1999 Rams Named Best Team in Franchise History

Heading into Super Bowl 50, ESPN and the NFL are doing a lot of pieces commemorating the league’s history and celebrating 50 years of the Super Bowl. In one of their latest pieces, ESPN asked their NFL Nation writers to select the greatest team in their franchise’s history. For the Rams, as you can imagine, it was an easy choice for Nick Wagoner picking the 1999 Super Bowl team.

"“This is a close call, but when in doubt, it’s best to err on the side of a Lombardi trophy. That’s why the 1999 Rams are the narrow choice over the 2001 Rams. The 1999 season saw the birth of the “Greatest Show on Turf,” one of the most exciting and prolific offenses in NFL history. Featuring the likes of Marshall Faulk, Kurt Warner, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, London Fletcher and Kevin Carter, that team went from 4-12 the previous year to 13-3 and a win in Super Bowl XXXIV. It wasn’t just that this team was great or that it revolutionized offense in the NFL, it’s that it came from virtually nowhere to reach the top in the span of one year. — Nick Wagoner”"

The 1999 team changed football as we know it and arguably lead the greatest offense of all-time. Going 4-12 the year before, nobody expected the Rams to be good, let alone win a Super Bowl. Those odds went down even further when Trent Green went down and journeyman grocery bagger, Kurt Warner, took over.

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As Wagoner says, the 2001 team comes a close second as they had a better overall record, however, they couldn’t close the deal as they lost(were cheated) in one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history.

When Isaac Bruce caught Kurt Warner’s pass to take the lead in the 4th quarter and then Mike Jones made the infamous tackle to win the game against, ironically, Jeff Fisher‘s Tennessee Titans, Rams fans couldn’t believe that their team had won the Super Bowl. This makes the 1999 team the greatest team in franchise history.