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Fans agree: This was a classic
Associated Press
ATLANTA -- Alisha Clark heard the roar, but she didn't know how to feel.
The deafening noise came from the atrium at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, where a throng of fans celebrated Isaac Bruce's 73-yard touchdown reception -- the play that put the St. Louis Rams
ahead to stay in Sunday's Super Bowl.
|  | | | No, it's not professional wrestling. Rams fan Lenny DeShurley, left, and Titans fan Ken Miller are merely supporting their teams. |
Clark, a St. Louis resident who watched the game in a Rams cap
and jacket, was in the bathroom.
"I can't believe it -- the first time I went to the bathroom,
and the biggest play of the game!" she said.
Fans of both teams filed out of the Georgia Dome shaking their
heads after the Rams beat the Tennessee Titans 23-16. Some were
devastated and others elated, but most agreed that what they had
watched was one of the NFL's greatest games.
"We started off taunting each other, but by the end of the game
we were shaking hands," said Randy Hartley, a Titans fan from
Brentwood, Tenn. "Everybody knew what they saw -- the best Super
Bowl ever."
Rams fans chanted "Bruce! Bruce! Bruce!" after the St. Louis receiver's touchdown catch. But they held their breath as Titans quarterback Steve McNair's last-second pass to Kevin Dyson came up 1 yard short of tying the game.
"It was absolutely awesome," said Lou Osman, who came to
Atlanta without tickets and watched the game with his wife,
Marianne, at CNN Center. "That last play took about five years off
my life."
Suspenseful as it was, the game seemed almost secondary to some
fans who decked themselves out in face paint, team jerseys and fake hair.
Barry Molteni of Lebanon, Tenn., wore a 2-foot, metallic blue
wig and matching lei into CNN Center. His back pockets carried two
team-colored pompoms and a flask.
Molteni wore a replica jersey of his hero, Titans place kicker
Al Del Greco.
"But the hair didn't come till the playoffs," he said.
The weekend ice storm, anything but typical for a city whose
nickname is "Hotlanta," forced scalpers to sell seats, which
often go for several thousand dollars before Super Bowls, for as
low as $300.
"It could be the weather. A lot of people didn't show up,"
said Rams fan James Shell of St. Louis, who was wearing a placard
around his neck that said: "Need One Ticket For The Game."
A group of protesters tried to take advantage of the massive
crowds to spread their disapproval of Georgia's state flag, which
bears a representation of the Confederate battle flag.
Demonstrators threatened a boycott of Georgia, similar to the NAACP's tourism boycott of South Carolina, which flies the battle flag over its Statehouse.
Other than the protesters, people without obvious allegiance to
the Rams or Titans were hard to find near the Dome.
But not impossible. Phil Farrell of Cumming walked around
Philips Arena wearing a New York Jets jersey.
He bought tickets to the Super Bowl last year, hoping the Jets
would make it. They didn't, but Farrell cited this year's
improbable Titans-Rams matchup as hope for his team next season.
His helmet said: "Jets 2001."
"They'll be here next year," he said.
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Tory Holt looked for redemption after dropping an early TD pass.
Dick Vermeil is proud of this team and organization.