According to our research, the previous record for ?earliest comparison to the Greatest Show on Turf ? for the St. Louis Rams was held by ESPN?s John Clayton in 2005. Clayton broke it out on August 1, 10 days prior to the start of that year?s pre-season as part of his preview of a team that ultimately went 6-10 and scored 177 points less than the 2000 Rams.
Consider that record shattered.
On June 9, 2007, Post-Dispatch writer Bill Coats leaned on the media?s favorite Rams cliché a full two months before the first pre-season game. With his column entitled ?Will the offense measure up to the Greatest Show??, Coats delivered to St. Louis readers what is estimated to be the 375,312th version of a story comparing a post-2001 Rams team to the team that racked up record breaking point totals from 1999-2001. Coats comes to a stunning revelation about the current Rams bunch?
The Rams could be headed for their most explosive season offensively since the "Greatest Show on Turf" tore up the league.
Back in 2005, I took a crack at addressing what has become the single most overused theme in St. Louis football history and, save for a few alterations to the dates and names, most of that column still applies today?
the name and image of those teams is one that the current Rams cannot shake. The Greatest Show on Turf is like Michael Myers after being shot in the head and set on fire, it just won?t freaking die.
One thing is for sure, I would have paid money to see the look on Marc Bulger and the other Rams players? faces when they received their first Greatest Show question of the year. I?m sure they?re not sick of that one yet. I?ll let the 2005 version of me summarize the feelings of many exhausted Rams fans?
The Greatest Show on Turf is gone. It was fun while it lasted; it provided us with ample video of Brenda Warner?s buzz cut, endless soundbites of Mike Martz saying he?ll ?fix? something, a few Dick Vermeil tears and even a Super Bowl.
