Looking Back, Shaw Says Rams Made Right Move

It must be tempting for John Shaw, president of the NFC West-leading St. Louis Rams, to enjoy a long, loud laugh at the expense of Orange County.

The last laugh.

Although some effort was made to keep the Rams in Anaheim, the general feeling when they left for St. Louis after the 1994 season was good riddance.

And Shaw became one of the chief villains of the Rams’ exodus, along with owner Georgia Frontiere.

But Shaw insists he wishes the Southland well.

“I don’t have any regrets about the team moving to St. Louis,” he said. “I do have regrets that there is no pro football in Southern California.”

Will it ever happen?

“I hope so,” he said. “It’s a great metropolitan area. But I think that for football to come back, at some point there is going to have to be some sort of public support.”

When the Rams left, there was an assumption by some that Shaw would take some of the money and run, leaving Frontiere to sink or swim on the banks of the Mississippi.

“I questioned my role when we moved,” Shaw agreed. “I clearly wanted to get the team situated. Once we were there, my ego prevented me from changing my role until we were doing better. My mind-set was, don’t go out as a loser. I didn’t want to make a decision on my future until we were doing well.

“It’s very satisfying the way it has turned out, although I don’t want to overstate the case for my role in the team’s success. When things are going bad, people want to blame the coaches and players. When things are going right, they should get the credit.”

Especially satisfying for Shaw is the success of Coach Dick Vermeil. There were more than a few laughs when the Rams selected a 60-year-old coach in 1997, one who had been out of the game for 15 years. Who was more out of touch, the critics wondered, Vermeil or Shaw for signing him?

“We received a fair amount of criticism,” Shaw said, “but I know Dick and I know he had had quite a bit of success in turning programs around. I know the ingredients that he stresses: discipline, hard work and motivation. I wasn’t that concerned about his ability to communicate with the modern-day player. I was more concerned with him learning the free-agent, salary-cap system we operate under.”

Vermeil is right on the timetable Shaw had envisioned.

“The third year,” Shaw said, “is often the year a program a coach is trying to change pays dividends.”

Shaw cited the play of the Ram defense, especially defensive end Kevin Carter and defensive back Todd Lyght, the injury-free status of receiver Isaac Bruce and the off-season trade for running back Marshall Faulk as keys to the Rams’ impressive season.

And how is Frontiere dealing with sudden success?

“She is obviously ecstatic,” Shaw said. “Nobody really likes criticism, but she kept on course until we got it right.”

ON SECOND THOUGHT. . . .

The Rams (8-2) have the best record in the NFC.

You remember them. They used to play in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

The Oakland Raiders, though 5-5, are still in the playoff hunt, a team slowly rounding into a postseason contender.

You remember the Raiders. They used to play here as well.

The Seattle Seahawks at 8-2 sit comfortably atop the AFC West.

You remember the Seahawks. They tried to play here.

As the battles have raged in the back rooms of the NFL over putting a team back in L.A., local sentiment, what sparse sentiment there is, has been for an expansion team over a transplanted squad.

The logic seems to be that it is better to start fresh and build rather than inherit somebody else’s problems.

The experience of dealing with Frontiere and Al Davis, and the prospect of dealing with Ken Behring, the Seahawk owner when the team tried to make its end run to L.A. several years ago, soured some local fans on existing teams.

But as this season has again shown, owners come and go. Players come and go. And in the National Parity League, the winners and losers can trade places in the blink of a turnover. Remove John Elway, and the Denver Broncos can go from the top of the football world to the bottom of the AFC West.

They’ve started over again in Cleveland, where the expansion Browns are a poor imitation of the established Browns of old and figure to be pathetic for at least the next few seasons.

This isn’t like buying a car. In football, the used model is always better. If not now, soon.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Roger Staubach’s Super Bowl rings keep popping up on Internet sites, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Not to worry.

The former Cowboy quarterback, a Hall of Famer, isn’t trying to squeeze out a few dollars to live on.

The fact is, since Staubach was the most visible member of America’s Team back when a ring company was designing the Super Bowl mementos, they used his as a model.

And it’s those old Staubach models that keep surfacing.