Yes, the Rams will make a coaching change

Yes, the Rams will make a coaching change
Scott Linehan takes
By Bryan Burwell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/28/2008

His friends all tell you not to sleep on Chip Rosenbloom. His friends say he is the perfect blend of his mother's grace and his father's strength, a mighty fine blend that makes him the sort of even-handed tactician who will navigate this failing franchise out of these troubled waters.

These are not yes men and glad-handers. These are the wise men and reliable associates who promise that he won't stand idly by as his inheritance is whittled away. I happen to believe them. From everything I've heard and observed of the new owner of the St. Louis Rams, he fully understands what needs to happen to stop the decline of this winless franchise.

So I think I have the answer to the question that is on everyone's mind in the dispirited universe of Rams loyalists.

Yes, the firing of Scott Linehan is coming, and it's coming soon.


My educated hunch is that it happens sooner rather than later. I don't think it really matters whether or not Rosenbloom waits to see if Linehan's players fail to respond to his leadership for the fourth straight week against the unbeaten Buffalo Bills on Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome. We all know the besieged coach has been living on borrowed time for far too long.

If it were my decision, the results of this game would hardly matter. Letting Linehan go at this point would be a humane act of kindness for a man unable to quell the internal mutiny that has been bubbling since midway through last season's 3-13 collapse and has caught fire again during this embarrassing 0-3 start to the '08 season.

Winning big or losing close shouldn't save Linehan's job. It's unfair to allow Linehan to suffer in isolation like this. The losing has left him on an emotional island, with few friends or allies in the building. He sees enemies, both real and imagined, lurking everywhere. It benefits no one to have this drag on much further. It hurts the team dramatically, but it's also causing major damage to Linehan's reputation too. So the only decent thing to do at this point is to end this quickly and allow him to get started on salvaging his career before it's too late.

The only reason I could see for Rosenbloom's hesitation at this point is that he is smart enough to understand that firing Linehan is a two-fer deal.

As soon as the coach goes, the public will expect that general manager Jay Zygmunt shouldn't be too far behind. They are an inseparable pair, intrinsically linked ever since the general manager not only handpicked Linehan, but also deliberately created the hostile environment that paved the way for his arrival: the carefully orchestrated sabotage of Linehan's predecessor, Mike Martz.

Even though I would love to see Zygmunt and Linehan escorted out of Rams Park in tandem, it doesn't really matter how you time their exits. While Zygmunt is my primary target in this constant drumbeat for change at Rams Park — and he represents the most easily identifiable target for the venom of Rams fans — most logical people can handle postponing his exit until the end of the season.

The simple reality is we can all harness our frustrations for a few more months if we know Zygmunt is in dry dock. Linehan's firing will be the first step in the move to remove the general manager as the ultimate authority in the building, too. Working quietly behind the scenes, Rosenbloom can effect as much change as if he made a showy twin killing of Linehan and Zygmunt this week.

As dreary as things have become, there is some good news that Rosenbloom should hear. Everywhere I go, from the barbershop to the mini-marts, from the WalMart to the stoplight where angry fans shout at me from idling cars, people are furiously passionate about your franchise. In spite of all this maddening failure over the past few seasons, the football fans in St. Louis still care about your product, and there are a lot of them out there. They e-mail constantly. They call every sports talk show in town. From the disenfranchised Southern Californians to the disenchanted St. Louisans, they love this team but hate what it has become.

They still care. They care even though your so-called GM has wrecked this product with bad draft after bad draft after bad draft. My man B. Miklasz already began to lay things out for you about the incompetent drafting patterns. Well, here's one more telling pattern: between 2000 and 2004, the Rams drafted 42 players, many of whom should make up the veteran heart and soul of this team right now. Yet only three players from those drafts — Steven Jackson, Pisa Tinoisamoa and Chris Massey — remain on the current roster.

Is it a coincidence that 2000 was the season that marked the rapid ascent of Zygmunt as the ranking authority in the Rams hierarchy?

Nope. Not even a little bit.

The fans still love this team in spite of this wretched failure. They will be in the sold-out Dome once again Sunday afternoon waiting for some sort of change they can believe in. This is an impatient lot, though, and if something good doesn't happen soon, we're all going to find out just how thin that line is between love and hate.




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