The Great Pumpkin
By Hal Schaeffer | May 22nd, 2008
Third-year St. Louis Rams coach Scott Linehan has come in for a lot of criticism during his tenure with the team. As an offensive coordinator, he established a legacy of success with both the Minnesota Vikings and the Miami Dolphins. His accomplishments with those teams served as the basis for his hiring as the Rams’ head coach in a close decision over the somewhat erratic Cam Cameron. Linehan brought with him the expectation of a return to offensive success in 2006 and a rise to the top of the NFC West.
As we know now, such was not to be.
After an up-and-down season in 2006 marked by a five-game losing streak and a three-game winning streak, expectations remained high among many Rams fans. Linehan had improved the team’s record from 6-10 to 8-8, and the ghost of the, shall I say, enigmatic Mike Martz had been expunged from the atmosphere at the Ed. Things were definitely looking up.
Then the disaster of the 2007 season struck. Not only did the team descend to second-pick-in-the-entire-draft status, but Linehan turned into a major pumpkin. The question became was this a one-season phenomenon, or was the real Linehan revealed?
The ancient poet Horace said that adversity reveals a general’s true nature; good fortune conceals it. If so, the Rams are in trouble. Linehan demonstrated a complete inability to cope with repeated defeats in 2008 and, more importantly, to devise ways to overcome them. The team was rudderless, the players were openly angry and critical, and even fellow coaches, particularly
Jim Haslett, were sniping at Linehan. Incomprehensible play-calling on offense, vague news conferences laden with jargon and cliches, and a sullen and withdrawn mood made Linehan appear that he had completely lost control of the situation.
As Jim Mora, Sr. might have put it, “Leadership? Leadership? What leadership?
But now, according to a columnist who tends to be very kind to Linehan and to the front office, the Coach is changing for the better. As evidence of this, Bernie Miklasz reports that Linehan “willingly ceded authority” over the draft to Devaney (wanna bet?), and that HE “shook up his coaching staff” (wanna bet again?). Bernie actually uses the fact “that Devaney has been a soothing, stabilizing influence on Linehan” to support his argument that the Rams’ coach is now a more effective leader. Really? If that’s the case, let’s cut out the middleman and make Devaney the head coach!
Much is also being made of the fact that Linehan is more relaxed these days. Unfortunately, that has come from the fact that he has less active involvement with the team now than before, which, on second thought, may not be a bad thing. Devaney is handling all personnel matters (it was he who most likely got rid of social moron
Dominique Byrd), Saunders has complete authority over the offense, and Linehan, probably prompted by a survival instinct, doesn’t even go near Haslett’s defense, except to be photographed walking off the practice field with Chris Long. All this for the same salary, BTW.
Does any of this make Linehan a better leader on Sunday?
So, what’s a head coach to do?
Well, Bernie thinks that it’s really great that Scott is trying “to cultivate an improved relationship with the media.” Yawn. He also likes the fact that Linny took an INDIRECT (really aggressive, huh?) swipe at Halsett by offering Gregg Williams the defensive secondary coach’s job. Wow, I’m convinced now. What’s next, Bernie? Is Linehan taking over the cheerleaders? Bloggers over at stlouisramsx.com are already referring to him as the HC (Head Cheerleader).
Rather than becoming a bold, assertive leader, Scott Linehan is in danger of being the next Mr. Irrelevant.
In fairness, Bernie hedges his bets by saying that how the Rams perform this season will be the final determinant of Linehan’s effectiveness. Indeed. He has to say that because he hasn’t found anything significant yet to support his thesis that Linehan is changing into a real leader.
One of the main principles in my field is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
That tells me that Scott Linehan won’t become a Vince Lombardi.
He’ll continue being the Great Pumpkin.
And Rams ownership will be serving (Great) Pumpkin pie at the end of the year.
Sometimes my attempts (feeble as they are) at humor veer off course. My bad. 
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