The St. Louis Rams have played so many games in the Superdome they feel right at home. But this was where their 1999 championship reign ended when they were eliminated by the Saints in the wild-card round last year. They have unfinished business in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Question: Is it true that “Refrigerator” Perry was in town reminding the Rams to make sure they hand the ball to Marshall Faulk at the goal line?
Answer: He was here, weighing about 450 pounds, and thinking about changing his nickname from Fridge to Meat Locker. He said he is pursuing boxing, which makes sense after his pro wrestling career fizzled.
Q: What does he have to do with the Super Bowl?
A: It’s a sideshow. He has the same thing to do with it as everybody else–absolutely nothing.
Q: Are the Rams distracted?
A: Faulk isn’t even distracted by his own hometown and all the reporters clamoring for a story. He said, “I get a lot of notoriety, but there are guys that don’t get enough of it. I just don’t want me and my life and my upbringing to be the focal point of this team.”
Q: How much will the perfect indoor conditions favor the Rams?
A: It’s hard to tell, but the New England Patriots were trying to ship in six inches of snow from Chicago and sneak it past security.
Q: Is Kurt Warner better than Tom Brady?
A: You could present that argument, but nobody ever heard of Warner much before his last Super Bowl.
Q: Just how good is this guy Warner anyway?
A: A telling statistic is yards per pass attempt. It is dominated by old-timers who didn’t pass as much, but when they did, it was more downfield than today’s dink-and-dunkers. Otto Graham is the all-time leader at 8.63 yards per attempt. Sid Luckman is second at 8.42. Warner needs 97 more attempts to meet the qualifying cutoff of 1,500 attempts. But his average is 9.02 yards.
According to NFL statistician Steve Hirdt, if Warner averaged just 3 yards per pass attempt over his next 97 throws, he would still leap to the top of the all-time list. That’s good.
Q: Are the Rams overconfident?
A: They don’t act like it.
Q: Why not? They’re huge favorites, aren’t they?
A: It helped a lot that after they beat the Patriots 24-17 on Nov. 18, coach Mike Martz told them they had just faced a Super Bowl-caliber team.
Q: But weren’t the Patriots 5-5 at that point?
A: That’s the point exactly. As if Martz needed any more credibility with his team, the players now believe anything he says.
“I don’t have to convince our players this is not a mismatch,” Martz said.
“They understand this. You don’t just `get’ to the Super Bowl. These are two evenly matched teams. I don’t have to talk to our players. They know how good these guys are.”
Q: How good are they?
A: Probably not good enough to beat the Rams.
