As Mad Mike Martz retires from the coaching profession, a former nemesis, Jeff Fisher, takes the helm of his favorite former team.
It’s funny how life works, right?
Back in the day Martz hated Fisher. Their rivalry spilled over from Super Bowl XXXIV into preseason practice sessions and exhibition games. Fisher’s Tennessee teams always brought the attitude, even in a meaningless work session.
Now Fisher is coaching the Rams. He is striving to get the franchise back to respectability, a realm the team hasn’t visited since Martz flipped out as head coach.
And as for Mad Mike . . . well, his coaching career came to an end in typically weird fashion.
As offensive coordinator of the Bears, Martz, 60, angled for a contract extension during the season. Apparently he personally generated rumors that Arizona State was interested in hiring him as head coach.
The resulting distraction irritated Bears managemen. Martz demonstrated trademark arrogance by not simplifying the Chicago offense after quarterback Jay Cutler went down.
Coach Lovie Smith wanted to feature the run more, which had been an ongoing concern for him. He wanted his offense to do a better job protecting quarterbacks.
Does that sound familiar?
In the end Smith and Martz, old coaching buddies, could not agree on where to take the Bears offense. So Martz bowed out, then told the NFL Network that he was retiriing from coaching.
Many Rams fans begged owner Stan Kroenke to bring Mad Mike back to St. Louis after the Steve Spagnuolo Regime crashed and burned, but Kroenke knew Martz well and didn’t give that much thought.
Mad Mike built a 53-32 record as head coach of the Rams after graduating from his offensive coordinator role with the “Greatest Show on Turf.” But paranoia, power grabbing and erratic decision making marked his final days in St. Louis.
He never got another head coaching opportunity and his O.C. stints at Detroit, San Francisco and Chicago ended badly. Now Martz and his “smartest guy in the room” mindset will presumably return to TV work to pay the bills.
Tipsheet will remember him as one of the brightest and most engaging guys to come down the pike, but also one of the most enigmatic.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while Gregg Williams gets to work on the Rams defense:
Should more fans hit on female sideline reporters when they get the chance?
Should Alex Ovechkin stick to hockey?
What, exactly, is a donkey punch?
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
DJ Gallo, ESPN.com: “Michael Jordan's eldest son, Jeff Jordan, has left the Central Florida program. It's his senior season, so his college basketball career is over. Who knows what Jordan will do now. His UCF bio doesn't list his major. If I was him, my major would be Does It Matter? My Dad Is Loaded Studies.”
Joe Posnanski, SI.com: Many, many people have been fighting for a playoff in college football for many years, but the most they could get were tiny (and usually annoying) adjustments to the system. Why? Well, you can’t sum up anything complicated with only one reason, but the big reason is probably this: College football is hugely, irrepressibly, inordinately popular. And when something is that popular, there is overpowering pressure to keep things where they are. The people who are making the most money obviously want it to stay the same. The people who have the most control obviously want it to stay the same. Change, as the old saying goes, is hard. People have to get pushed aside. Schedules have to be altered. Traditions have to be smashed. Directions have to be shifted. And why do all that when everything is going just fine? Yes, people yelled about the bowl system … but so what? We kept coming to the games. We kept talking about college football non-stop. We kept referring to various teams as ‘national champions,’ even though there has never really been a national champion except as voted by writers or coaches or figured by computer programs. Every now and again, the people in charge would rearrange how the bowl teams were picked — a reshuffling of the cards — and they would tinker with which writers or coaches or computer programs got to choose the teams. The screaming did get louder, but I’m convinced that the screaming could have reached jet engine volumes and not mattered a lick. Then, Alabama played LSU for the so-called national championship.”
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Would have been a cool matchup, 49ers vs. Packers, Alex Smith vs. Aaron Rodgers. But visiting Green Bay in late January? You can't even get there. Did you see the story last week where a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker had to clear a path for a Russian fuel tanker to reach an iced-in Nome, Alaska? That's how you get to Green Bay in January.”
Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “Jeff Fisher chooses the St. Louis Rams over the Miami Dolphins. That's sort of like choosing the beets over the Brussels sprouts.”
Norman Chad, Washington Post: “Since 1999, the Lakers and the Clippers have shared Staples Center but not the L.A. spotlight. The Lakers are forever Showtime; the Clippers have always been How Low Can You Go Time. No longer. With Blake Griffin and Chris Paul aboard, the Clippers suddenly are riveting and relevant, like a Mark Wahlberg movie. Uh, but there’s a problem. At the moment, the Clippers’ coach is Vinny Del Negro. Now, I have nothing against Vinny Del Negro, but — at the end of the day and, more important, at the end of any NBA game — he’s still Vinny Del Negro.”
MEGAPHONE
“We’re losing them in the inner city. Our last really great Olympic team was, what, 1984? In places like Philly and Camden and Jersey, we’re not seeing them take up boxing. It’s not easy and most of them won’t make it. But it used to be, you’d go to the gyms and they were overflowing with (African American men) working out, trying to make it. But now, that’s not the case. I think they’d rather try to be the next Jay-Z rather than the next great champion. We are losing boxing in the black community and that’s something to be seriously concerned about.”
Boxer Bernard Hopkins.
THAT’S JUST MEAN
“Kobe Bryant scored a season high of 48 points. Then his ex-wife claimed that 24 of those points are rightfully hers.”
Late night funnyman Conan O’Brien.
