Rams Fire Jeff Fisher? It Doesn’t Matter, Because Stan Kroenke Still Owns the Team
Posted by: Bernie Miklasz in Bernie Miklasz, National Football League December 12, 2016
Dammit, Enos Stanley Kroenke has no sense of timing. And as usual, the most miserable person on the face of planet Earth has taken the fun out of everything by firing his hopelessly mediocre head coach, Jeff Fisher, a few days before Ol’ Leather Helmet Head was about to set a new NFL record for most career losses by a head coach.
Fisher’s 165 losses ties Dan Reeves for the most career losses by an NFL coach.
Fisher leaves a lucrative profession with millions of dollars in the bank, 165 losses to his name, and only six winning records in his 22 seasons of mostly incompetent coaching. Give Fisher credit for this much: he wasn’t much of a leader, and except for the occasional accident, he wasn’t a winner. But he sure as hell was (is?) one of the greatest con men in the history of professional team sports in North America.
I can’t imagine that anyone feels sorry for Fisher, who was paid over $1 million per victory during his sorry existence as Rams HC.
I’m ticked off today. Why? Because I write several hundred pieces a year for 101sports.com … and I do 15 hours of live radio each week. And Fisher was fantastic material. He was a prolific source of rich content.
He’d turned into a comedic figure a while back, soon after he shaped the Rams up in his promising first season (2012) only to settle into a familiar pattern: awful drafts, horrendous free-agent signings, registering upset wins over superior opponents, losing too many games to inferior foes, flirting with a .500 record, but never getting there … all the while convincing much of the national media that he was an effective coach who just needed a little more time to rebuild.
Fisher’s perpetual rebuilding project had no end; it actually worked to his advantage because he could use it as a perpetual excuse. Every training camp, we heard the same thing: “Hey, we’re the youngest team in the league, so this will take some time.” And most of the media pack would nod and scribble down his quote — inexplicably overlooking the fact that Fisher WANTED to take cover behind an endless reconstruction project to justify his string of 7-9, 6-10 finishes.
Fisher never bothered to update himself by participating in this NFL passing-game fad, stubbornly refusing to hire a creative or even legitimate offensive coordinator … thinking he could pay any stiff to turn and hand the ball off to a running back instead of developing a highly skilled passer.
In his four-plus seasons as the Rams head coach in St. Louis and Los Angeles (record: 31-45-1) Fisher’s offense was a study in moldiness, arrogance, and failure.
The Fossil has been succeeded, on an interim basis, by special teams coach John Fassel.
During his time as Rams coach Fisher’s offense ranked 32nd (last) in the NFL in yards from scrimmage per game, 31st in offensive touchdowns, 30th in points per game (18.8), 29th in passer rating (80.3), 29th in TD passes, 30th in yards per attempt, and last in third-down conversion rate.
Since Kroenke took over as the Rams’ owner, the team ranks 29th among the 32 NFL teams in winning percentage.
Fisher had five drafts and free-agent classes to assemble a solid offensive line — and straight-up flunked. And despite lining up with an O-line that consisted of itinerant clowns and assorted traffic cones, Fisher and Rams GM Les Snead made an idiotic trade to move up to draft Cal quarterback Jared Goff No. 1 overall. Great idea. You have no offensive line, no running game, receivers of limited ability, intellect and equipped with cast-iron hands — and NOW it was time to make quarterback a priority? Excellent plan, dude.
And that vaunted, muscular Fisher rushing attack that would pound and mash opposing defenses into submission? Good grief. That reputation turned out to be just another fraud perpetuated by Fisher. Over his 77 games as Rams coach, the offense ranked a below-average 19th in rushing yards per game, and 27th in rushing TDs. In his final strategy-based screwup as coach, Fisher took a superbly talented running back, Todd Gurley, and reduced him to a non-factor less than a full season after Gurley was voted NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Fisher’s teams lacked offensive imagination (and a plan). But hey, at least they were disciplined and smart and mentally tough and didn’t beat themselves, right?
Um, no.
Fisher’s Rams did lead the NFL in something, committing the most penalties (602) and being docked the most penalty yards (5,042) since 2012.
So there’s that.
I’ll explain.
Fisher sure earned his loot from Kroenke.
Because Kroenke never was interested in winning in St. Louis.
Since Kroenke took over as the team’s owner before the 2010 season, the Rams rank 29th among the 32 NFL teams in winning percentage (a sickly .372) and have continued a shameful franchise streak that’s staggered and stumbled through 13 consecutive non-winning seasons and 10 straight losing seasons.
Now that we know what we know, Kroenke’s plan to “win” consisted of sabotaging the St. Louis market, alienating as many fans as possible, and doing everything possible to kill attendance as a means to make a corrupt case for moving the team to Los Angeles to cash in on the nation’s second-largest market. The same market that he once stripped by playing a major role in moving the Rams from LA to St. Louis.
Kroenke got his wish. With the NFL cartel rigging the relocation process and essentially fixing the outcome — remember the “secret” first ballot on the move? — Kroenke came through with the win of his life.
And in that context, Fisher was the perfect goof to help Kroenke execute the plan. As a bonus, Fisher had experience in coaching a team (Houston Oilers) that moved to Tennessee to become the Titans.
Fisher was safe and secure no matter how many games he lost.
This was all about getting the Rams to Los Angeles and keeping the team in a holding pattern until Kroenke could open his new stadium — a teeming monument to greed, corruption and mediocrity — in 2019. But Fisher couldn’t make it to Inglewood; he made some really stupid mistakes.
Fisher went out of his way to ignite hostilities with LA Rams icon Eric Dickerson.
Fisher made constant excuses for his usual ugly record, pointing to the franchise move as the reason for failure. Never mind that his record capsized in Tennessee and in St. Louis when his teams were in place and not loading up moving vans. Fisher hasn’t had a winning season since 2008, and he’s had only two winning records in his last 12 seasons. Never mind that the Rams got off to a 3-1 start this season before falling apart, as usual.
Fisher lobbed grenades at Snead and the personnel/scouting department, blaming them for the team’s poor results. That prompted a counterattack from unnamed sources on the Rams’ personnel side, who ripped Fisher in an embarrassing cat-fight expose written by Albert Breer at Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback.
Fisher also miscalculated the amount of media scrutiny he’d receive in Los Angeles. Not so much by the local media in LA. The local STL media raised hell, too. But most national football media ignored the disgraceful football and Kroenke’s tanking job in St. Louis. It was much easier and lazier to write pieces about St. Louis being a baseball town that would not support football … as if any NFL franchise could put up the worst five-season record (15-65) in NFL history without taking a hit in attendance.
And that was part of a woeful overall record. In 49 combined NFL seasons here, the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Rams had 16 winning seasons and made the playoffs eight times.
St. Louis is a baseball town.
Yeah, that must explain the drop in attendance.
And then the Rams moved to Los Angeles, and two things happened: (1) the LA media was shocked by the Rams’ ineptitude, as if a franchise that had been run aground by a despicable owner and a buffoon coach would suddenly go 10-6 as soon as the moving vans rolled onto the Ventura Highway. And the national media made a startling discovery: the Rams were really, really awful and put a disgusting team on the field — which was simply unacceptable! Never mind that the franchise hadn’t posted a winning season since 2003 … the losing, spirit-sucking, soul-depleting football didn’t count until the team set up in LA.
St. Louis was a baseball town, remember?
That’s why the Rams were so pitiful. Right?
When these national-media watchdogs finally awakened and realized that Fisher was a joke, he had no chance to keep up the con.
I’m sure the LA Rams fans and SoCal media are celebrating today, and I don’t blame them. They are expecting a wonderful and prosperous new era of Rams football now that Coach Fisher has gotten sacked. The brilliant (ahem) executive Kevin Demoff will lead the coaching search. You’re thinking Kevy-Kev will find the ideal football leader to guide the Rams to a glorious run of highly entertaining and successful football.
And you could be right; the Rams’ organization could get lucky.
That said, I have some regrettable news for our friends in Los Angeles …
Fisher is gone, but Kroenke still owns the franchise.
And Kroenke will be alive and in control of this team for more years than you really want to count, want to imagine.
Fisher was the most visible problem, but the No. 1 source of the rot remains in place.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
