Well, what more can we ask for? Here we get to go see the return of Kurt Warner again, this time in a huge game for both teams; for the Cardinals, who have smoked the Rams recently behind Warner, it's to take a commanding lead in the NFL Weak, I mean West, and for the Rams it's to "Keep Hope Alive," as Jesse Jackson, our next Secretary of State (Just kidding), would say.
For many fans, including our Brit pal Julian (Who we will all go stay with when the RAMS get to play that London Gig), just as meaningful is the installation of Dick Vermeil to the Rams Ring of Honor.
Got the chance to ask Warner about it during the media conference call last Wednesday, and Warner, who said he had shared dinner with Vermeil the night before (And what would some of us paid to join that duo over a nice steak), was effusive in his praise of his ex-coach and still dear friend.
He spoke of what a special person Vermeil is, and it only made me feel sicker that he didn't stay here in 2000, because I saw it in person for three years.
Perhaps my proudest achievement as a writer was back in 1998, when the Rams were at a point as low as early this season.
As was the custom with Vermiel, the media guys gave him Xmas gifts out of their respect and love for him as a person.
Everyone was talking then about how Vermeil had lost it, and couldn't adapt his style to the new generation of players. Fans and some in the media were already looking at him as a lame duck coach.
I was convinced, and took many a shot on the AOL boards, that Vermeil was rebuilding the entire organization the right way, and that only time would show I was right. I listed some other great coaches that took three or more years to turn teams around.
So, that Xmas, I gave Vermeil a bottle of wine with a 1980 vintage year, the same year that Vermeil had gone to the Super Bowl with the Eagles. I enclosed a note, expressing my belief that, like fine wine, some things get better with age, and that I believed his way was right.
A year later, my gift for Vermeil was one of those metal deals like a big tall bowl that you put wine bottles in, I forget what it's even called. On it, I had engraved St. Louis Rams 1999.
In the card, I told the coach that I believed the space below could have Super Bowl Champions added in another month, but I didn't want to jinx the team by putting anything there.
Don't know if he ever had the engraving finished, but the memory of these two Xmas gifts will remain in my heart forever.
It will be great to shake Dick Vermeil's hand Sunday, and I can bet everyone in the media and everyone he comes into contact with here will get to as well, if they don't get a Vermeil special hug.
This Sunday, Dick Vermeil won't be the only one in tears, as his name is unveiled, one day to be joined by Warner, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace, and Torry Holt, and perhaps others such as Adam Timmerman and Jeff WIlkins, who took Vermeil to the promised land.
