Some juicy Vinny on Jared Goff...

[theathletic.com]

By Vincent Bonsignore Feb 1, 2019

ATLANTA — Jared Goff was moments away from taking the field against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game when crisis arrived. Given the way the Saints and the Superdome devours opponents with a lethal combination of noise, energy and talent, the Rams had been on emergency watch all week. But this was pushing it. Not even one play into the game and it was already DEFCON 1 level anxiousness.

Only you wouldn’t have known by looking at Goff.

His in-helmet communication system has malfunctioned, with the audio from head coach and play caller Sean McVay cutting out. Rather than turn his own emergency into a full-blown panic, Goff calmly, almost discreetly, traded helmets with backup quarterback Sean Mannion and carried on.

Imagine heading to the altar to get married and having to switch suits at the last second with your best man. The fit isn’t perfect. It’s a little too tight in the waist and not quite as long as needed in the leg. Everything just feels … off. Not exactly the way to start off your wedding day, right?

Yet as much as Goff could, he kept it all to himself and soldiered on.

“I didn’t even know about that until after the game,” Robert Woods revealed this week.

Woods still marvels at how Goff managed the situation on the go and overcame future Hall of Famer Drew Brees to help push the Rams into Super Bowl LIII.

“To play in a championship game (and) your microphone’s not working. You’ve got to switch helmets. It’s not yours. It doesn’t fit correctly,” Woods said. “To go through all that and remain poised and lead us to a victory, that’s a total leader. That’s a leader. That’s a warrior.”

“He just kind of handled it exactly like a veteran — even-keeled, calm demeanor — kind of like what we talk about all the time,” McVay said. “We’re very confident in his ability to lead us, knowing that it’s a big game like we’ve said, but I think Jared will be himself, which is exactly what we want him to be.”

For those who know him best, it was peak Goff.

“Unflappable” is how right guard Austin Blythe describes the Rams’ third-year quarterback.

“Calm. Cool. Collected,” right tackle Rob Havenstein said. “And always the same guy, no matter what.”

And maybe that is the biggest takeaway from the Rams’ magical march to Super Bowl LIII and the remarkable transformation of Goff from potential bust to a quarterback who has led his team to the pinnacle of pro football.

The more details are revealed — both in how he plays and the way his teammates describe him — the more we understand and know him.

“And it’s one of the things you really appreciate about him,” Sullivan said. “There’s nothing that you can question from the start. He’s just a genuine, authentic guy. The first time you meet him, Jared is unapologetically Jared.”

Goff’s persona, as teammates have come to know, is a little bit of California cool and an unassuming nature that can sometimes be construed as goofy. But it’s so genuine and unpretentious that it is looked upon as a strength and not a weakness.

Said Woods: “You want someone who is a little quirky and nerdy, of course. Like Jared. Very smart.”

In many ways, Goff is your typical 24-year-old kid. He also just happens to have a razor-sharp football mind that can decipher defenses and coverages and a cannon arm that allows him to make every throw.

And in his own way — through performance and just being himself rather than trying to be someone he’s not — Goff has become a leader who his teammates willingly follow.

He is not a dynamic personality who plays with a fire in his stomach and inspires his teams with bravado and personality. But he is someone who conducts himself with about as much stress as someone lifting themselves out of a deckside chase lounge to go take a dip in the pool.

“That was kind of evident in the Saints game,” Blythe said. “Just the way he can remain calm and gave us the encouragement we needed.”

So unfazed by everything that’s happened to him leading up to this point, Goff has been able to process and compartmentalize it all into a steady stewardship that his teammates follow.

“It’s just Jared being Jared,” Sullivan said.

Jared Goff’s cool demeanor keeps the Rams calm. (Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Sports)
Goff has endured his share of difficult challenges. First, there was the disastrous one-win freshman season at Cal when he was constantly under siege and victimized by an inexperienced and ineffective offensive line. The eventual turnaround in Berkeley saw him rise from the chaos to lead the Golden Bears to a bowl game his final season and distinguish himself as the No. 1 overall selection in the 2016 NFL draft.

Then, there was the catastrophic rookie year in Los Angeles that resulted in the firing of head coach Jeff Fisher and the raising of legitimate doubts about Goff’s ability to be a franchise quarterback befitting the draft’s top pick. He helped orchestrate a swift and decisive personal and team turnaround that earned him Pro Bowl honors and placed the Rams on the doorstep of a Super Bowl championship.

Through it all, Goff has remained the same chill kid from Marin County. The effect his presence has on the Rams is one his teammates appreciate as much as they respect.

“Do I think Jared’s demeanor helps this offense? Absolutely,” Sullivan said. “I think him being so calm and cool is a really calming influence on everybody. Because we’ve got a lot of Type A guys that are high strung. Jared kind of levels everyone out. So I think he’s done an amazing job and his personality is a huge part of his success.”

“He’s just a special kid,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “I’ve said it since the first day I came to training camp and really since the first day I met him. I realized that he’s a special kid. I told my wife before these playoffs started that it’s the first year it really wasn’t about me. I was more nervous for these playoffs because I believe in Jared Goff and I believe he deserves to win, and I want to be right about that. That’s what means most to me.”

What we’ve learned, ultimately, is that Goff isn’t shaped or defined by what happens to him as much as how he copes and processes situations by applying his own personality.

It’s why his struggles at Cal and in his rookie season with the Rams didn’t crush him. And why the incredible high of quarterbackinng the Rams to the Super Bowl won’t change him. Goff has floated around Atlanta this week as if he just dropped into town for a two-day minicamp.

Almost by osmosis, that personality has rubbed off on his teammates.

“Vinny, this isn’t much different than open locker room in Thousand Oaks, right?” Sullivan asked me during one of the Rams’ media availabilities this week.

There were at least three hundred reporters swarming around. It was chaotic and claustrophobic. Sullivan looked on with a smile. Just around the corner, Goff held court with his typical easy smile.

“Just a few more people,” Sullivan continued, laughing. “We’ve traveled all over the place. We’ve played out of the country. We stayed in Jacksonville for a week. We got displaced by wildfires. We went to the Broadmore in Colorado. We were supposed to play in Mexico City, had to adapt and go back to play in L.A. I mean, look I understand there’s a lot of hoopla around this, but at the end of the day, it’s a football game.

“We’ve traveled a ton and done a bunch of crazy stuff in two years as a team. I promise this is having no effect on us.”

That’s the influence Goff — in his own unique, laid-back way — can have on a team.

“I get that question a lot,” Goff said of why he has that effect on teammates. “I don’t have a good answer for you. Because I don’t know.”