ST LOUIS, 10 January 2004 — Most experts view today’s National Football League playoff match-up between St Louis and Carolina as a battle between the Rams’ offensive finesse and the Panthers’ brutal defense.
But the most intriguing match-up may be between the two young quarterbacks, Marc Bulger of St. Louis and Jake Delhomme of Carolina.
The duo, who were once teammates and are friends off the pitch, now carry their side’s respective Super Bowl hopes on their slender, untested shoulders.
“We spent about five or six months together, basically every day,” Bulger said of their shared time in New Orleans earlier in their careers.
“He has a lot of energy. He knew some day that he was going to get a chance, his enthusiasm, he knew, would make him a winner.”
The 26-year-old Bulger signed for St Louis as a free agent in 2000 and will make his first playoff start in the divisional clash with Carolina after enjoying a bye week.
Meanwhile, the 29-year-old Delhomme goes into the game after picking up his first playoff victory in his first post-season start against Dallas last week. The winner of this weekend’s game will be one victory away from a Feb. 1 trip to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston. Bulger must not only handle the pressure of his first playoff start, he does so knowing he stands in the shadow cast by back-up Kurt Warner who emerged from nowhere to lead the Rams to a Super Bowl victory four years ago.
Warner, who also guided St Louis to a Super Bowl loss against New England two years ago, has been relegated to back-up and mentor with Bulger’s emergence.
Warner, who lost his job to Bulger in the second week of the season, sees many parallels in the arc of their respective careers.
