buccaneers. So I
guess that's what tightened everybody up, Like we just realized
we're one game away from the super Bowl. We were
in a dream until then, so it kind of woke
us up. But yeah, I mean, so that game was
a Pier six brawl. It was so much fun to
(24:12):
be in. It was who was gonna blink first? But
so that played a Ricky prol oh Man. Tell me
about that. I mean, because I'm thinking, I'm watching from
the bench, the balls in the air, I'm like, that's
gotta be going to that's Isaac over there, that's Marshall,
that's Tory Well, who's he throwing to? Ricky? Wow? Tell
me about that play.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, you said it's the first one to blink, right, Yeah,
I mean it was a chess match that entire game.
Coach Dungee, coach Martz to two play callers, the offense
coordinator and defense coordinated for the Bucks. And all night
long they had this vaunted defense where they can rush
the quarterback with for for D lineman. And when you
(24:52):
have that and you can cover on the back end
play zone, you got a pretty good defense. Plus with
the personnel that they had, so pretty much all that
game we never broke. I think they blinked first because
at that very moment, that's when they send John Lynch,
finally send him.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
And all year.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Long, Ricky Pole had not caught a touchdown pass, had
not gotten the end zone.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
And uh, you know he was alive.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I mean because he could have fell asleep because that
played that the scenario of that play had never happened
the entire season. So I just remember every Wednesday, you know,
Mike coach, Mike Martz with Warren Ricky. He was like, Rick,
just just remember on this play. Remember on the backside,
safety comes, you're the guy, and that scenario happens in
that game, and Rick is alive. He beats the corner,
(25:37):
made made what I called the biggest catch of my
career to push me into the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I mean, great catch, phenomen You guys saw that, right, Yeah,
phenomenal catch real quick before we move on to the
super Bowl. Tell me about that room. So it's you,
it's Torri, it's Ricky, it's Oz, Tony Horn, Tony Horn.
I mean, Tony Horn had a big return and versus Minnesota,
Tony Horn.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Might have been the fastest the group. He's probably the
fast lead out of all of it. If we all
had to line up and race. Yeah, Tony Horn, I
mean just that whole room. Two Hall of famers were
one and soon to be Tory. Tory's got to get
in Oh. Absolutely, Tory's got to get in it, right.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. How did you guys, I mean, when
you saw Tory your first day rookie, This guy is
gonna be pretty good. How did you guys get along
and just gel that fast? Well, listen, I welcome his approach.
I mean he was the second first round pick that
I played with. I played with Eddie kinin Cidi Kelcher years. Yes,
and trust.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Me, nineteen ninety five showed me that you just can't
have one receiver because what happens is they'll roll the
coverage to your side. They'll beat you up at the
line of scrimmage. They make sure they take you out
of the game. It's easy to take a wide receiver
out of game and make someone else beat you. So
I welcome Tory. I mean, Toy was the first guy
that we drafted that I seen in college have like
(26:54):
a super great game versus a Florida team, and he
did it against Florida State and College. So what I
saw in him at that moment was determination. And then
when he came in, he was coachable. He wanted to learn,
he wanted to be the best. So everything you know
that he saw someone do like Oz or myself as
far as playing the position, he added it to him
(27:16):
his game and it wasn't long before he became a
number one receiver in his mind. So having him having os,
having the experience of a Ricky Prole, it made us
all better. And Ale Sunders was probably one of the
better coaches that I've ever had outside of Henry Ellad
at that time. So those guys and in that room,
I mean, we all could have been starters around the league.
(27:37):
Just so happens we were all together with the Rams
at that time.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Do you help Toy through his process right now? Because
I know the Hall of Fame. That whole process was rough. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Well, you know, you go through every gamut of emotions,
you know what I'm saying, of excitement, anger, disappointment. Yeah,
so I helped with the disappointing times. I helped with
the excitement of being actually selected as another as a
finalist again, because that's that's not easy. I mean, you
think about the number of guys that have played in
this league over thirty thousand and just it's only what
(28:07):
one hundred and maybe seventy Pro Football Hall of Fame
is walking the earth. Wow, you know what I'm saying.
So that's that's a great place to be. So you
celebrate being a finalist. But at the same time, I
think it's due time. It's due time for Toy to
cross that finish line because I think he's definitely earned it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Absolutely. I remember seeing you in Atlanta when the Rams
went and played the Patriots that one year and I said,
I don't know really, And when you got in, I
was so happy, so much fun. Did you have Popeye's
Chicken or is that Marshall? Marshall had Popey's Chicken at
the thing. That was fun that was our thing. That
was funny. Cream Donuts, Krispy Kreme Donuts, Popeye's Chicken, and
Penn State's Penn Station sandwiches. That was our thing. All right,
(28:44):
royalties there we go. Okay, so this right here, Super Bowl.
We played Tennessee before. Now we're in the big game
in Atlanta. You have a fantastic game. You scored with
what two minutes left in the game to put us
ahead two minutes.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I mean, it's it's the play that I think every
kid that's ever held the football or played football, you
always imagine yourself catching the winning touchdown pass. I don't
think many people imagine themselves unless you're a quarterback throwing
the past. But it's either catching them. You probably had
your defensive line. You probably had the same dream, you know,
catching a game winning touchdown pass, which is a moment
(29:19):
that I've had in my backyard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
for tons of years. But it was always Dan Marino
throwing me the ball. So you know, just that moment itself,
just being in that moment, just the just the atmosphere,
the smoke that was still in the ceiling from the
halftime show, and just having an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
You know, I always say about that play is that
that was a play.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
That's that's It's called to get the chains moving twins
right ace right nine ninety nine eah balloom. So it's
a Marshall play. It's not an Isaac player or a
toy play. What we do is we run them all
off and let Marshall do his thing. We dump it
down to him. It's only two minutes left, so we
can you know, kind of matriculate down the field kick
a winning field goal.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
That's that's the way we looked at it.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
But you know, just at that moment when I heard
the play in the huddle, I was like, you know what, boom,
this is it. This is my moment right here, and
this ball is coming to me.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Now how did I know that? I just knew it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
And then you know the way they played it, It's
set the play up perfectly. They played middlefield clothes or
they started off with a with a with an open field,
dropped the safety down middlefield, close press man. They're not
restricting our progress off the field. He's just turning and
running with me. So we're just running down the field
for about twenty yards. We're in stride Stryder's stride. I'm
(30:33):
not going full speed. He's not going full speed, and
so when the ball comes up, that's when you turn
it on. That's when the game starts for me. So
you know, just so it happens, you know, when you're
running to play like that. We're always coaching never to
give body language. I don't know how it is with defensivelignment,
but you don't want to give anything you're looking for it.
You don't want to have the big eyes like you
see the balls coming. That's gonna alert him, right, So
(30:56):
I make sure my eyes don't get big. I make
sure that my hands don't I'm not running like this.
We teach the young receivers don't run like this, just
run and then at the last second stick your hands out.
But we're running stride for stride. I see the ball
coming and I my insight arhim is on his back,
so I push him and he kind of his he
kind of clicks his feet that he falls, right, trust me,
(31:19):
that's the wrong thing to do in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Listen, don't fall down against the greatest show on turn.
Go do that. So he falls and I get the
ball in my hand. You know.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Another one of the biggest things that we were really
emphasized that year was blocking for each other, the receivers
in that group. I had thrown so many blocks for
ods just to pop O's and let ods just run.
And uh, you know you don't get credit for that.
You don't open Sports Center with that. They're showing odds, right.
So he finally paid me back in the Super Bowl
and he gets this block on tomriw Roll. He hits him,
(31:52):
knocks him, knocks him off his off his spiel. And
then I make Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony dor
sets his son.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
I make him miss, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And as I'm running by him, I'm like, man, you
should be you should be a running back anyhow, not
a safety.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
So Anthony door set, Oh my god, yes, I'll never
forget him.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And then once again, you know, my eyes go to
the jumbo trun I mean, it's a bad habit if
you got kids out there that play football. I mean,
that's not a habit to put pick up and you
could probably get yourself hurt. But you know, my eyes
go to the jumbo trun and I just see everything.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Man.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I see myself running, I see you know, guys getting
up off the mat behind me. I see guys chasing me,
and then my eyes go down, you know, my guys
go down from the jumbo trun to the fans. I
see all the fans. I see RAM fans like this. Yeah,
I see Titan fans surrender Kobra, you know what I mean, Like,
(32:47):
oh my god, what just happened?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And then it's a mob after that. I mean, I
got all my teammates. Tommy Newton was always in the mix, always,
you know, we didn't even thank the Bob and weave
at that moment, you know, but was just a moment
of celebration. And another thing I always remember about it
is that our owner at that time, Georgia Frontier, you
know it first time she was on the sideline, you know,
(33:09):
and we're walking. She's like walking from the end zone,
walking me back to the side, and I'm like, shock, you.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Know, what are you doing here? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
You know, but that those are moments in that play
that really stick out to me. And then when I
sit down and look at the clock, I see one
fifty four second and we got to deal with Steve McNair.
Oh man, I'm like, oh, here we go. Here's the anxiety.
Right here, nightmare, the toughest assignment in my life. That
man right there. Okay, so where were you for the tackle?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
I h okay. I was on the opposite end. Okay.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
If the play was down here, I was on the
opposite end.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Here.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I never liked standing in the crowd because it's hard
to see, right, so I'd stand on the opposite end,
and I just watched the Jumbo trun I'd watched the
beginning of the play on the jumbo tron, and then
I watched the end of the play actually happen in
live and you know, in live motion. But I see
the snap and I turn and I look, and I
really couldn't tell what happened. So my eyes go to
(34:02):
the Titan sideline and I see no reaction from them,
and I immediately go back to our sideline and I
see big London Fletcher running out helmetless. I see a
lot of guys helmetless and helmets going up. Yeah, so
that let me know that he was stopped. He didn't
get an end zone, and the game was over. And
at that moment, I was a Super Bowl champion, and
(34:22):
I was guaranteed one of these.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
One of these and I got one of these and
they can't take it back. Got one of these, yes, sir,
we got one of these to get a set of these.
Oh see if we can't tell that story right there,
oh my god. But yeah, I do remember coach for
Mel saying that's it, we got it. And then the
the they brought out that podium so fast, so fast.
I mean we had just finished playing and there was
(34:45):
like like an eight foot podium right there. It was
so much fun, confetti everywhere. Can you believe it's been
twenty five years?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Twenty five years, it's been you know, it's been a
glorious twenty five years. Yeah, I mean I thank God
for being here for these twenty five and another twenty
five to come. However, but a lot of great things
have happened in that twenty five. Just to be around
in be's moments again and be able to celebrate with
my teammates again for this moment is special big time.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Every time I'm in so far and I see that
banner and it says us, I just start smiling or
highlights of you, and yeah, Tony Horn was the fastest one. Though.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Let me ask us as I came about that, Yeah,
we never lined up. No, I would say I was
a fascet until we line up. I still think you
owe me money. Remember we used to do that jam game.
Remember that I started jam you in the chest I do.
I don't think you had to touch me. It was
one hundred bucks of jam and I think you owe
me money.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
All right. That's a rap on RAMS Iconic Live presented
by eighteen hundred Kilo, the best taste in to Kilo.
Please enjoy responsibly. I hope you enjoyed our convo with
RAMS Hall of Famer and legend Isaac Bruce. Wow. I'm
DeMarco Farr and we will see you next time
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