Bonsignore: What will Stan Kroenke do to fix the Rams?By VINCENT BONSIGNORE / STAFF COLUMNIST
SEATTLE – As if the last 72 hours weren’t bad enough for the Rams, they get to finish it all off by getting served up to the angry Seattle Seahawks in one of the loudest, craziest environments in the NFL on Thursday night.
On national TV, no less.
Well, at least they’ll look good in their throwback blue and whites.
Problem is, Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen aren’t walking through that door, fellas.
Neither will Jeff Fisher, for that matter. That chapter in Rams history came to a sudden and merciful end Monday when the Rams fired their coach of the last four seasons and 13 games.
It was long overdue given the 4-9 record and eight losses over the last nine games, including three straight blowouts. The knockout punch was a vicious uppercut delivered by the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at the Coliseum, but Fisher had been on the ropes taking a beating for a while now.
A more compassionate ref probably would have stepped in and stopped the onslaught a few weeks ago.
But then, Fisher has always been a scrappy battler, rising out of Taft High in Woodland Hills to a starting job in a loaded USC defensive backfield in the late 1970s and on to the Chicago Bears, where he won the admiration and trust of Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan.
As bad as it looked, you always got the feeling he might fight his way off the ropes and out of danger and turn things around.
But the right hand didn’t pack the same punch it used to, and years of getting pummeled rendered the legs rubbery. He was ripe for a knockout, and the Falcons leveled him.
Whether Fisher was relieved from the Rams or the Rams from Fisher is up for debate. The Rams were losing long before he showed up on the scene, and sad as it might seem considering the mediocrity he kept serving up, it still represented a high-water mark from the nonsense that preceded him.
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