After not experiencing a winning record during eight seasons with the Cardinals, who drafted him out of Wake Forest in 1990, Seahawks, and Bears, besides hope, there were a couple of reasons why veteran receiver Ricky Proehl signed with the Rams as a free agent in 1998.
A former offensive coordinator who was now doing the same job in St. Louis, and a head coach, who he had watched as a kid turn around the Philadelphia Eagles, and who was also doing the same job with the Rams.
"Jerry Rhome and Coach (Dick) Vermeil," Proehl said. "Jerry was our offense coordinator with Arizona, and I grew up in the New York metropolitan area, but got a lot of Philadelphia TV stations. So I grew up watching Vermeil. But the biggest thing was Jerry. I really liked Jerry. He knew my strengths; he knew how to utilize my talent.
"But I was like, 'Jerry, sell me on (third-year quarterback) Tony Banks.' They had Jake Plummer in Arizona, and I was kind of leaning to go back to Arizona. But I think at the end of the day, Jerry convinced me, and Coach Vermeil convinced me. I really wanted the opportunity to play for such a prestigious coach as Vermeil. I just felt like he was going to do what it took to win."
Well, not right away. With a 4-12 record that 1998 season, the Rams and Carolina had seats next to the sump pump in the basement of the NFC West.
And having had the opportunity to go back to where he started, with the Cardinals, the thought that he made a mistake did cross Proehl's mind.
"Arizona made the playoffs that year and I was like, 'What did I do?' And our training camps were brutal. Three hours, twice a day. I was like, 'Oh, my God. I made the wrong decision. Arizona, Jake Plummer, they're heading in the right direction,'" Proehl said.
"And they were trying to run Dick off, trying to get him to retire. I was like, 'Oh, no. Same old story. Just a different city, a different team.'"
The following year, they were in the same city, but a much different team.
With Kurt Warner, a quarterback who seemingly appeared out of nowhere under center after first-year Ram Trent Green went down with a season-ending knee injury during the preseason, St. Louis won more than three times as many games as the previous season.
And with the introduction of the "Greatest Show of Turf," they moved from sharing the basement with Carolina to posting a 13-3 record and being by themselves in the penthouse of the NFC West.
"We made some good offseason moves, signing Trent as a free agent and trading for Marshall (Faulk)," Proehl said. "But the thing is, when you look at Dick's and Charley Armey's draft picks, it was unbelievable. From Grant Wistrom, Torry Holt, Dre Bly, Robert Holcombe, Orlando Pace, I mean, you just go down the line and it's instant impact players.
"And when Dick stood up there before the season and said, "Why not the Rams? Why can't we go to the Super Bowl?' We're all looking at each other like 'We were 4-12 last year. We were terrible.' Even though we just added some tremendous talent, some good players, we didn't quite believe like he did.
"He told us a story about getting in a wheelbarrow, and he would have that wheelbarrow out there every day going to practice. And by about the middle of season, we all walked out on the practice field and we're like, 'My ass is getting in that wheelbarrow. I'm starting to believe.' And that's kind of how it started to happen. We started to believe.
"What we started doing on the field was things that (offensive coordinator) Mike Martz said that we could do, what Coach Vermeil believed that we would do. And we started believing as a football team that we were unstoppable."
The same could have been said about Proehl during the 1999 NFC Championship Game against Tampa Bay in the TWA Dome.
With 4:44 left in the fourth quarter and trailing 6-5, he caught a pass from Warner one-handed, over-the-shoulder, and over Buccaneers defensive back Brian Kelly, just a yard or two into the end zone and inches from being out of bounds for what would be the game-winning touchdown. The Rams won, 11-6, advancing to Super Bowl XXXIV.
"We worked all week on if they blitz, if the safety came out of the middle field. Normally our sight adjustments were slants, get the ball out quick," Proehl said. "But we knew they would jump the route. So what we were going to do is run Go routes. Kurt and I were talking in the huddle and I said, 'If the safety comes out of the middle of the field, I'm not running the slant. I'm going. I'm running the Go.'
"And I remember the play; it was Flex Left 585 H-Choice. We were trying to get Marshall on an option route out of the backfield. We broke the huddle and I saw the safety come out of the middle of the field, and I knew it was game on. Time to make a play.
"Kurt makes a good throw. They blitzed the safety and it was a hot route. We went deep and completed the 30-yard touchdown. And it was unbelievable. It's something you dream of as a kid. That place erupted."
That was the first of two eruptions Proehl, his teammates, and Rams fans would experience. The second came a week later when St. Louis beat Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV.
"When you dream as a kid of playing in the National Football League and then hopefully going to a Super Bowl, you can't possibly imagine what it's going to feel like. The adrenaline rush. What you experience on Super Bowl Sunday, you want every NFL player to feel that feeling," Proehl said.
"It's the most amazing feeling to be with your teammates, to have a common goal to start the season, to get there and then to win it all. It's the ultimate high. I mean, it's just unreal. And to know what Dick had to go through, I couldn't have been more happy for him and for our team."
Proehl would go on to play for two more teams: Carolina and Indianapolis, his fifth and sixth organizations, in an incredible 17-year career.
"I think me and Irving Fryar caught more passes than any NFL wide receiver from different quarterbacks. Twenty-three different quarterbacks, and caught touchdown passes from 17 different quarterbacks," said Proehl, who would go on to coach Carolina's receivers for six seasons. "I took pride in being a great route runner and just being where I'm supposed to be, when I'm supposed to be there. And I think just wanting to earn the respect of my peers.
"I told one of my best friends from college, 'You know what, I'm going to play this game for a long time and they're going to look up one day and say that son of a bitch is still playing.' And that's what I'm most proud of, just playing for a long time and being consistent. Trying to improve my craft each and every season."
What's the best thing Proehl took away from the NFL experience?
"I think just learning what it takes to be a pro, what it takes to come to practice every day. Your work ethic, your determination, the commitment when you don't feel like doing it," he said. "Those are the things that I've carried on to my kids, my business. It's just commitment, just working hard, being resilient, and just being selfless as a teammate, as a husband, as a father, and now as a boss of my own business.
"It's a different arena, but it's the same thing. It's building a team that you're proud of, that you can trust, that you earn respect and not come in there and demand it. It's how you come to work day in and day out and be consistent."
His business is a fitness center and sports complex in Greensboro, North Carolina – Proehlific Park. Opened in 2008, it's 22 acres with outdoor fields and a 90,000 square foot building.
"There are so many people throughout my journey, from my high school coach to my college coaches to my NFL coaches that believed in me, encouraged me, and helped me become not just a better football player, but a better person. I wanted to pass that on to the next generations," Proehl said.
"I wanted to create equal opportunity for kids of all ages, of all ethnic backgrounds, in all sports. We've got lacrosse, field hockey, basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, performance training, weightlifting, we've got it all. And my foundation's run out of there. We give scholarships for mothers and fathers who can't afford to put their kids in afterschool, can't afford to put their kids in AAU basketball. And so we provide opportunities for these kids to be their best.
"It was a dream after playing in the National Football League of what I was going to do, and I decided this is what I want to do. I want to give back. I want to help kids be their very best at whatever it is they want to do. And so for me, when kids come back, when parents come back, and tell me how much of an impact Proehlific Park has had on their children, on their lives, man, I get choked up because that's as much of a legacy in life as I left in football. And it's a legacy that continues to grow."
Splitting their time between Greensboro and Charleston, South Carolina, Proehl and his wife, Kelly, the National Sales Manager for Juice Plus+, have three adult children.
Their daughter, Alex, is in marketing for Baker Roofing in North Carolina, and has twin daughters. Their son, Austin, is the receivers coach at Wingate College. And their other son, Blake, is a successful singer based in Nashville.
"Being married for 33 years, I love my wife more today than I did 33 years ago," Proehl said. "And just being a father to three beautiful children and two great grandkids, I've got a great life. I pinch myself every day and thank the good Lord for just blessing me. All my dreams have come true."
