RAM NOTEBOOK / TIM KAWAKAMI : Coaches Take Different Paths to Reach Atlanta
Before Jerry Glanville became the Clown Prince of the NFL, before John Robinson had been introduced to the wonders of coaching Eric Dickerson and intra-team politics, Robinson and Glanville sat together, two coaches talking football philosophy.
Although the two men are now about as far apart on the NFL coaching spectrum as you can get, Glanville says that back then, something clicked.
Eight years ago, when Robinson had just been hired away from an administrative position at USC to coach the Rams, he flew out Glanville, then recently fired as an Atlanta Falcon assistant, to interview him for the Rams’ secondary job.
Glanville, now coach of the Falcon team that Sunday will play host to Robinson’s Rams, remembers their meeting of the minds vividly. Of course, Glanville remembers and says and does everything vividly, but his talk with Robinson seems to have struck a chord.
“He was living in the most beautiful home--I think the university owned it,” Glanville said before wryly adding: “They’ve probably since thrown him out of that.
“I was somewhat in awe of the house that he lived in and then sitting down and talking to him was most refreshing to me. It was sort of a reinforcement of what you believe and what you coach, and that’s what he was looking for, and it was good for me to spend three or four hours there talking about football and the National Football League and what we both believed in.
“The other guy that was the same way was (Steeler Coach) Chuck Noll. I interviewed with both people, and both people thought that way. I ended up taking a job with Buffalo, which tells you, you know, some of the decisions I make.”
Glanville said he walked away from that discussion with Robinson thinking he was going to be offered a job. Robinson doesn’t recall too much about the interview, other than saying he remembers he and Glanville had a good talk.
The job ended up going to Steve Shaffer, who has been Robinson’s secondary coach since. Think about it: controversial, wise-cracking Jerry Glanville and non-controversial John Robinson together for eight seasons?
“We were going to discuss it,” Glanville said. “You know, the league works in mysterious ways. . . . Unfortunately, the job I took, there was a deadline, I didn’t have another day. And you sort of learn in the league, if you’re pushed into a corner, you better take what’s definitely there.
“I had the feeling I was going to be offered the job, but that was just my feeling. My wife tells me I always think I’m going to get the job. . . . I always walk away thinking, boy, this is great. And then sometimes you don’t.
“But they dropped me off at the hotel, and I had to call Buffalo, and Buffalo said you have to tell us right now, yes or no, and that’s what happens in this league.”
Said Robinson: “Yeah, we sat and talked for quite a while. I’ve always thought Jerry Glanville was a good coach. Talked to him. . . . Seemed like a nice enough guy.”
In the eight years since, Glanville coached Buffalo’s secondary under Chuck Knox for a year, moved to Houston to be the Oilers’ defensive coordinator for two years, was hired as the Oiler head coach for three years and then left for Atlanta last year by “mutual agreement” with the Houston brass.
In those same eight years, Robinson has done only one thing--coach the Rams.
Now, after a 5-9 start that has displeased Ram management and with his own broad hints that he might leave on his own, it is Robinson who might get to know the words “leaving by mutual agreement” quite well and Glanville who, even with a 3-11 record, will almost certainly have at least another year to rebuild the Falcons.
To quote a noted philosopher: The league works in mysterious ways.
The Falcons’ probable starting quarterback Sunday isn’t only a guy the Rams released three years ago, he’s a player the Falcons themselves released this season.
Hugh Millen, a third-round draft choice by the Rams out of Washington in 1986, ended the exhibition schedule as Atlanta’s third-string quarterback (behind Chris Miller and Scott Campbell) and was not very happy about it.
“He came to my office right after the final cut and said that he did not want to be here if he was the third guy on the depth chart,” Glanville said. “And if you say that, of course, we don’t want you to be here, either. So we released him.”
But after Miller suffered an early-season knee injury, Millen was re-signed for insurance. He became Campbell’s backup when Miller was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. Sunday, with Campbell struggling and suffering from a sore shoulder, Millen probably will get only the second start of his NFL career.
In last week’s loss at Cleveland, after Campbell was removed from the game, Millen completed 11 of 27 passes for 168 yards and a touchdown. In his two seasons with the Rams, he threw all of one pass.
A sign he doesn’t want to be around next season: Millen has a clause in his new contract that forces the Falcons to leave him unprotected in the next Plan B free-agency period.
Was it awkward for him to come back to Atlanta after requesting his release?
“I think at this level, there’s two sides to the game,” Millen said. “There’s the business side, and there’s the game side that I’ve been playing since I was 9 years old. And I think at this level, most guys realize you’ve got to separate it.
“We were able to separate it, and there were conciliatory gestures on both parts, and we put it behind us. There was kind of a mutual need there, I suppose. They were down, injury-wise, and of course, anybody who’s playing wants to play. I just want to be on a roster, get an opportunity to play.”
Ram linebacker Kevin Greene Thursday taped a holiday greeting to American troops stationed in the Middle East as part of Project: Better than a Letter. In the joint USO-Montgomery Ward’s project, players from 15 NFL teams taped messages that will be shown in the days before Christmas. The Rams, along with the rest of the league, are also scheduled to wear American flag stickers on their helmets this week to salute the troops.