Robinson: ‘Time for Me to Move On’ : Pro football: He resigns as coach of the Rams, effective after Sunday’s game.
John Robinson, who coached the Rams to two NFC championship games but was unable to prevent the team’s two-year slide, announced his resignation Wednesday, effective after Sunday’s season finale.
In a hastily called, 10-minute news conference Wednesday evening, minutes after posing side by side with Ram owner Georgia Frontiere for the annual team picture, Robinson ended his nine-year run as coach by saying he was disappointed with the team’s decline but by emphasizing his pride for what he accomplished over the entire span.
“It’s just time for me to move on,” Robinson said. “I think the move will be beneficial for both myself and the Rams, and I wish whoever is my successor well. I wish the players on the Rams well as they look ahead to next year.
“This ends a 16-year stint as a head coach in Southern California, be it at SC or here. Thirteen of those seasons were very successful seasons, and as I look back, I had a lot of fun, we had a lot of wins, and I look back at it with great memories.”
Frontiere left the field after the picture, was not available for comment and did not issue a statement. No other top Ram officials were available for comment.
Robinson, who refused to answer questions, also took a few subtle swipes at the Rams’ front office, which for weeks has been seeking his replacement.
“As the Rams’ only spokesman these nine years, it’s my job to announce to you that I have submitted my resignation and it has been accepted,” Robinson said.
“It is a situation of mutual arrangement. We both--Ram management and myself--felt it was the right thing and the right time for this to happen.
“We’ve had a good nine years. Unfortunately the last two years we’ve faltered. This year has been particularly difficult for us. We tried to make a lot of changes in the football team, and we just didn’t get it done.
“I feel badly about our performance this year, but overall, my tenure with the Rams, I feelvery good about what we accomplished.
“One of the jobs that I am giving up as of this moment is the job of Rams spokesman. Therefore I’m not going to answer any questions.
“You can go to the Rams spokesman from here on out and get those questions you might have.”
Robinson, who coached the team longer than anyone, was planning to announce his resignation this morning. But he told his team Wednesday morning, and by noon, reports about his decision were surfacing, and Ram executives were seen pouring into emergency meetings.
By the afternoon, with a media avalanche hitting Rams Park as the Rams were setting up the team-picture shoot, Robinson decided to move up his resignation.
He met briefly in Frontiere’s offices with the owner, Executive Vice President John Shaw and several other team officials, posed for the picture, then moved into the Rams Park cafeteria to give his statement.
According to several team sources, Robinson, 56, and the Rams’ front office came to an agreement earlier this week on the guaranteed $550,000 he is owed beyond 1991, and he is expected to walk away with close to the full amount.
Both sides apparently wanted to finalize the decision before the season closed to free the team to begin its search for his replacement and to end the months-long speculation about his future as quickly as possible.
At least one man close to Robinson said he couldn’t help but notice that Robinson has looked unusually worn and tired recently.
“I think he has,” said Marv Goux, Robinson’s longtime coaching confidant and current assistant defensive line coach/administrative assistant. “You know he has. He’s not quite the guy that he’s been before. It takes a toll on any guy.
“You see it. You see the toll. I think it’s best to do it now. The players are here now.”
Goux said Robinson shied away from showing his emotions when he made the announcement to the players.
“All of a sudden it got silent, but there was nobody that had tears in their eyes,” Goux said. “They just looked at him, and he mentioned a few guys who have been here since we’ve been here--Jackie (Slater) and Doug (Smith) and also Henry Ellard, Kevin Greene.
“They say, ‘Hey, I’ve seen this guy be with me and bring me into this league, now all of a sudden he’s going to be gone.’
“It’s going to be a little different.”
Robinson, 79-73 in the regular season and 4-6 in the playoffs, will coach the team Sunday evening in Seattle, then at least temporarily leave the profession that has dominated his life for most of 30 years. He is both the winningest and losingest coach in Ram history.
Friends say he is looking forward to the possibility of taking all of 1992 to relax and get away from the pressures of coaching, and hasn’t begun to think about his next job.
“I have no plans,” Robinson said. “I do not have anything. I have not thought about it. I’m going to take some time off and sit down and enjoy my life and look ahead to what’s coming.
“Whether I stay in coaching or not, I’m not sure. But I have not talked to anyone, and I have no conversations going with any organization whatsoever.”
The announcement brought an end to tension that has been building between Robinson and the front office for quite a while.
After reaching the NFC title game in 1989, the alliance began to split when the team began losing. Robinson and Shaw have quarreled about draft selection, personnel moves and budget limitations imposed by Frontiere.
Robinson has at times privately implied that the Rams’ way of doing business was overly penurious and hardly conducive to success. While Shaw and the Rams front office quietly believed Robinson worked harder at deflecting blame than he did at coaching the team.
Shaw has said that Robinson has always been the major football decision-maker, but the coach never wanted the public responsibility for drafting players such as Gaston Green or Mike Schad.
Robinson has said that because of management intractability, he hasn’t been able to acquire the players he needs.
In victory, the strained relationship held. After two years of failure, it is about to be severed.
After going 5-11 in 1990, Shaw recommended that Robinson be fired, but Frontiere decided not to put the franchise through a coaching change at that time.
Robinson signed a three-year contract a few months later, supposedly tying him to the club through 1993. But the deal was structured to give the Rams the opportunity to fire him if 1991 proved as dismal as the previous season. Only 60% of the $2-million deal was guaranteed.
Robinson, the franchise’s 13th head coach, was hired in February, 1983. Robinson resigned as USC coach in November of 1982 after a seven-year span in which he won the national title in 1979 and coached two Heisman Trophy winners, Charles White and Marcus Allen.
His Ram teams made the playoffs six times in his first seven seasons, a feat duplicated only by Mike Ditka’s Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers over that same span, Robinson has made it a point to say.
In 1985, the Rams won the NFC West and were one victory away from the Super Bowl before the eventual-Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears defeated them in the conference championship game.
In 1988, one year after trading disgruntled superstar Eric Dickerson, the Rams jumped back into postseason play, losing to the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card game.
By 1989, the offense was almost unstoppable, and the Rams beat the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants in road playoff games to advance into the NFC Championship game again. There, the eventual-Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers defeated them, 30-3.
That unexpected playoff run would be the last shining moment for Robinson. In 1990, a defense that had used mirrors to win the previous season, collapsed, leading to the team’s 5-11 record and the firing of longtime defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur and the rest of the defensive staff.
Robinson brought in his former player, Jeff Fisher, to transform the passive 3-4 zone team into a blitzing 4-3 defense, but the pieces were not there for success. Also, the offense in 1990 began to bog down, and this year, the scoring slowdown was complete.
After a rally to even the team’s record at 3-3, the Rams have lost nine consecutive games and on Sunday could break a franchise-record for consecutive losses.
“In my years as a coach in Southern California, I treated people with respect and behaved with dignity in doing my job,” Robinson said. “In most cases, that respect was returned, and in most cases people of the media and press treated me with that same kind of respect.
“Unfortunately, there are some that don’t understand that, but they’re usually the people that no one pays much attention to anyway.
“I feel good about the time we spent here. I was treated well and I think I did a good job.”
RAM ANALYSIS: John Robinson was a power football coach who lost his power. C4
RAM REACTION: Players and coaches were sorry, but few were surprised by Robinson’s resignation. C4
ROBINSON YEARS: He was a winner for seven years, then came the decline. C5
Robinson’s Ram Coaching Record
REGULAR SEASON
YEAR RECORD PCT. NFC WEST FINISH 1983 9-7-0 .563 Second 1984 10-6-0 .625 Second 1985 11-5-0 .688 First 1986 10-6-0 .625 Second 1987 6-9-0* .400 Third 1988 10-6-0 .625 Second 1989 11-5-0 .688 Second 1990 5-11-0 .313 Third 1991 3-12-0** .200 Fourth Total 75-67-0** .528
*--Strike shortened season
**--One game remaining
POSTSEASON
YEAR REC. ROUND OPP. ELIMINATED 1983 1-1 NFC Divisional Washington 1984 0-1 Wild Card N.Y. Giants 1985 1-1 NFC Championship Chicago 1986 0-1 Wild Card Washington 1987 Failed to qualify 1988 0-1 Wild Card Minnesota 1989 2-1 NFC Championship San Fran. 1990 Failed to qualify 1991 Failed to qualify Total 4-6