The St. Louis Rams boasted one of the best offenses in NFL history from 1999-2001. They ranked first in points and yards each of those three years, reaching two Super Bowls and winning one.
Isaac Bruce was at the center of those teams, helping lead the Rams to a Super Bowl victory after the 1999 season. Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Torry Holt were the other faces of the “Greatest Show on Turf” with all of them except Holt making it to the Hall of Fame. Bruce will be inducted this year, finally being elected in the Class of 2020.
The Rams’ teams from that era are often compared to current squads with prolific offenses, including the 2018 Rams team that made it to the Super Bowl. The 2019 Chiefs squad that just won it all in February seems like the most logical comparison to the Greatest Show on Turf, but Bruce still believes his Rams teams were better.
“I think you have a team every year that we can compare to. This year, it’s the Kansas City Chiefs,” he said in an interview at the Hall of Fame. “What I’m asked about the Chiefs is, there are some similarities. They’ve got the speed on the outside from a perimeter standpoint. I think we may have been better at the run game than they are. I think our defense was probably a little bit better than what they had.”
Part of what separates the Rams from the Chiefs is their physicality and overall talent, according to Bruce. He says what the Chiefs face on the field is similar to the Rams’ spring Practices 20 years ago, because tackling has changed so dramatically due to the new rules put in place.
“But I always say this: From a personnel standpoint, I think we were better and from a mentality standpoint, I think we were better,” he continued. “Because what you see with the Kansas City Chiefs right now is pretty much our spring practices where there’s no tackling allowed. What we had, we went up against a totally different – guys were looking to take your head off. It was being promoted.”
As one of the greatest offenses in NFL history, it would’ve been fun to see what Bruce’s Rams could’ve done in this era of football – an era where the rules lean so heavily in the offense’s favor.
There’s no doubt in Bruce’s mind how things would go, saying “it wouldn’t be fair” if the Rams played now.
“You put us in this era, I don’t think it’s fair,” said Bruce. “It wouldn’t be fair because we had guys who were not afraid to go across the middle of the field, make plays, run slants and be there for the next play to do the exact same thing. Just with the rule change, it’s totally different. I just think we would’ve – it wouldn’t have been fair.”