By Bryan Burwell
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Nov. 14 2004
It sure has been some wild and wacky week right here in the River City, hasn't
it? First our favorite gray-haired football eccentric goes all Norman Vincent
Peale on us - not once, but TWICE this week - in a very public
effort to make friends and influence football players.
"We don't hold hands and get in a seance and sing Kumbaya. I'm not into
that. ... You're on the train or you're not. Get out, period. I know where I'm
going, you're either with me or you're not."
-Mike Martz
So now that Mike Martz has thrown down another verbal gauntlet to a world full
of doubters - and in the process minimizing the importance of really good, old
fashioned campfire songs - here we are again in a very familiar place. The Rams
are in another do-or-die situation as the Seattle Seahawks come to the Edward
Jones Dome with supremacy of the NFC West at stake. And once again Martz has us
all on the edge of our seats, intrigued with how his football team will respond
to his urgent words.
Will they take to heart his warnings that this 4-4 season is at a crossroads
and treat this game as though it is a desperate playoff game? Will they be
inspired by his angry words and use them as emotional fuel to turn what has
been a half-season of mediocrity into a strong second-half run to the
postseason?
"This is a game of attitude, pure and simple. This is not about ability,
it never has been, never will be. Everybody in this league has got ability to
play. Everybody's talented. Everybody's fast, everybody's big, everybody's
strong. If you think that's the difference, you're sorely mistaken. This is
purely a game of attitude."
Martz was a man on fire this week, from his Monday afternoon rant when he said
he was tired of "taking bullets" for underachieving players, to his
inspirational, but exceedingly short Wednesday press briefing when he continued
to challenge the players, then made them go through a full-contact scrimmage.
He was so fired up as he stormed out of the news conference that by the time he
marched onto the practice field, he was stalking around the field from one
group of players to another. Martz looked like an emotional volcano. He looked
like a man itching for a fight. He looked like a guy who was almost begging to
find just one half-stepping player.
"I am not happy with how we are playing period, regardless of a division
race or anything else. I think the way we have played in the last two games is
embarrassing. Not so much, whether you win or lose the game, just the way we
play the game, period. We are going to do everything we can to rectify
that."
So here's what we're all dying to see after this mad week at Rams Park. What
sort of team is this 10th edition of the St. Louis Rams? Does anyone really
know?
After so many years on top of the NFL heap, are we watching a flawed team on
the verge of falling off the championship map? Or is this another edition of so
many other Martz-coached teams, a strong-finishing squad that does not know how
to quit on its coach?
I'm not really sure which team we're going to get, but I have my suspicions.
Over the last three seasons, Mike Martz-coached teams have consistently
finished the second half of the season stronger than the first half. Last year,
after reaching midseason at 5-3, the Rams had a stunning 7-1 regular-season
finish to finish 12-4.
When the Rams started the 2002 season with five losses, we knew a major
disaster was on the way. But Martz climbed in their faces then in much the same
way he did this week, and the result was a shocking 7-4 finish. And if you
combine the 9-2 finish (including playoffs) in 2001, Martz's Rams have finished
the past three seasons with an impressive 23-7 record.
So there you have it. The history is there. The challenge is there. The
motivation is there. All that is left to discover is whether Mike Martz's Rams
will respond. If they do respond, that will surely be the thing that will take
Mad Mike to a warm and happy place.
Of the Post-Dispatch
Sunday, Nov. 14 2004
It sure has been some wild and wacky week right here in the River City, hasn't
it? First our favorite gray-haired football eccentric goes all Norman Vincent
Peale on us - not once, but TWICE this week - in a very public
effort to make friends and influence football players.
"We don't hold hands and get in a seance and sing Kumbaya. I'm not into
that. ... You're on the train or you're not. Get out, period. I know where I'm
going, you're either with me or you're not."
-Mike Martz
So now that Mike Martz has thrown down another verbal gauntlet to a world full
of doubters - and in the process minimizing the importance of really good, old
fashioned campfire songs - here we are again in a very familiar place. The Rams
are in another do-or-die situation as the Seattle Seahawks come to the Edward
Jones Dome with supremacy of the NFC West at stake. And once again Martz has us
all on the edge of our seats, intrigued with how his football team will respond
to his urgent words.
Will they take to heart his warnings that this 4-4 season is at a crossroads
and treat this game as though it is a desperate playoff game? Will they be
inspired by his angry words and use them as emotional fuel to turn what has
been a half-season of mediocrity into a strong second-half run to the
postseason?
"This is a game of attitude, pure and simple. This is not about ability,
it never has been, never will be. Everybody in this league has got ability to
play. Everybody's talented. Everybody's fast, everybody's big, everybody's
strong. If you think that's the difference, you're sorely mistaken. This is
purely a game of attitude."
Martz was a man on fire this week, from his Monday afternoon rant when he said
he was tired of "taking bullets" for underachieving players, to his
inspirational, but exceedingly short Wednesday press briefing when he continued
to challenge the players, then made them go through a full-contact scrimmage.
He was so fired up as he stormed out of the news conference that by the time he
marched onto the practice field, he was stalking around the field from one
group of players to another. Martz looked like an emotional volcano. He looked
like a man itching for a fight. He looked like a guy who was almost begging to
find just one half-stepping player.
"I am not happy with how we are playing period, regardless of a division
race or anything else. I think the way we have played in the last two games is
embarrassing. Not so much, whether you win or lose the game, just the way we
play the game, period. We are going to do everything we can to rectify
that."
So here's what we're all dying to see after this mad week at Rams Park. What
sort of team is this 10th edition of the St. Louis Rams? Does anyone really
know?
After so many years on top of the NFL heap, are we watching a flawed team on
the verge of falling off the championship map? Or is this another edition of so
many other Martz-coached teams, a strong-finishing squad that does not know how
to quit on its coach?
I'm not really sure which team we're going to get, but I have my suspicions.
Over the last three seasons, Mike Martz-coached teams have consistently
finished the second half of the season stronger than the first half. Last year,
after reaching midseason at 5-3, the Rams had a stunning 7-1 regular-season
finish to finish 12-4.
When the Rams started the 2002 season with five losses, we knew a major
disaster was on the way. But Martz climbed in their faces then in much the same
way he did this week, and the result was a shocking 7-4 finish. And if you
combine the 9-2 finish (including playoffs) in 2001, Martz's Rams have finished
the past three seasons with an impressive 23-7 record.
So there you have it. The history is there. The challenge is there. The
motivation is there. All that is left to discover is whether Mike Martz's Rams
will respond. If they do respond, that will surely be the thing that will take
Mad Mike to a warm and happy place.