Rams Are Bad, but Has Vermeil Gone Mad?
A perfect Sunday for the good people of St. Louis would be Mark McGwire hitting a mammoth home run out of Busch Stadium, the ball plunking former Cardinal football team owner Bill Bidwill in the head as he returns to the city for the first time since moving his team to Arizona.
Instead, it’s just more bad luck for the Rams.
With all the attention on McGwire, playing his final game of the season just down the block and local TVs turned to Channel 51 for the homerfest, the much-detested Bidwill will come and go without fanfare, the Rams left to get inspired on their own . . . and you know how that goes.
The Rams have the NFL’s worst record in the ‘90s at 42-89--worse than even Bidwill’s losers--and while not a surprise, now there are dispatches from St. Louis suggesting the Rams’ ineptitude has become infectious.
Or, to be blunt: Coach Dick Vermeil has gone Looney Tunes.
“If it was Bill Walsh or Jim Mora or Bill Parcells . . . if it were the coaches who felt I lost it, then I’d resign,” Vermeil said in a telephone interview. “But I feel good about the progress we’re making and think we’re moving faster than what people give us credit for.”
Vermeil, however, has some explaining to do:
* How could he suggest rehiring troubled Lawrence Phillips, as he did this week?
* Is it true free agents won’t sign with the Rams, and the team was on the brink of mutiny recently until Vermeil agreed to shorten the work day?
* Is it true he began the season with his two best running backs listed inactive, starting instead a certified stiff?
* What did Vermeil do to Ironhead Heyward that would make him so unhappy to proclaim, “I do not want to play or work for that man again.”?
“The people I have respected the most in my life were some of the toughest people I have ever had to deal with,” Vermeil said. “I remember Mrs. Ford; she slapped the heck out of me. I got smart, and I remember her and respect her.”
Where was Mrs. Ford when Vermeil mentioned Phillips’ name earlier this week?
“I was asked if I had thought about Lawrence and I always think about Lawrence,” Vermeil said. “I had talked to him on the telephone. . . . We call each other.”
Anyone who has known Vermeil understands Vermeil was simply being Vermeil, honest and capable of placing his foot in his mouth at any moment.
“If it wouldn’t be a distraction, I’d like to bring him back,” said Vermeil--establishing himself as the eternal optimist.
The Rams are 6-13 under Vermeil, in part because the organization wasted the sixth pick in the 1996 draft on Phillips. Phillips consistently let the team down on and off the field, before being cut Nov. 20 last year.
“What would you have liked me to say, ‘Hell no, that [jerk] doesn’t belong here’? I understand it’s created quite a little news thing around the country. I’m sorry I did that. I’m going to have to start not answering questions honestly when someone asks me something. Because it just creates problems. . . . I get ridiculed.”
Phillips should never have come to Vermeil’s mind, but score one for Vermeil on the Looney Tune test in the name of honesty--a rare trait in the sports world.
But about that mutiny and talk in the NFL that the Rams lose free agents because players think this coach works them too hard.
“I’ve always been accused of working players too hard, and I probably do work them harder than some people,” he said. “But the end result has always been pretty good. At UCLA we won. At Philadelphia we won. The Rams have been losing all through the ‘90s, and with our roster set, the only way I see these people getting better is to work them.
“I’ve heard rumors about players not wanting to come here, but come on, players stop if they don’t get their money and don’t stay if they don’t get enough. We lost one free agent last year in Bill Johnson, who looked me directly in the eyes and said he wanted to stay. But we couldn’t pay him, and then later there’s talk he couldn’t play for me. I worked 30 pounds off his big fat ass last year and he played pretty good for us; I can’t tell you how he’s playing now.”
Johnson is playing for the 0-3 Eagles--score another one for Vermeil.
The Rams, considering mutiny, conducted a players-only meeting in which they agreed they didn’t need to practice as much--score another for Vermeil without even hearing an explanation.
As for Heyward, Vermeil fined him $27,000 last season for being overweight and told him to report at 260 or not report at all this season. Heyward didn’t report and went on a crusade bad-mouthing Vermeil.
“It hurt us because we only have one true H-back on our roster, and it hurts him because he’s not making any money right now,” Vermeil said. “If you want to fault me on this, OK.”
No, nothing wrong with establishing standards and sticking to them--score another.
Without Heyward and Phillips, the Rams picked up Greg Hill in the off-season when no one else wanted him and selected Robert Holcombe in the second round of the draft. Hill and Holcombe showed early promise, but when the season started Vermeil listed them as inactive.
He started Jerald Moore, who fumbled three times, leading to a New Orleans Saint victory.
“It wasn’t like I was keeping Eric Dickerson on the bench,” Vermeil said, and if his team could score as well as he does, there might be a reason to watch.
The Rams have been outscored, 35-0, in the first quarter but have come back, mirroring Vermeil’s intensity in the second half with a 55-33 edge. The Rams have outgained their foes, 409-124, in yardage in the fourth quarter, while posting 27 first downs to the opponents’ eight, a pretty good indication the hard-working Rams are in better shape than the other teams.
“When I took a team [Eagles] to the Super Bowl in five years without having a first-, second- or third-round draft pick, it was because we had a great work ethic,” Vermeil said. “And when we lost the Super Bowl it was because we had worked them too hard and they had nothing left.
“Listen, all that matters is winning.”
The guy’s Looney Tunes, though, if he thinks he can do that with the Rams.