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Kurt Warner finally came clean this week.
That 20-17 Super Bowl XXXVI loss to the Patriots lingered into the 2002 season, and St. Louis never got over the enormity of the upset at the Louisiana Superdome.
It was a game that made Tom Brady and broke the Rams.
``The expectations were that we were supposed to win the Super Bowl, and we didn't,'' Warner said this week at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista. ``As a result, we added pressure on ourselves to right this wrong. We put way too much pressure on ourselves early in the year, pushing and pressing.''
The result was an 0-5 start for the defending NFC champion. Warner, ineffective for the first time in his NFL career, went to the sidelines with a broken right pinkie and untested Marc Bulger went 6-1 as a starter, but the Rams finished 7-9.
Warner threw 11 interceptions and three touchdown passes when he wasn't getting sacked. He says he's healthy again, and Coach Mike Martz has proclaimed the two-time league MVP as his starter.
``If it was somebody else, I might not be so happy, but it's Kurt Warner,'' Bulger said. ``And this is Kurt Warner's team.''
At least for a while.
The Rams are girding for another Super Bowl run, and the addition of OT Kyle Turley from New Orleans has Warner excited. Pro Bowl OT Orlando Pace skipped minicamp in a contract dispute which has turned bitter, but Warner appears pumped for a resurrection.
``We expect to win, and we know we're as good as any team in the league, including Tampa,'' he said. ``My goal is to play the way I know I can play. In 1999, we weren't expected to do anything and it seemed everything went our way. We struggled the next year, but nobody wanted to face us in the playoffs. Injuries caught up with us last season.
That 20-17 Super Bowl XXXVI loss to the Patriots lingered into the 2002 season, and St. Louis never got over the enormity of the upset at the Louisiana Superdome.
It was a game that made Tom Brady and broke the Rams.
``The expectations were that we were supposed to win the Super Bowl, and we didn't,'' Warner said this week at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista. ``As a result, we added pressure on ourselves to right this wrong. We put way too much pressure on ourselves early in the year, pushing and pressing.''
The result was an 0-5 start for the defending NFC champion. Warner, ineffective for the first time in his NFL career, went to the sidelines with a broken right pinkie and untested Marc Bulger went 6-1 as a starter, but the Rams finished 7-9.
Warner threw 11 interceptions and three touchdown passes when he wasn't getting sacked. He says he's healthy again, and Coach Mike Martz has proclaimed the two-time league MVP as his starter.
``If it was somebody else, I might not be so happy, but it's Kurt Warner,'' Bulger said. ``And this is Kurt Warner's team.''
At least for a while.
The Rams are girding for another Super Bowl run, and the addition of OT Kyle Turley from New Orleans has Warner excited. Pro Bowl OT Orlando Pace skipped minicamp in a contract dispute which has turned bitter, but Warner appears pumped for a resurrection.
``We expect to win, and we know we're as good as any team in the league, including Tampa,'' he said. ``My goal is to play the way I know I can play. In 1999, we weren't expected to do anything and it seemed everything went our way. We struggled the next year, but nobody wanted to face us in the playoffs. Injuries caught up with us last season.
