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THE RAMS WAY IS THE HIGH WAY
BY RAM-BLE (Feb 10)

1.  The New Ram Organization will be AGGRESSIVE.

In spades. I can see it. And they talk it.

Martz is THE MOST aggressive coach Stiles has ever seen, Stiles says. More so than Bill Walsh. All the players say it too. He's very smart too. And confident. Can and will make a decision.

We've seen all that already with these assistant coaches. He gambled on Saunders, not giving him the offensive coordinator spot. Yet, he keeps him. Brilliant.

He keeps Ramsdell. He keeps the rest of the "younger" coaches. Stiles and White get "reassigned". I don't consider Hanifan old like those two.

On defense, he acts on Bunting. Bunting no act on him. Bunting saw that the hard way.

Martz adds guys too. Bobby Jackson has 17 years pro RB experience.

Adds a Zampeze.

In the General Manager chair is Charley Armey. He's supremely confident in his ability to find players. And he has shown a penchant to go anywhere. Expect him to be even more aggressive. Why? He's had success and he's totally in charge now. He's the guy who bucked Vermeil. Went over his head to Shaw, saying Torry Holt was the missing piece to the puzzle. Think now that we'd have won it without Holt? With Champ Bailey instead? I don't.

Same with Zygmunt. He and Shaw had success last year in demanding/making radical changes. And they worked.....like Super Bowl worked. Success breeds confidence which breeds more and more aggressiveness.

Now, we've said we'll lay low in free agency. Sign our own. Very possible. The cap rules. So, I do expect that. But, on the other hand, I do not put it beyond these "gunslingers" to shock us. Things like lettting one of our OL free agents go, replacing with an upgrade. Or other scenarios far more aggressive than that.

Just watch. This organization will knock your socks off.

I for one couldn't be more excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2.  WHY WARNER IS WARNER

It's Mike Martz.

According to Trent Green, "Throughout camp, Mike was constantly pounding on him, trying to get him to understand the tempo of the offense. How fast you have to be, how quick you need to make your reads, how fast you need to get rid of the ball. He put pressure on Kurt, and you could see Kurt develop all the way from minicamps thru training camp. At first, he was very frustrated and wasn't sure why Mike disliked him so much. And it had nothing to do with that. Mike was trying to prepare him for a situation like he ultimately ended up being in."

RAM-BLE sez:

1. Yeah, like Super Bowl prepared!
2. Mike Martz is a real football coach.


3. The 3 Most Aggressive Plays---Martz's most aggressive calls:

* Bruce 73 yards to win the Tamale when we looked beat. And had lost momentum.

* The one I really recall vividly was against the Niners in the first game. We had lost like 18 in a row to those guys, so pressure was immense. Yet, Bruce scores 3 TD's first Qtr. We're up 21-3 with like 2 minutes left in the half. We just get the ball on OUR OWN 9 yard line. Any sane coach would try to get to halftime safely. Not Martz. He has Warner going for it on first down. But, the Niners strip Wraner who fumbles and the Niners score on the fumble. 21-10. A disaster. But, man, the balls!

* The Lions game. 4th down and 1 around the Lions 40. Martz has Faulk sweep right. Then, Faulk stops, whirls and throws a PASS to Jeff Robinson across the field to the left. Robinson had faked a block, fell down on purpose, snuck out about 15-20 yards downfield. Was wide open for a TD. But, the safety caught himself, bolted back towards Robinson, and Faulk threw a bad pass which hit the safety in his can. BUT, what balls!

4. Run After the Catch. RAC! RAC! RAC! *the secret.*

I've said before the season that RAC would be our key....make or break. And, God, has it been make!

Well, Al Saunders told CNN/SI before the superbowl that we coach the receivers differently. We coach them to keep their speed out of the cuts. Exploding. The traditional way is to coach receivers to precisely make their break by chop stepping out of the cut. They lose their speed tho.

Intuitively, I've always wanted our way.

5. DRE BLY IS LIKE.......

.....DEION!

Everytime I see Bly, he shows that movement, that unique strut...... that only Deion Sanders shows.

They are like twins in body movement, body language.

Hope Bly is 1/3 the player Deion has been.

But, he's got the moves.

I don't recall ever seeing anyone else who exactly mimicks Deion. Do you?

6. WHY VERMEIL RETIRED

Initially I thought that Dick Vermeil may well have retired today for the very reasons he stated: 1) Going out on top. 2) Spend more time with his family. 3) Nothing left to prove. Etc.

OR

It's POSSIBLE that Rams Management, i.e. John Shaw, JayZygmunt, etc., may have feared the real prospects of losing Charlie Armey. And of losing Al Saunders.

Both these guys are HOT, HOT commodities.

Charlie Armey wants to be a General Manager. Now. With Vermeil there, he can't be. With Vermeil gone, he is.

I wondered if these considerations, plus a nice cash buyout of Vermeil's remaining two years on his contract,  are what may well have happened.

So I checked.

Bernie Miklasz tells me Vermeil retired according to the first theory above. That is, he retired for the very reasons he stated in his farewell address. Nice guy goes out on top. No Management pressure.

So, that's the scoop, which is absolutely no scoop.

Let me add an addendum however. Sheer theory on my part again. Little to support it. But, I believe the second theory above did play a role. But, I don't now mean that Management bought Vermeil out and forced him out. No.

On the total contrary, I believe Dick Vermeil on his own for the good of the organization took into consideration the likely losses of Armey and Saunders if Vermeil stayed. And Dick Vermeil, very/very/very good man, and loyal to the organization that was good to him, felt it would be better if he retired. After all, he'd be gone in another year or two at most anyway. So, why screw up the management/coaching base by staying a little longer.

Now, I don't mean that was necessarily the primary motive. His personal and family motives were probably paramount. But, I think Vermeil did it also for the love of the Rams.

Good man, Dick Vermeil. Whether or not this indeed went thru his mind and heart.

7. WHY BUNTING WAS FIRED

EZ now,................ I don't know.

But, I can put two and two together. 3!

Here's an insight perhaps. Bunting was described recently in articles as a "wisecracker".

Also, in a sepaarte article, he was labeled a "wild and crazy guy". He had an incident with Vermeil in Filly where he pulled a partial nudity stunt to "loosen up the DV coached team as it prepared to play Dallas".

Said Bunting, "I had a leather helmet, a jockstrap, and some tennis shoes. I thought the team was tight so I grabbed a golf cart, came smoking down the ramp at about 35 mph out onto the Astroturf, circled Veteran's Stadium, waved to everybody, gave them a litlle bare look, then went back into the locker room. ......Every once in a while, I have a wild hair in me and don't mind what consequences I might face."

Mike Martz seems aggressive, focussed, no nonsense.

I define Bunting as "some nonsense".

8. RAY AGNEW,  COMMISSIONER

Paul Tags has his head up his tags.

This league has a very serious criminal problem. And he denies it. Peddles stupid stats that it's no different than the general population.

Yeah, like how many L.P.s and Carruths and Ray Lewis's did *you* know in your lifetime? And that's on a base of way more than the NFL rosters number.

You say...wait a minute Ray Lewis ain't convicted. O.K. But, guess what---he's got a rap sheet with ten acts of violence against women since graduating from Miami 4-5 years ago. Do you have a similar "NFL citizen" record?

And we got 'em on our team. Like Tucker, Horne, Az, and more. They've brushed with the law. Could add Little, but that may be different. Even big Orlando was frequenting a cat house.

Plus, Darryl Henley it turns out was a major drug lord. Not just a courier. A damn lord. Bam Morris and Tamarick Vanover may be close.

Lots of reasons for the whys.

Spoiled athletes is the usual reason/excuse.

I say out with Tags.

Replace him with Ray Agnew!

Ray said recently, "Most of the guys I know in pro football are very responsible people, good people. There are a few guys though, who do believe they can buy their way out of anything."

At least, Ray got one clue.