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  • #1

    Shaw has big words on Martz

    "I'm perplexed that there would be any speculation about his status," Shaw said. "He's averaged 10 wins a season as a head coach. How many victories did we average here (in St. Louis) before 1999? Five?"

    The Rams went 22-42 in their first four seasons in St. Louis (1995-98), an average of 5.5 victories a year.

    "If people think it's easy to win 10 games a year in the NFL, then they don't understand the league," Shaw said. "I think Mike's doing really well. I feel that he has the team in position to compete for a playoff spot and win the division."
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  • #2
    Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

    I love shaw. I wish i could figure out how to get him to sign a baseball for me.

    general counsel

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    • #3
      Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

      Mike Martz is the least of the Rams concern. Especially during football season. Yea, the squib kick against NO at home may not have been the best decision on the planet, but going deep in OT against Seattle early was pretty brilliant don't you think?

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      • #4
        Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

        Martz is growing on me... he seems to have learnt from his personal mistakes last year and made corrections... if we took draft day away from him and sorted out the DC position then he would be amongst the leagues best without question.

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        • #5
          Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

          His learning didn't come cheap but by God it has arrived.

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          • #6
            Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

            Whoah there partners...

            You guys actually think he's now learned????

            I don't think the madness will ever end. We live and die by the sword, which includes that fact that be be the mad scientist, you also, by definition, are absent-minded and a bonehead.

            But it always makes for an intersting Sunday, doesn't it!!

            I wouldn't have it any other way.

            GO RAMS!

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            • #7
              Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

              I'm under the impression that we have to learn a heck of a lot more than Martz. I mean, we witnessed the Rams offense at it's finest last Sunday. The pass sets up the run. Most fans were saying "finally Martz gets it with a balanced attack." Well, that "balance" came from success through the air early and killing the clock late.

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              • #8
                Re: Shaw has big words on Martz

                I totally agree with the pass setting up the run, but since we're talking about Martz learning, I think the prior 2 weeks (Fins/Pats) Martz was still reacting to the media's concerns about the running game and he bought into it and tried to establish the run early in those games.

                But this offense and Martz' system works the other way, as you said. Get Passing, which will put the defense on their heals, and then you open up some runs and Martz' playbook, plus you then are able to grind out the clock late in the game. It's a good recipe.

                Hopefully we'll stick to it the rest of the year. I also am real happy with seeing Marshall getting more involved in the passing game, and not just on check-downs. (i know I've said that a few times already, but I think it's really key to this offense)

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                • RamWraith
                  Shaw must end turmoil, dump Martz quickly
                  by RamWraith
                  By Bernie Miklasz
                  ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
                  Wednesday, Oct. 26 2005

                  For a newspaper columnist who also hosts a radio show, the intensifying
                  friction between Rams President John Shaw and exiled head coach Mike Martz is
                  valuable sports-talk gold.

                  A quick review: Shaw blocked the ailing Martz from phoning assistant coach
                  Steve Fairchild during Sunday's game with New Orleans. Monday afternoon, Martz
                  withdrew from coaching for the rest of the season to help expedite his recovery
                  from a bacterial infection of a heart valve. Martz vowed to return in 2006, but
                  Shaw would not guarantee Martz's job security.

                  Tuesday morning, in a remarkably candid interview on my KSLG (1380 AM) talk
                  show, Martz criticized Rams management on a number of fronts. He said his Rams
                  bosses had broken numerous promises to him, including an agreement to allow
                  Martz to set up a pro personnel department. Martz said he wasn't sure if he
                  could continue to work with his nemesis - Jay Zygmunt, the president of
                  football operations. Martz said he was angry over his intercepted call to
                  Fairchild. Martz said he'd been reassured by Rams owner Georgia Frontiere that
                  he'd be her last coach, and that he could stay in the job for as long as he
                  wanted.

                  Later Tuesday, Shaw counterpunched in an interview with Post-Dispatch football
                  writer Jim Thomas. Shaw made it clear that he wouldn't budge if Martz tried to
                  dictate terms of future employment, including "who's remaining in the front
                  office. Who stays with the organization or doesn't stay with the organization."

                  Translation: Shaw isn't about to dump Zygmunt to appease Martz.

                  And concerning a contract extension for Martz, Shaw said, "In my mind, we need
                  to address the issue as to whether we would even offer an extension to a head
                  coach who hasn't coached here this year."

                  Wow. The Rams will hold Martz's illness against him?

                  Again, this is great material for columns and talk shows. But our selfish
                  interests aside, the attacks and counterattacks are making both sides look bad.

                  Martz is finished as the Rams' head coach. So let's end the pretense.

                  What Martz wants, Shaw won't give. And Shaw is the boss. Shaw has fired coaches
                  before, and he probably will fire coaches again. Period. End of discussion. End
                  of an era.

                  The franchise's image and reputation already are tarnished by this soap opera.
                  And the public feuding will only worsen the damage.

                  If Shaw fires Martz now, surely there will be some nasty publicity. But Martz
                  has been showing plenty of fighting spirit lately, so it's not as if he's
                  hooked up to tubes in a hospital bed. It's not as if Shaw...
                  -10-28-2005, 05:01 AM
                • RamWraith
                  An intervention by Shaw is needed to refocus the Rams
                  by RamWraith
                  Bernie Miklasz
                  Of the Post-Dispatch
                  12/25/2004

                  Sports Columnist Bernie Miklasz



                  Calling John Shaw ... paging Mr. John Shaw ... please call Rams Park, Mr. Shaw, there's an emergency ... paging team president John Shaw ...

                  Only Shaw can save the Rams, just as he did a long time ago.

                  To preserve the future, the Rams must learn from their past.

                  Let us return to the early days of January, 1999.

                  The Rams had just staggered through a dull, disastrous and depressing 4-12 season. The offense was stagnant, the defense was limp and head coach Dick Vermeil was disoriented.

                  Shaw summoned Vermeil to Los Angeles for a meeting in the team's Century City offices. The goal: Lead the lost Rams out of the darkness and into the new century.

                  Shaw gave Vermeil a list of things to do: Hire a new offensive coordinator, get a new quarterback, locate some playmakers and cut back on the marathon practices to improve locker-room morale.

                  Nudged by Shaw, Vermeil hired Mike Martz to design a new offense. Tony Banks was fired, replaced at quarterback by free agent Trent Green. The Rams parted with a couple of token draft picks to pilfer future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk from Indianapolis. And the ensuing results were of fairy-tale dimensions, too preposterous to predict. Shaw's intervention led to a 14-2 regular season, then a Super Bowl championship.

                  And now, nearly six years later, Shaw must step in and do it again. It's the only chance the Rams have for peace and prosperity in the immediate future.

                  If anything, Shaw has even more to do now. In early 1999, Shaw had to rehabilitate only one football man, Vermeil. But now Shaw has to find a way to put three personalities back together again.

                  Shaw must mediate the front-office battle between president of football operations Jay Zygmunt, general manager Charley Armey and Martz, the head coach and would-be CEO.

                  The Rams have a dysfunctional front office, contaminated by distrust and paranoia.

                  The Zygmunt-Martz relationship, once so warm, has turned cold. Armey is out of the loop; his authority has been reduced to that of a glorified scout. The three wise men spend too much time worrying about what the others are saying, and doing, behind the scenes.

                  No wonder the Rams are misfiring on draft picks and free-agent signings; the football brains of the organization are distracted by the increasingly contentious inter-office chess match to determine who will be left standing as king. When Zygmunt, Armey and Martz are working in harmony, dedicated to a common goal, they can construct a good football team. But this collision of egos is doing too much damage.

                  Shaw is a persuasive negotiator, but can he unify his football leadership? I doubt it. The...
                  -12-26-2004, 03:04 PM
                • RamWraith
                  Rams to oust Martz
                  by RamWraith
                  By Jim Thomas
                  ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
                  01/01/2006
                  Rams Martz

                  Rams president John Shaw will tell Mike Martz today that his six-year tenure as coach of the Rams is over, team sources told the Post-Dispatch.

                  Still to be determined is whether Martz's termination will take the form of a contract settlement or an outright firing.

                  Shaw did not attend the Rams' season finale against the Cowboys. But in a phone interview Sunday afternoon, Shaw said the issue could be decided today.

                  "I'd say that's a possibility, sure," Shaw said. "But I've had no contact with Mike, and none with (Bob) LaMonte, either."

                  LaMonte is Martz's agent. Neither LaMonte nor Martz returned phone messages left by the Post-Dispatch on Sunday. Martz was believed to be traveling back to St. Louis after spending the Christmas holidays in his hometown of San Diego.

                  Shaw had insisted all along that he would not begin talks with Martz and LaMonte until after Martz was medically cleared to return to coaching. That medical clearance became official Sunday. But Shaw opted to wait until the Rams' season concluded Sunday night before beginning talks.

                  Martz has one year remaining on his contract and is due to make $3.25 million. Shaw is expected to offer Martz a contract settlement today for something less than that amount.

                  If Martz rejects the settlement offer, will Shaw then simply fire Martz?

                  "I won't get into that now," Shaw said.

                  A team meeting has been scheduled for 11 this morning, and a news conference announcing Martz's termination could be held by early afternoon. The news will hardly qualify as a surprise to Rams players, who have expected Martz's ouster for several weeks.

                  As for the expected afternoon news conference, one Rams veteran said, "I'm going to get some popcorn and watch this one."

                  With the team's overall won-loss record hovering slightly above .500 since the 2001 Super Bowl season, Shaw was unwilling earlier this season to unconditionally commit to a contract extension for Martz beyond the 2006 season. That led to increased friction between Martz and the front office.

                  Martz last coached the team Oct. 9 against Seattle before taking a leave of absence to recover from a bacterial infection of a heart valve, known as endocarditis. The front-office feud boiled over later that month when Martz was prevented from communicating with the coaching staff via cell phone during the Rams' game Oct. 23 against New Orleans.

                  Shortly thereafter, a report surfaced in which Martz allegedly told a reporter that Shaw was not interested in winning, and that Shaw said the team lost money going to the Super Bowl.

                  That report so upset Shaw that he decided to change head coaches at the end of this season.
                  -01-02-2006, 04:55 AM
                • RamWraith
                  Just say it now, Shaw: Martz is out
                  by RamWraith
                  By Bryan Burwell
                  ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
                  Thursday, Dec. 01 2005

                  As we close in on the final episodes of this zany, 16-week Rams Park soap
                  opera, who didn't think the best stuff was behind us?

                  Well, actually, none of us.

                  No matter how far Mike Martz removed himself from the scene, or how obvious it
                  was that John Shaw already has put into motion the blueprints for a radical
                  regime change, you knew it couldn't be that easy. Life at Rams Park
                  does this to you. It leaves you with a nervous twitch and lump in your throat,
                  like you're watching some cliff-hanging whodunit. So even with Martz
                  vacationing in San Diego, his office cleaned out of all his belongings and
                  management leaking out names of his replacements all over the place, we all
                  knew there had to be at least one more plot twist that would pack the shock
                  value of "Who Shot J.R.?"

                  It makes you appreciate the audacity of Martz's agent, Bob LaMonte, who in an
                  amazing coincidence said that his client was ready to return to work one day
                  after Steve Mariucci was fired in Detroit, and just after the Rams OK'd a pay
                  raise for Joe Vitt to finish out the season as Martz's interim replacement.

                  The truth is better than fiction. The truth is LaMonte wants the Rams to
                  accelerate their firing process so that he can get his client in the front of
                  the line for all the coaching vacancies that will be opening over the next few
                  weeks. He also wants to get the word out that Martz is healthy and ready to
                  take on the rigors of being an NFL head coach again. What better way to do it
                  than to stir up a little buzz on the pro football gossip mill?

                  But back on the home front, Rams president John Shaw was not terribly tickled
                  by LaMonte's power move. Even while Shaw was telling us that the only thing the
                  organization is concerned with is Martz's health, we all know that someone in
                  the Rams organization has been sprinkling names of potential replacements for
                  Martz's job all over the media.

                  So nothing ever changes around here. This is how it goes with the turbulent
                  relationship between Rams officials and Martz. Both sides take pot shots at the
                  other, and in the end they all look bad and suspicious.

                  But this embarrassing little tit-for-tat tap dance could be over quickly if
                  Shaw would quit dancing around the obvious and just say what we all know is
                  true.

                  Martz isn't coming back.

                  On my radio show earlier this week, Shaw repeatedly avoided direct answers to
                  questions about Martz's job status, trying to leave some phony welcome mat
                  spread out in front of Rams Park. "The answer is we don't know now, and I will
                  give you some of the...
                  -12-02-2005, 05:43 AM
                • RamWraith
                  Capable Shaw rides to rescue of warring Rams
                  by RamWraith
                  an. 3, 2006
                  By Clark Judge
                  CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
                  Tell Clark your opinion!




                  You can't help but like what you see with the St. Louis Rams these days, and what you see is team president John Shaw.


                  John Shaw will lead the search for a new Rams coach. (AP)
                  He's everywhere. He's standing in front of reporters. He's on the phone. He's in the papers. He's more visible than he's been in years, and that's a step in the right direction for the Rams.

                  Normally, you find Shaw making decisions from behind the scenes -- either in St. Louis but more often from Los Angeles. But these are not normal times for the Rams, one of pro football's most dysfunctional organizations, and they demand someone in charge.

                  That someone is Shaw, and hallelujah.

                  Until he stepped forward, the club was a house divided, with former coach Mike Martz over here and Jay Zygmunt, the team's president in charge of football operations, over there. Once allies, the two clashed during a lost season in which Martz bowed out after five games because of a heart infection.

                  It was while he was away that Zygmunt denied Martz phone access to the coaching box to discuss play-calling with the team's offensive coordinator. One day later, Martz fired back by saying he didn't know if he could co-exist with Zygmunt, who's been with the Rams 24 years.

                  And so it went until Shaw intervened.

                  Now the Rams are trying to reorganize under his very public presence. First, Martz was dismissed, and I don't care if you like it or not, a settlement to this ugly mess had to be reached in the best interest of the organization. Once Martz suggested he might not -- correction, would not -- return if Zygmunt were still there, it was clear where this was going.

                  It didn't matter that Martz later softened his position. The damage was done. Shaw had seen and heard too much, and he wanted it ended. So he ended it. He fired Martz.

                  "I guess the most compelling reason was the direction of the team, which is a direction we think we need to change right now," " he said at Monday's news conference.

                  Notice what he said: The Rams "need to" change direction. He didn't say they'd like to or they want to. He said that what was done was necessary to move forward, and those are the words of someone fed up with the internecine battles that tore the Rams apart.

                  Now the club looks for someone to lead it back to the top of the NFC West, and it's John Shaw who does the looking. Shaw said he might interview nine or 10 persons but would start with five to six. Though he didn't indicate what he would do, I'd bet a dinner at Charlie Gitto's that his next coach is a defensive assistant.

                  Chicago's Ron Rivera has been mentioned. The Giants' Tim Lewis has been mentioned....
                  -01-04-2006, 01:43 PM
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