"The Charbor Chronicles": Super Bowl XXXIV Memories

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Super Bowl XXXIV – St. Louis Rams 23, Tennessee Titans 16. Played on January 30, 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. Kevin Dyson ONE INCH from winning the game in last second. MVP Kurt Warner. Favorite Rams by 7. National anthem Faith Hill. Halftime show Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, and Edward James Olmos. Attendance 72,625. Network ABC. Announcers Al Michaels and Boomer Esiason. Nielsen ratings 43.3. est. 88.5 million viewers. Market share 63. Cost of 30-second commercial US $1.1 million. Kurt Warner 24/45 414 2 0, Tory Holt 7 109 1, Isaac Bruce 6 162 1, Steve McNair 22/36 214 0 0, Eddie George 28 95 2

Personal Memories: It was weird to see this team that won the Super Bowl referred to as the "St. Louis Rams", and always took a little getting used to.

Alas, they just returned to Los Angeles, so that will return back to normal after two decades.

The Rams this year overcame nearly a decade of futility by racing out to a hot, 6-0 start, looking very much like the best team in football. However, they lost some important games, including to the Tennessee Titans.

Still, the Rams offense looked like what they called a "videogame offense" all year long. This may, or may not, have been the season where they began to be referred to as the "Greatest Show on Turf," although I cannot say for sure. In any case, they easily had the best record of any team in the NFC at 13-3, and beat the Vikings in the divisional round of the playoffs, before barely outlasting Tampa Bay in the NFC Championship Game. In the meantime, Tennessee enjoyed a stellar 13-3 record themselves, although that fell second to Jacksonville's 14-2 mark during the regular season. Jacksonville was undefeated against every team but the Titans that year, going 15-0 in the regular and postseason, before losing to the Titans in the AFC title game. It should be noted that Tennessee enjoyed the "Music City Miracle" against Buffalo to get there.

This was a very exciting end to a Super Bowl, so many people remember it as one of the very finest. However, the first half was dominated by St. Louis in every way but the scoreboard, where they only managed to get three field goals total for a 9-0 lead. They scored a touchdown in the third to expand that to 16-0.

The Titans, however, came alive and stormed back in the fourth quarter with a furious rally to tie it back up 16-16. But on the Rams final drive, League and eventual Super Bowl MVP Rams quarterback Kurt Warner threw a deep ball to Isaac Bruce that was taken all the way for a touchdown and a 23-16 lead.

This set up the exciting finish, as Titans quarterback Steve McNair led his team down the field, getting all the way into scoring position with time rapidly dwindling. On what turned out to be the final play of the game, McNair threw the ball to Kevin Dyson, who looked like he could run into the end zone. London Fletcher, a defender for the Rams, made a key tackle, and Dyson fell just shy of what would have been the tying touchdown on the final play of the game, preserving the victory for St. Louis.

It snowed the night of the game, I remember.

Everyone had been deathly afraid of the Y2K bug. People believed that computers would not be able to understand the “00” on the year, and would think that it meant going back to the year 1900 again. Computers would shut down, and everywhere, this would create chaos. Records kept on computers in everything from banking to personal information to even public works and lights and everything would be wiped out, and the world would be thrown back into the stone age.

Of course, this did not happen. But it was a fear, and many felt that it was a real threat in the months and weeks before January 1, 2000. I personally went to New York to see the ball drop for the first, and at least so far, for the last time in my life. It made it fairly memorable, although admittedly, I still do not see what doing the same thing every year, dropping a ball in Time’s Square, is so exciting for everyone.

I was still working part-time while attending Rutgers University part-time in the spring and summer, and then full-time in the fall. I got married in the year 2000, and we had our honeymoon in Paris, taking side excursions to the Loire Valley to see some chateaux (Chenonceaux, Chambord, and Cheverny, specifically) and to see Mont St. Michel, off the coast of Bretagne and Normandy. There were the Olympics in Sydney, and Agassi won the Australian Open, owning the number one ranking for most of the year, but losing it in the end, with Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten ultimately earning it. The Giants enjoyed a very successful regular season in the fall of 2000, finishing the season at 12-4, and going to the Super Bowl early in 2001. The New Jersey Devils won their second Stanley Cup title in five years, beating the defending champion Dallas Stars in six games to clinch it.

http://www.infoplease.com/year/2000.html

Here are some of the major events that took place in 2000, the year this Super Bowl was played. The world's population was 6.08 billion people. The Y2K bug had been one of the big fears throughout 1999, but it wound up being a non-story. In fact, nothing happened, and life went on as normal. Austria was at center of European dispute after conservative People's Party formed coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, headed by xenophobe Jörg Haider. Reformists won control of Iranian parliament for first time since 1979 Islamic revolution. Governing of Northern Ireland passed back and forth between Britain and nascent Northern Irish parliament; and there was a major dispute over the IRA's refusal to disarm. Former Indonesian president Suharto under house arrest, charged with corruption and abuse of power. Presidents of North and South Korea signed peace accord, and at least symbolically, ended half-century of antagonism. Vicente Fox Quesada was elected president of Mexico, ending 71 years of one-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The Concorde crashed, killing 113 near Paris. Palestinians and Israelis clashed, spurred by visit of right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to a joint Jewish/Muslim holy site; "Al Aksa intifada" continued unabated. Nationwide uprising overthrows Yugoslavian president Milosevic; Vojislav Kostunica was later sworn in as president. American sailors on Navy destroyer Cole died in Yemen terrorist explosion. Mad cow disease alarms spread Europe.

http://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/98529-super-bowl-field-database-sb-xlvi-texture-added-122215/page-9