You’d think that having Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the 9-2 New England Patriots up next on the schedule for a 4-7 team would be enough to keep a NFL head coach preoccupied. If that alone isn’t enough, the fact that the coach is just three losses away from setting the all-time record for NFL losses would certainly give him that extra focus, right?
Not Jeff Fisher.
The same man who, at the beginning of the season, lectured his players on the importance of standing for the national anthem, once again went full Trump and retaliated against someone for saying mean things. Of course by “mean” I actually mean true.
Fisher is in the news because he allegedly told Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson that he was no longer welcome on the sidelines.
Dickerson told reporters that Fisher said, “Players feel uncomfortable with you coming on the sidelines, some of the stuff you said about the team, about coaches and the players. And as long as I’m head coach, we’re not going to have that. You’re not going to be saying stuff. You’re not going to be coming to the sidelines as long as I’m head coach here.”
Dickerson, like any other person with working eyes, has noted the ineptness of the Rams’ offense. After all, the team has dropped six of its last seven games and is ranked 31st out of 32 teams in the NFL. That includes an embarrassing 49-21 loss last week to the 5-6 New Orleans Saints.
All-world running back Todd Gurley averages less than 60 yards per game and just 3.2 yards per carry.
However, it seems that Fisher has determined that Dickerson is not welcome unless he only makes warm and fuzzy comments about a terrible team.
Never mind the fact that as a Hall of Famer, Dickerson doesn’t actually need Fisher’s permission to roam the sidelines at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Hall of Fame inductees can get tickets and sideline passes for themselves and up to four guests through the Hall of Fame. Dickerson, No. 2 on the franchise’s all-time rushing list (despite spending just five years with the team) apparently wanted some extra passes by going through the team which is why Fisher tried to flex on him.
When your team’s record is 4-7 and losing viewers by the bushel, you would expect the coach and organization to go out of their way to appease its fans and ambassadors. They should be begging Dickerson to suit up. Maybe the 56-year-old could spark their miserable rushing attack. Instead, the Rams have alienated one of the franchise’s most-beloved athletes of all-time.
This isn’t the first-time Fisher has tried to clap back at an all-time great. Last season, after former Patriots’ safety Rodney Harrison recalled that Fisher laughed at him when he was injured by Bobby Wade of the (Fisher-led) Tennessee Titans in 2006.
Fisher’s response?
“I think you have to consider the source,” Fisher said according to Pro Football Talk. “But this is coming from a guy that had 18 unnecessary roughness penalties, seven personal fouls, four roughing-the-passer penalties, a total of 77 penalties in his career and was voted three times the dirtiest player in the National Football League and was suspended for a hit, a helmet-to-helmet hit on Jerry Rice in 2002.”
Of course, both Fisher and Demoff have backtracked and labelled the Dickerson fiasco as a “miscommunication.” They have both stated that Dickerson is still welcome to come to practices and games and that he is a cherished part of the Rams community. However, the damage is done and Dickerson has vowed not to attend another Rams game as long as Fisher is head coach.
How long that is remains to be seen. There have been numerous rumors that the Rams will offer Fisher a three-year extension but fact that there has been no official signing or announcement could be bad news for Fisher. After all, by the end of the season, he will stand alone as the most-losing coach in NFL history. In 22 seasons, he has made the playoffs in only six seasons.
Things in Los Angeles have gotten so bad that last week that the Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos and USC Trojans all handily beat the Rams ratings in the LA market. As everyone predicted when the Rams moved out of St. Louis, Los Angeles does not support losing football teams.
Demoff though appears to be standing by his coach’s side.
“Everybody will want to judge Jeff through the prism of just the record, but that’s totally unfair when you look at the set of circumstances he was handed this year,” Demoff told NFL.com earlier this season. “It was different than any team in the NFL.”
However, it’s not much different than the four previous seasons in which Fisher has missed the playoffs and failed to win more than seven games. Then again, if the organization is bothered more by Dickerson pointing out their mediocrity than fixing the causes of it, the Rams will continue to flounder regardless of what city or stadium the team calls home.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk
