A Season Wasted Waiting for Everett

Bob Waterfield retired at the age of 33, dignity intact, two years after leading the Los Angeles Rams to their first and only NFL championship.

Norm Van Brocklin was traded to Philadelphia, where he led the Eagles to their most recent NFL championship.

Roman Gabriel was traded for Harold Jackson, the speedy wide receiver who paired with John Hadl to usher in the first Chuck Knox era with an NFC West championship.

And how will the self-proclaimed greatest quarterback in Ram history be leaving us?

Can you say . . . outright release?

Ram coaches and executives spent much of Monday afternoon seeing if they could form the words with their mouths. It is on the tips of their tongues, as we speak, and if the official announcement comes today or Wednesday, we will be able to say this much for the Rams:

They will have ended their nightmare before Thanksgiving.

Release Jim Everett?

Knox is believed to be seriously considering it, but, with Knox, that’s still a long way from getting it done. Some people rush blindly into life-altering decisions, failing to look before they leap. Not Knox. Knox not only looks, but checks the wind currents, studies the barometric pressure, measures the altitude, tests the landing surface--hmmm, might need a few more pillows here--and considers all the potential ramifications if, indeed, he chooses not to leap.

Knox should have benched Everett in early October, after the New Orleans debacle, but decided, “Not now.”

Knox should have traded Everett before the Oct. 19 deadline, back when Miami was down one Marino and bobbing for quarterbacks, but decided, “Not now.”

Knox should have made a clean break with Everett before the first San Francisco game, installing T.J. Rubley as the starter and keeping him there, regardless of whatever might--and did--go wrong in Candlestick, but again he decided, “Not now.”

And now?

Now, Knox has a hopeless 3-7 football team that would be 2-8 today if not for the grace of Rubley, Ace Reliever. Already, Rubley has saved one game for Knox, should have saved another and so what if he gets it done by completing 38-yard passes after crossing the line of scrimmage and benefiting from more fortuitous bounces than you’d find in a set of loaded dice?

It was a wise coach who first said he’d rather be lucky than good, and Everett has been neither. Maybe Rubley isn’t the long-term answer at quarterback, and maybe his rabbit’s foot is more potent than his throwing arm, but Knox’s loyalty to Everett through underthrow and overthrow and blame-shucking second guess is not only the big mystery of this Ram season, it’s also the big mistake.

Knox has been in denial for three months--the mantra: Everett can’t be this bad, Everett can’t be this bad--and it has cost him. Cost him victories, cost him a run at the playoffs, cost him uncontested job security and now stands to cost him a draft choice or two if Everett is released instead of traded.

Suppose Knox had cut bait before Oct. 19 and traded Everett for those draft choices.

Then Rubley starts against Detroit at home and if he produces 17 points, the Rams win.

Then Rubley starts against Atlanta at home and if he produces 14 points, the Rams win.

Then the Rams are 5-5, a game out of second place in the NFC West and tied with such wild-card hopefuls as Minnesota and Chicago. And this is discounting the first Atlanta game, which could have been won with decent quarterbacking, and the Giant game, which could have been won with decent quarterbacking.

Knox wasted a season by waiting for Everett. In the process, Knox let the reins of his rebuilding program slip away from him--after a 6-10 finish in ‘92, the Rams have actually slid backwards in ‘93--and demoralized a defense that has held six opponents to 20 points or less. The sight of the Everett-led offense, gasping and wheezing and punting, has depressed safety Anthony Newman to the point where he can no longer bear to watch.

“When the team’s messing up on offense and it’s nothing I can control, I get frustrated,” Newman says. “Before, I was getting too caught up in it. Now, I sit down on the bench, talk to the coaches in the press box and don’t pay attention to what the offense does.”

The Everett issue has all but consumed the team, the head coach included. Knox was dragged into the mire last week, as questions about Knox’s future with the Rams surfaced in the papers, making Knox’s handling of the quarterback situation all the more unfathomable.

Foremost among Knox’s critics was Everett himself, passing the buck better than the football, directing the blame toward Knox and his band of offensive coaches, right on the numbers.

And this is the guy Knox is staking the final chapter of his coaching career on?

One imagines Knox as Julius Caesar in a previous life, presenting Brutus with a set of carving knives for Christmas and wearing a bright red bull’s-eye on his back during sessions of the Roman senate.

Release Jim Everett?

What once was unthinkable is now on the table, to be batted about this morning by Knox and General Manager John Shaw.

If it can happen to Bernie Kosar, it can happen to Everett.

In Cleveland, that decision could end up costing Bill Belichick his coaching job.

In Anaheim, it could end up saving Knox’s.