Final Practices Latest Weather Victims

The St. Louis Rams reluctantly canceled a scheduled Super Bowl walk-through at the Georgia Dome on Saturday because of poor weather conditions and icy roads in Atlanta.

Coach Dick Vermeil called off the 45-minute session after state police told him the team could get to the Georgia Dome safely, but might have a problem on the return trip to their hotel.

“I didn’t want to cancel it,” Vermeil said. “I wanted them to go over there and get into that locker room and share the feeling of being together in the locker room where we go to battle.”

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Titans also declined to risk traveling in the inclement weather, instead holding their final workout before today’s game in a heated tent outside their hotel.

Previously, the tent was used for interviews.

“We have spent our lives in trailers, it seems, so to do a walk-through in a heated tent is no problem for us at all,” Coach Jeff Fisher said.

Before becoming the Titans this season, the then-Oilers used a collection of trailers and offices in a medical building as their practice facility for the previous two years. Bad weather in Nashville forced them at times to hold practices in a parking lot.

*

The Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized the NFL for its hiring practices, which he said resulted from “a culture driven by white supremacists.” Jackson told CNNSI on Friday that “there is one standard for choosing coaches in the National Football League and another standard for choosing players.” Of the last 30 head coaching hires in the NFL, Ray Rhodes was the only black, and Rhodes was fired this month by the Green Bay Packers. . . .

Running back Bam Morris, 28, whose career was plagued by recurring bouts with substance abuse, announced his retirement from the Kansas City Chiefs. Morris also played for Chicago, Pittsburgh and the Baltimore Ravens. . . . On Bill Belichick’s first day as coach of the New England Patriots on Friday, he fired the team’s longtime strength and conditioning coach, Johnny Parker, the Boston Globe reported. . . . Mitch Frankel, the agent for Jake Reed of the Minnesota Vikings, says the receiver is free to talk to other teams about being traded. A Viking source confirmed that the team will allow Frankel to contact teams for which Reed is interested in playing.