St. Louis Spirit

Dick Vermeil lives just outside Philadelphia and gets the royal treatment whenever he ventures into the city. And why not? He rescued the hapless Eagles in the 1970s, turning a 4-10 team into a Super Bowl participant in his first five seasons as coach. So, it’s with a hint of sadness that he confesses this:

He won’t be rooting for them Sunday in the NFC championship game. Not against St. Louis. Not a chance.

“If they were playing any other team, I’d be in their corner,” he said Thursday. “But I have so many personal relationships left within the Ram organization, there’s no way I could ever root against them.”

Vermeil, now Kansas City’s coach, has spent the week scouting talent at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. He was hesitant to talk about the NFC title game and said he has turned down interviews all week because “that game isn’t about Dick Vermeil, it’s about the Rams and the Eagles.”

Regardless, he’s hailed as a hero in both cities. After the 1980 season, he was named NFL coach of the year when he led the Eagles to their only Super Bowl appearance, a 27-10 loss to Oakland. Nineteen years later, he won the honor again by coaching the Rams--the worst team in football when he took the job--to their only Super Bowl title.

Time has mellowed the 65-year-old Vermeil. He now adheres to a strict midnight curfew and goes home every night. It wasn’t always that way for the man who invented coaching burnout.

Early in his career, he slept three nights a week in his office, turning out the lights at 4 a.m. and getting up three hours later. By his thinking, an idle moment was a moment wasted.

Bill Lyon, longtime columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, remembers getting into an elevator at Veterans Stadium with Vermeil after the coach’s introductory news conference. Vermeil pushed a button, waited two seconds, then sighed with frustration when the doors didn’t immediately close.

“This thing’s too damn slow,” Vermeil said. “Where are the stairs?”

The Eagles forced Vermeil to be patient. When he arrived, the Eagles were short on talent, shorter on draft picks. They finished 4-10 his first season, then 5-9, 9-7 and 11-5. Finally, in 1980, they won the NFC East and beat Dallas in the conference championship to reach the Super Bowl. Vermeil said that victory was so stirring, his players were unable to regain their focus for the Super Bowl.

“I don’t relive it,” he said. “I’ve developed the discipline not to look back in regret. All that does is pull you down for the future. When I look back, I look back at all the wonderful relationships and friends I have from that time.”

Two years later, after a 3-6 finish in the strike-shortened 1992 season, Vermeil stepped away from coaching in what would be a 14-year hiatus. He returned in 1997 to coach the Rams, who had lost 76 games in seven seasons.

As with the Eagles, Vermeil was forced to be patient. His team went 5-11 and 4-12 before its abrupt turnaround, which came after quarterback Trent Green suffered a season-ending knee injury and Vermeil put the offense in the hands of arena-league refugee Kurt Warner.

“To me,” Vermeil said, “that season wasn’t so much a fairy tale. It was a process.”

He said progress was being made behind the scenes during those first two seasons. He weeded out problem players. He toughened those who remained by resorting to some of his Philadelphia tactics, including full-speed practices in pads all week. He retooled the coaching staff and, before the 1999 season, hired offensive guru Mike Martz, now head coach.

In came Marshall Faulk and Torry Holt. Out went Tony Banks and Eddie Kennison. The Rams’ Super Bowl roster had only nine holdovers from Vermeil’s first season as coach.

One player Vermeil regretted letting go was Chad Lewis, now a standout tight end for the Eagles. Lewis, undrafted out of Brigham Young, spent his rookie season with Philadelphia, then was cut the next season after suffering an ankle injury. The Rams signed him later that season, kept him as the fourth tight end for their first nine games, then released him to create roster space.

“It was a great organization and a great coaching staff, and I just felt like I came out of that a much better player,” Lewis said. “It’s only a positive to me.”

That’s not to say getting released was painless. Vermeil called him into his office, broke the news and added, “I’m sad to see you go because we’re going to the Super Bowl.”

“I told him, ‘It’s OK. I understand your position, and I appreciate you. I think you’re a class act,’” Lewis said. “He contemplated keeping me there on injured reserve or something, but he felt like things would work out best if he let me go play someplace else.”

Two days later, the Eagles claimed Lewis off waivers. He made the Pro Bowl in 2000.

Vermeil abruptly retired after winning the Super Bowl, sat out the 2000 season, then signed a three-year deal to coach the Chiefs. Yet another test of patience.

“I plan to go two more seasons,” he said. “If I feel real good at that time and I like where the team is going, then I might stay. Hell, if we don’t win they won’t want me. It will take care of itself.”

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The Real Vermeil

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