Movers Are Shakers

ST. LOUIS —  The NFL has its dream Super Bowl, a reminder to any city tight with public funds that one day it might be forced to watch its heroes play for the glory of suckers/football fans elsewhere.

The Rams and Titans, living testaments to what new stadiums with expensive luxury boxes can do to resurrect mismanaged franchises, will meet in Relocation Bowl I in Atlanta on Sunday.

Around the league these days it appears a moving van might be every bit as important as a good quarterback.

The party has already begun, with long-suffering Ram fans in St. Louis and die-hard followers of the Titans in Nashville hitting the streets to celebrate their victories. They can’t remember the last time their favorite team went this far.

The Rams did it by scoring one touchdown, more than enough to knock out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 11-6, Sunday in the NFC championship game before 66,496 in the $280-million, publicly-funded Trans World Dome.

“We’re takin’ Georgia to Georgia,” yelled Ram Coach Dick Vermeil, and don’t be surprised if Ram President John Shaw doesn’t try to make the city fathers pay for her trip.

It all starts at the top, of course, which makes Super Bowl XXXIV so intriguing: Ram owner Georgia Frontiere matching wits with Titan owner Bud Adams for the right to be mentioned in the same sentence with Vince Lombardi at the postgame trophy ceremony.

In addition to blackmail and extortion charges, which some will level at Frontiere and Adams, there might be some who also suggest that they cheated to get to Atlanta.

The Titans remained alive in the playoffs after benefiting from a forward lateral, which the referee refused to overturn after reviewing instant replay. And the Rams held on in the final minute against the Buccaneers because another referee took away a Tampa Bay completion after an obvious catch.

The Rams, while favored by two touchdowns, jumped ahead of Tampa Bay, 11-6, with 4:44 to play after Ricky Proehl, a 10-year journeyman wide receiver, caught a 30-yard touchdown pass.

The Buccaneers, maybe as punchless as any team in NFL history playing in a title game, responded by marching from their 23-yard line to the St. Louis 22 with 1:25 to play.

After quarterback Shaun King was sacked for a 13-yard loss, he came back with a pass to Bert Emanuel at the Rams’ 23-yard line. Emanuel made a diving catch, the ball securely in his hands and both knees touching the ground before falling, the tip of the ball hitting the ground.

The NFL observer in the press box, who is the only one who can call for a replay in the final two minutes, signaled the field that he wanted the referee to take another look.

“The ruling on the field was a catch,” referee Bill Carollo said later. “It was apparent that the player, that as he was catching the ball, he used the ground, and the tip of the ball hit the ground. By rule, you cannot use the ground, or have assistance from the ground to make a catch.”

It’s a good rule, but did not apply here, because Emanuel had already secured the ball.

“It was one continuous motion,” continued Carollo. “He wasn’t down by contact. It’s still part of the completion. He has to retain the ball when he hits the ground. The knee doesn’t make any difference, he used the ground to assist that catch. And because the ball hit the ground, by rule it’s an automatic incomplete pass.”

On the bright side it saved America from a Tampa Bay-Tennessee Super Bowl with the Buccaneers best chance of winning being a 2-0 shutout over the Titans. It would have been a good way, however, to cap off one of the most ridiculous NFL seasons in memory.

But instead everyone will get “The Rematch,” and imagine the anticipation and the talk of revenge. Too bad the schedule had to be pushed back a week to avoid a conflict with the college bowl games, because now there will be only one week of hype before the Rams attempt to avenge a 24-21 loss to the Titans in Nashville’s $300-million publicly-funded Adelphia Coliseum.

If that isn’t enough to hold everyone’s attention, there will be the Kurt Warner story, maybe the NFL’s best-ever come-from-nowhere tale of greatness. Before this game, he was already being compared to Dan Fouts, Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas.

Before this season he was backup to Trent Green, and was not even protected by the Rams in the expansion draft. The Browns didn’t see any reason to get excited, and passed on him, and after Green suffered a season-ending knee injury, he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 41 touchdowns.

Before joining the Rams, he was stocking shelves in Iowa, playing for the Amsterdam Admirals in the World League and the Barnstormers in the Arena League.

Warner looked like that scrub overlooked for so long by NFL scouts for much of the game, but he beat the Tampa Bay blitz to find Proehl, and children in St. Louis can eat their $2.99 box of Warner’s Crunch Time cereal this morning with a smile.

“I’ve been playing for 10 years and have never been on a team that’s done better than 8-8 and have never even gotten a sniff of the playoffs,” Proehl said. “This is incredible.”

You want incredible: It was a guy from USC who put the Rams in the Super Bowl. Cornerback Brian Kelly, assigned man-to-man coverage of Proehl, could not keep him from scoring the game’s only touchdown.

“We brought them into our zone, we brought them into misery and we had them down 6-5, and it came down to one play,” Tampa Bay defensive leader Warren Sapp said. “The guy made a great play on the sideline--no doubt about it. And we didn’t do it.”

The Titans will counter Warner’s feel-good story, which includes his marriage to Brenda and adopting her child, who suffered an accident at four months of age rendering him blind, with defensive end Jevon Kearse, whose father and brother were killed by gunfire.

The most compelling story, however, does not guarantee a Super Bowl victory.

“We just have to keep knocking them down for one more week,” said Ram defensive lineman D’Marco Farr, one of five Rams who played for the team in Anaheim. “They said Tampa Bay had the best defense, but as everyone can see, they are going home. What I’m starting to learn about this playoff stuff and competing for a championship is that stats don’t mean anything. All that matters at the end of the game is who has more points.”

Too bad they didn’t think of that while they still played their games in Anaheim.

The Rams, cocky all week, appeared to have a commanding 5-3 lead at halftime against the Buccaneers, who could muster no offense. St. Louis had the lead because Tampa Bay center Tony Mayberry snapped the ball over King’s head in the shotgun formation, forcing King to knock it out of bounds for a safety rather than allow the Rams to fall on it in the end zone for a touchdown.

Tampa Bay took a 6-5 lead in the third quarter on Martin Gramatica’s 23-yard field goal, and that’s the way it remained until Ram cornerback Dre’ Bly intercepted a King pass at the St. Louis 44-yard line and returned it to the Tampa 47 with 8:01 to play. Five plays later, Warner told Proehl he was coming his way if the Buccaneers blitzed.

They blitzed.

“After getting shellacked for so many years, but telling people we were a good team and nobody would believe us, I’m just going to sit here and enjoy this,” Farr said. “You think I can just go out still dressed in my uniform and get into a restaurant tonight? I just don’t want any of this to end.”

It’s just beginning for the Rams and Titans as they go to Atlanta, and next thing you know, someone’s going to get the idea that the road to the Super Bowl is a move to Los Angeles.