Shurmur’s Defensive About Taking Credit He Deserves

Fritz Shurmur doesn’t believe in the star system. He thinks every sentence ought to have the word “team” in it.

Fritz Shurmur doesn’t believe in office cots, or coaches who spend the night in them. He thinks you work until the work is done and then you go home.

Fritz Shurmur doesn’t believe anyone would be the least bit interested in a 56-year-old Ram defensive coordinator who watches more film than Siskel and Ebert. He thinks all the attention should go to his boss, Coach John Robinson. Really, he does.

But then you see cornerback LeRoy Irvin turn to the sidelines during a game and salute Shurmur, the man Irvin calls “The General.” Or you see the respect players such as linebacker Carl Ekern show him. Or you see Shurmur, now in his 35th season of coaching, on the field before a game, his stomach tied in square knots, his emotions worn up and down his sleeves. That’s when you know someone is doing what they love.

“I could never be a cool coach,” he said. “I could never be dressed up and look cool . I say what I think and what I feel. That’s just me.”

Shurmur was meant to be a coach. He has a feel for the game and the men who play it. Give Shurmur a week to prepare for an offense and you get a thorough plan that honors the paper it’s typed on. Give him and the rest of the coaching staff an off-season and you get the Eagle defense.

This is someone who belongs in blue polyester coaching shorts and short-sleeve T-shirts that have Los Angeles Rams silk screened, fittingly enough, above the heart. That baseball cap he wears during practice becomes him.

Let’s be honest: Shurmur in the business world? He wouldn’t know a three-piece suit if you introduced him to the Brooks Brothers themselves. Shurmur thinks a Windsor knot is an English weather term. Shurmur looks at collared shirts the same way some people look at fried liver.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had,” said Shurmur, his desk covered with diagrams and charts and different colored pens. “This is probably the best coordinator job in the NFL. It’s a great, great situation.”

Think of the Rams since Shurmur arrived in Anaheim 7 seasons ago and you usually think of Eric Dickerson and then the defense. Nolan Cromwell, Jim Collins, Gary Green, Ekern, Irvin, Jerry Gray--all of them Pro Bowl selections during Shurmur’s tenure. Who knows who could join the list this year: linebackers Kevin Greene? Mike Wilcher? Mel Owens?

And get this: Opponents have scored 17 points or less in 45 of the 101 games the Rams have played with Shurmur as defensive coordinator. No wonder Robinson retained him from Ray Malavasi’s staff in 1983.

Shurmur will talk all day about defenses. It’s his favorite subject. Need a few minutes to chat about the successful Eagle defense? No problem, Shurmur says. Want to stop by to look at film after practice? Sure, he says. Need some diagrams of a rotating zone? Scribble, scribble, goes Shurmur.

“The success of this thing is really uppermost in my mind,” Shurmur said. “It drives me to the point that it’s almost half an obsession, to make this thing as good as it can be.”

But then try asking Shurmur about Shurmur. Convincing someone to spend 6 months on jury duty is easier. Shurmur starts stammering, mildly protesting the questions. Remember, his least enjoyable word is, I.

“I have a strong belief that there should be one star and that’s the head coach,” Shurmur said. “That’s my approach and I really believe in it. I think it’s somewhat of a contradiction for an assistant coach to be seeking notoriety and talk about his defense and that kind of thing and then go into a players’ meeting and try to convince them they should be We and Us guys.”

Not to worry. Shurmur spends more time crediting Robinson for the Ram defensive success than Bush credits Reagan for assorted prosperities. To hear Shurmur talk, you’d think he was a simple caretaker rather than the defensive architect. But that’s Shurmur, all humility and deference.

You can find Shurmur in his Rams Park office by about 7 every morning except Sundays. He jogs a few miles and then maybe sneaks into the weight room to do some quick lifting. Then he goes to meetings, or film review, or practice, or more meetings, or more film review. Sometimes Shurmur climbs on the stationary bike in his office and starts pedaling away--all while watching another reel of game film on a wall screen.

Depending on the amount of work, Shurmur and the rest of the coaches are gone by 7 or 8 p.m., some nights later. But there is no sleeper sofa in Shurmur’s office. “I think a lot of guys who sleep there, watch TV there, too,” he said.

So Shurmur goes home and rests easy. He prides himself on being organized. He knows the system that he and the other Ram coaches created works.

Still, you’d think that after spending 11 years in the league as an assistant, Shurmur might want to move up. Well, he would--sort of. But he loves his job with the Rams and figures there’s not much of a market for a defensive specialist 4 years away from 60. Their loss, of course.

“When you’re young, it pushes you, it kind of drives you,” he said. “I think at my age the drive is to be successful at what we’re doing on a daily, game-by-game basis. It’s not looking down at the end of the road and saying, ‘If we have a great season I’ll be offered a head coaching job or I could make a run at one.’ Those years went by a long time ago.”

Not necessarily. Not if troubled franchises such as the Detroit Lions or the Kansas City Chiefs or even the Dallas Cowboys take another look at a reluctant star in waiting named Shurmur.