Coach Dick Vermeil Essay

The Rams are one of the oldest franchises in NFL history and they may not have a lot of wins and super bowls but that doesn’t change their interesting history. Every sport organization has that one moment that they are known for and that changed the organization. That moment is known as a watershed moment and there isn’t one unanimous one for the Los Angeles Rams but I believe there was one decision that changed and helped the franchise succeed. I could have choose the move from Los Angeles to St. Louis back to Los Angeles but I believe hiring Coach Dick Vermeil is the Rams watershed moment. Now before I can into the watershed moment let’s talk about the history of the Los Angeles Rams history. According to the American Football Database website

According to the American Football Database website this wasn’t the first time that Dick Vermeil was a coach for the Rams, he was their Special Teams coordinator in 1969. In 1974 he left the Rams to take a head coaching job with UCLA and only lasted two years there. In 1976 he took the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles and he had some success with the Eagles and in 1980 won the NFL Coach of the Year award and also brought the Eagles to the super bowl that year but lost to the Raiders. In 1982 he retired from the NFL and spent the next fifteen years as a sports announcer. However in 1997 the Rams hired Dick Vermeil even after he had spent so much time away from the game as a coach. Unfortunately the first two seasons under Dick Vermeil didn’t go as planned and they finished below .500 in both seasons but that all changed in

In the preseason the Rams starting quarterback Trent Green went down with an injury that would end his season. instead of going out and finding a replacement for the season Dick vermeil decided to stay with their backup quarterback, who would go down in history and his name was Kurt Warner (Swartz, 2010). Kurt Warner was a no name quarterback who previously worked at a grocery store and also played in the Arena Football League (Moraitis, 2012). Dick Vermeil trusted this unknown quarterback and it couldn’t have paid off any more than it did because Kurt Warner led the Rams to a 13-3 record that year by throwing for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns. That season Kurt Warner won the NFL MVP award and Dick Vermeil won the Coach of the Year award but it didn’t stop there. Kurt Warner wasn’t the only player to have amazing year, Marshall Faulk set the single season record for all-purpose yards and won the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. The Rams offensive also lead the NFL in pretty much every category that year. The Rams would win out throughout the playoffs to reach the Super Bowl against the Titans. The Super Bowl that season was one of the most exciting one in Super Bowl history because of Kurt Warner setting a Super Bowl record 414 passing yards and one of the