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I think Vermeil will go out on top
Posted: Monday January 31, 2000 11:57 AM
Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. ATLANTA -- Opinion No. 1: My gut feeling is that Dick Vermeil will retire. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. I just think he's been to the mountain top, he's 63 years old, he's got 11 grandchildren. And one more thing: The NFL's a grind. But you knew that. Opinion No. 2: This was the best Super Bowl of all time. And none of the other 33 are close for second. It's probably nutty to say, but I think this game might be the best game of all time. Last night I told my editor at SI, Mark Godich, I thought it was the best game ever and he told me: "Go easy now." He's probably right. I'll have to think about that for a few days. But guys who played in the 1958 Championship Game (Baltimore vs. New York in what's most often considered "The Greatest Game Ever Played") admit it wasn't such an artful or dramatic game until the last 10 minutes. This game, the first Super Bowl of the new century in a new NFL time, had a team come back from a 16-point deficit to tie, had a heroic comeback sparked by a churning running back (Eddie George), had the champ come off the canvas to throw a haymaker of a bomb from the greatest story of NFL history (Kurt Warner) to the star receiver (Isaac Bruce) to take a 23-16 lead, then had the challenger come back to make one of the great plays in Super Bowl history (by Steve McNair) followed by a pass on the last tick of the game coming 18 inches from a touchdown and overtime.
Think of it: If this had been a regular-season game, you'd have called it one of the best, if not the best, game of the year. When it happens in the first Super Bowl of the century, with all the pressures surrounding it, you have to give the game its due. Back to Vermeil. Sunday night my job for the magazine was to shadow Vermeil. I waited 15 minutes outside a room in the bowels of the Georgia Dome for Jim Gray to finish an NBC interview with him. And when Vermeil came out, with the yellow-coated security guys around him, he came to me and hugged me. I was surprised he hugged me. I was shocked he hugged me for 15 seconds. The man wouldn't let go. "You were there!" he rasped. "You were there! You were in those long nights in our offices! You know what this means!" Background: In 1997, Vermeil's first year as Rams coach, I was assigned to write a diary of the season. I was there when players were anonymously ripping Vermeil for the tough training camp he ran. I was there when he hugged Lawrence Phillips in camp and turned to me and said: "You're looking at the NFL rushing leader this year." I was there when Tony Banks skipped practice to take care of his sick dog. I was there to watch the coaches put a game plan together. I was there as the season ended when -- though they'll deny it now -- the front office thought seriously of firing its coach. I was there when Vermeil sat on a Charlotte hotel couch hours before his final game of the season and told me if he had to do it all over again he wouldn't do it. So I've got some history with the guy, who I'd met and gotten to know while covering the 49ers-Chargers Super Bowl five years ago. Dogged man. Absolutely dogged. And so it was odd when he wouldn't stop hugging me last night. I tried to break away, gently, but he crushed my ribs even more when I tried. "Remember what (former Rams defensive back) Ryan McNeil said to you? You remember?" he said, breaking the embrace. "McNeil?" I replied. "Not really ... Oh, wait. You mean how he said you'd win, he just didn't know when?" "That's right," Vermeil rasped. "He sat there in our building and told you: 'Dick will win. It's only a matter of time.' He was right. It's a shame he's not on our club anymore." Somewhere, I feel sure, Ryan McNeil was smiling last night. The 10 Things I Think I Think This Week 1. I think that Vermeil choked up this morning at his final press conference of the week and said: "The only time I shed tears last night is when my brother said to me: 'Mother said you'd coach a Super Bowl before you quit.' He was right." He said of his future: "We'll talk about a lot of things. It's much better to talk about that than it is to talk about getting fired. The only thing on my mind is to get home and enjoy this experience with my wife and my family." 2. I think that a reporter said to MVP Kurt Warner this morning: "You're on the verge of being very, very rich," and Warner interrupted her and said: "Let's hope so." Remember, just five years ago Warner's family was on food stamps and he was stocking groceries in Iowa. 3. I think that the Super Bowl is infinitely better without the extra week off after the conference championship games. 4. I think that SI colleague and Up-with-Peoplesque optimist Paul Zimmerman had the best comment on the Walt Disney halftime show: "It's like a trip through the inside of Zsa Zsa Gabor's brain." As the show began and some voice from somewhere told us about a better future, Zimmy said: "Doesn't this give you hope for a better tomorrow?" 5. I think that Jeff George is getting jobbed by the Vikings. All George did this year is have a 23-to-12 touchdown-to-interception ratio and save the Vikings' season. But coach Dennis Green, seeking cap relief for a veteran-bloated roster, will not re-sign George and will ask new offensive coordinator Sherm Lewis to resurrect Randall Cunningham and have him compete with the raw Daunte Culpepper for the starting job. Risky, risky move. 6. I think, segueing to risky quarterback moves, that Baltimore coach Brian Billick is determined to go with Tony Banks, who's had a lazy, unproductive career but turned in a strong performance in December. Strange, considering the salary cap is going up $5 million per team and there's a decent crop of veterans available (George, Jeff Blake, Neil O'Donnell, Gus Frerotte). 7. I think, segueing now to Hall of Fame candidates, that it's clear that new Hall of Fame inductee Joe Montana isn't buddying up to concussion-plagued former teammate Steve Young. Asked what could be going through Young's mind as he nears the end of his career, Montana cracked: "He may not be thinking anything, with so many concussions." 8. I think that Todd Lyght and Mike Gruttadauria are the Rams' most important free agents to re-sign. And if that's the case, then they're in fantastic cap shape. "Money will be spent on our own players," said Vermeil. "I hope we have created an environment where players will want to stay." 9. I think that if Vermeil coaches next year he'll run a tougher camp. "We've become such a finesse football team that we've lost some of the toughness you need in the trenches," he said. "The Titans beat us up in the second half." 10. I think that in the 16 years I've been covering the NFL this was by far the best postseason. What more could you have wanted? The Music City Miracle, the valiant performances each weekend by the upstart Titans, new heroes, the best Super Bowl ever. People say the game's in trouble? I laugh at them. And lastly, I think I'll see you next September for another year of MMQB, God willing. You've been a great audience. Click here to send a question to Peter
King's NFL Mailbag.
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