From the Archives: Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV

The heavily favored Pittsburgh Steelers were expected to easily roll over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV.

Times sports columnist Jim Murray wrote:

The outcome was as predictable as San Diego weather. Pittsburgh Steelers always win Super Bowl games. They're getting monotonous. But they must have thought somebody else showed up in Ram uniforms. These were no Hollywood sissies, no college of profiles, no rhinestone cowboys, no Sunset-and-Vine lilacs waiting for their big break in pictures, no guys bucking for a screen test. The Rams didn't show up with mirrors or makeup men, they were a scratching, scrambling, stubborn, socking team of alley fighters, swarmers spoiling for a scrap.

They came into the game with a rookie at quarterback, their best player playing on a broken leg and a 9-7 record and a team that scored only 323 points and gave up 309. They shouldn't even have been able to get tickets. The first 50-0 game in Super Bowl history was freely predicted, indeed, expected. …

But the game turned out to be a classic. The lead changed hands seven times. The Rams led 13-10 at halftime and 19-17 at the start of fourth quarter. Two fourth-quarter Steelers touchdowns gave Pittsburgh a 31-19 victory.

The Steelers' victory was their fourth Super Bowl win in six years.

Ahead of the 2016 Super Bowl, The Times’ Mike DiGiovanna asked members of that 1979 L.A. Rams team to recall their unlikely run to the championship game.

This post was originally published on Feb. 3, 2011.