ST. LOUIS -- A city accustomed to celebrating its Boys of Summer got some winter cheering practice Monday as thousands lined downtown streets to welcome back the Super Bowl champions.
St. Louis Rams coach Dick Vermeil led the parade down Market
Street in a wagon pulled by the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales, and
players followed in 60 Dodge Ram pickup trucks.
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| Rams linebacker London Fletcher basks in the glory of cheering fans who welcomed the Super Bowl champions home Monday. |
The six-block procession began about 40 minutes late and was
slowed to almost a standstill as fans overcame a police barrier to
swarm the champs. With Sunday's 23-16 victory over the Tennessee
Titans, the Rams had won the NFL title for the first time in the
city's 40-year football history.
"Thank you very much world champions," Vermeil told the crowd.
"As a representative of these guys, the management and the
coaching staff, I'd like to thank you for your support. I'd like
you to know that the Rams aren't world champions. St. Louis is
world champions."
Not since 1982 had St. Louis celebrated a major championship --
and that team, like most of the rest, came on the baseball diamond.
But in this crowd, Cardinal red gave way to Rams blue and gold.
Shirts and hats depicting the team's latest accomplishment were
flying off roadside sales carts, and many fans who didn't buy a
souvenir made their own.
"After two divorces, this is all I can afford," said Dave
Bilyeu, who sported a gold cardboard crown with two spiraling horns
on the sides. "If my ex-wife saw me in an NFL hat, she'd want more
money."
Dan Morgan had a similar idea but made his horns out of long
blue and gold balloons. Within a couple hours in the bitter cold,
some of the balloons had deflated.
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Game scores with 43.2 rating
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NEW YORK -- A pair of small markets produced big Super Bowl
ratings.
St. Louis' stirring 23-16 victory over Tennessee on Sunday night
drew a 43.2 rating and a 62 share on ABC, up 7 percent from last
year. That makes it the 19th-highest rated among the 34 Super
Bowls.
Last year's game, Denver's 34-19 win over Atlanta, received a
40.2 rating and 61 share, the lowest rating since the 1990 game
registered a 39.0 rating.
ABC estimated 130,745,000 people watched the game, making it the
fifth most-watched telecast in U.S. history, trailing four other
Super Bowls. Last year's game, broadcast by Fox, was watched by
127.5 million.
The No. 1 program was the 1996 Super Bowl between Dallas and
Pittsburgh, watched by 138.5 million. Sunday's game pushed the
final episode of "M-A-S-H," broadcast by CBS on Feb. 28, 1983,
and watched by 121.6 million, out of the top 10 list, which
includes nine Super Bowls and the women's skating final of the 1994
Winter Olympics.
With two small markets, ABC said last week it hoped for a 42.0
rating, but the close games caused ratings to grow throughout the
night.
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"This is all I've got," Morgan said. "I'm not carrying any
extra horns."
Fans broke into a chant of "MVP" as the truck carrying Kurt
Warner made its way through the throngs of people. Warner is only
the sixth player in league history to win the award in both the
regular season and Super Bowl.
By now this town knows all to well the tale of the former Arena
League standout who went from grocery stocker to NFL hero, leading
the Rams from worst to first. Never before had a team that finished
last in its division gone on to win the Super Bowl the next season.
"I'd like to say that we forget about the grocery stores and
all that stuff, and we start thinking about a repeat," Warner
said.
The parade ended at Kiener Plaza, where several players
addressed the fans with the Gateway Arch in the background. Few
words were audible beyond the first few rows, but the crowd burst
into cheers after every sentence all the same.
"This is great. It's a dream come true," said running back
Marshall Faulk, the AP Offensive Player of the Year. "The fans
have been great. We appreciate you guys supporting us. Thank you!"
Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, who inherited the team from her
late husband and moved it from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995,
held up the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
That sparked a deafening cheer, and one male fan shouted,
"Georgia baby, I love you!"
Greg Shipley of St. Charles was too far away to get a good look
at the trophy, but he didn't mind. He had constructed his own out
of aluminum foil, although the football had become a bit deformed because of the crush of the crowd.
Some fans camped out for hours before the rally just to get a
good spot. Fran Barnes was part of a group of people who sat on
lawn chairs several hundred feet from the stage.
As the crowd filled in, Barnes discovered she wouldn't be able
to see. So, she packed some snow and ice together and built her own
personal pedestal. From that vantage point, she had a great view.
Monte and Patti Roy, who were also decked out in blue and gold,
said the team had certainly strengthened their relationship. They
made a pact at the beginning of the season to kiss every time the Rams scored.
But Patti Roy said they aren't fair-weather fans.
"We were the people who were the last in the dome even when
they were bad, saying, 'We love you! Go Rams! We're No. 1!" she said.
St. Louis fans also were signing a large "get well" banner
that will be sent to Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas,
paralyzed from the chest down after a car crash Jan. 23.