Mad Mike doesn't get all the credit that he is due
By Bernie Miklasz
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/14/2004
Earlier this summer, the New York Daily News conducted a poll of 12 NFL general managers and team executives and asked this question: Who is the best head coach in the NFL?
Each panelist was requested to list 10 coaches, ranking them from 1 to 10. In all, 19 coaches were named on ballots. The top three vote-getters were, in order, Bill Belichick (New England), Bill Parcells (Dallas) and Dick Vermeil (Kansas City).
Rams coach Mike Martz didn't receive a single vote.
Martz was shut out for the first time in his coaching career.
Even Miami's Dave Wannstedt got a check mark on one ballot.
Dave Wannstedt!
Martz? All zeroes. And this isn't just a national hit on Martz; locally, he's often sacked by critics and talk-show callers.
Where is the love? I'm not trying to suggest that Martz is Vince Lombardi, but when did he become, say, Bob Hollway? (That Hollway reference was for old-school St. Louis football Cardinals fans.)
Fact is, the Martz resume as the Rams head coach is impressive. His regular-season winning percentage of .672 is the best by a head coach in St. Louis NFL history. Since the AFL-NFL merger, he has the fourth-highest winning percentage for any NFL head coach with at least 50 games. In his four seasons, he has taken the Rams to the playoffs three times, including a trip to the Super Bowl.
Reasonable minds recognize Martz's important contribution to the 1999 Super Bowl champion. After going 9-23 in his first two seasons, Dick Vermeil hired Martz to run the Rams offense. Martz installed an offense for the ages, and the Rams sprinted to a championship.
In Martz's five seasons in charge of the Rams offense, the attack has averaged 29.5 points per game. That's a remarkable scoring rate over a five-year period.
Before Martz showed up in 1999, St. Louis NFL football teams won 43.6 percent of their games and made the playoffs three times in 32 seasons. After Martz came onto the scene in a position of authority - offensive coordinator, then head coach - the Rams have won 70 percent of their games, made the playoffs four times and captured a Super Bowl title.
Martz bashers like to say that he's lucky to have inherited Vermeil's team. Not really, because the Rams were a disaster under Vermeil in 1997 and '98, and Martz played a substantial role in shaping the 1999 squad. Besides, only seven players remain from the 1999 team. Only 15 players remain from the 2001 Super Bowl Rams.
Martz has continued winning even as he has rebuilt the defense and retooled much of the offense. In the salary-cap area, a coach must adjust quickly to inevitable personnel changes, and Martz has adapted on the fly.
So why the lack of respect for Martz? Rams fans still haven't forgiven Martz for the Super Bowl loss to New England. And fans still hold Martz responsible for last season's home playoff loss to Carolina. Martz went conservative at the end of the fourth quarter, choosing to kick a tying field goal instead of going for the winning touchdown. (Oakland coach John Madden used the exact strategy in a 1977 AFC playoff game at Baltimore; the difference is, the Raiders won in overtime.)
It's safe to assume that the NFL execs who responded to the Daily News poll had to be thinking of those postseason losses in excluding Martz. He also is viewed as flaky for making head-scratching decisions during games. Eccentricity isn't considered a virtue in the hard-nosed NFL culture.
As much as he has won with the Rams, the belief is that Martz should have won more. That opinion has merit. But it also fails to give proper weight to his impressive record of achievement.
In this debate, I am certain of two things: (1) St. Louis was an NFL wasteland before Martz; (2) when Martz is gone and the Rams are sputtering along with a dull offense, fans will miss Mad Mike.
By Bernie Miklasz
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/14/2004
Earlier this summer, the New York Daily News conducted a poll of 12 NFL general managers and team executives and asked this question: Who is the best head coach in the NFL?
Each panelist was requested to list 10 coaches, ranking them from 1 to 10. In all, 19 coaches were named on ballots. The top three vote-getters were, in order, Bill Belichick (New England), Bill Parcells (Dallas) and Dick Vermeil (Kansas City).
Rams coach Mike Martz didn't receive a single vote.
Martz was shut out for the first time in his coaching career.
Even Miami's Dave Wannstedt got a check mark on one ballot.
Dave Wannstedt!
Martz? All zeroes. And this isn't just a national hit on Martz; locally, he's often sacked by critics and talk-show callers.
Where is the love? I'm not trying to suggest that Martz is Vince Lombardi, but when did he become, say, Bob Hollway? (That Hollway reference was for old-school St. Louis football Cardinals fans.)
Fact is, the Martz resume as the Rams head coach is impressive. His regular-season winning percentage of .672 is the best by a head coach in St. Louis NFL history. Since the AFL-NFL merger, he has the fourth-highest winning percentage for any NFL head coach with at least 50 games. In his four seasons, he has taken the Rams to the playoffs three times, including a trip to the Super Bowl.
Reasonable minds recognize Martz's important contribution to the 1999 Super Bowl champion. After going 9-23 in his first two seasons, Dick Vermeil hired Martz to run the Rams offense. Martz installed an offense for the ages, and the Rams sprinted to a championship.
In Martz's five seasons in charge of the Rams offense, the attack has averaged 29.5 points per game. That's a remarkable scoring rate over a five-year period.
Before Martz showed up in 1999, St. Louis NFL football teams won 43.6 percent of their games and made the playoffs three times in 32 seasons. After Martz came onto the scene in a position of authority - offensive coordinator, then head coach - the Rams have won 70 percent of their games, made the playoffs four times and captured a Super Bowl title.
Martz bashers like to say that he's lucky to have inherited Vermeil's team. Not really, because the Rams were a disaster under Vermeil in 1997 and '98, and Martz played a substantial role in shaping the 1999 squad. Besides, only seven players remain from the 1999 team. Only 15 players remain from the 2001 Super Bowl Rams.
Martz has continued winning even as he has rebuilt the defense and retooled much of the offense. In the salary-cap area, a coach must adjust quickly to inevitable personnel changes, and Martz has adapted on the fly.
So why the lack of respect for Martz? Rams fans still haven't forgiven Martz for the Super Bowl loss to New England. And fans still hold Martz responsible for last season's home playoff loss to Carolina. Martz went conservative at the end of the fourth quarter, choosing to kick a tying field goal instead of going for the winning touchdown. (Oakland coach John Madden used the exact strategy in a 1977 AFC playoff game at Baltimore; the difference is, the Raiders won in overtime.)
It's safe to assume that the NFL execs who responded to the Daily News poll had to be thinking of those postseason losses in excluding Martz. He also is viewed as flaky for making head-scratching decisions during games. Eccentricity isn't considered a virtue in the hard-nosed NFL culture.
As much as he has won with the Rams, the belief is that Martz should have won more. That opinion has merit. But it also fails to give proper weight to his impressive record of achievement.
In this debate, I am certain of two things: (1) St. Louis was an NFL wasteland before Martz; (2) when Martz is gone and the Rams are sputtering along with a dull offense, fans will miss Mad Mike.
Comment