ESPN Reports: Rams Fabricated Warner Concussion
By Rams Nation's Barry Waller
In a story titled “Kiss Off”, ESPN columnist Ed Werder alleges
that the Rams organization and their medical staff intentionally overplayed
the supposed concussion Kurt Warner suffered against the Giants in the opener.
What Werder is expecting us to believe is that Mike Martz somehow made a decision
the night of the game in the Meadowlands to change his starting quarterback
for 2003, and orchestrated a conspiracy that included the Rams team doctor and
trainers, the doctors who examined Warner in New Jersey, and the Rams organization.
Werder quotes an unnamed “team source” as telling him, “We
gave Kurt the concussion as a way out, and he didn’t take it.”
Just for a moment, let’s just pretend that Ed Werder might be a clueless
grandstander looking to sell his mediocre publication; one aimed at the “new
breed” of sports fans that must value flash over truth the way that publication
covers the NFL. I guess ESPN was too busy worrying about the mess Rush Limbaugh
got them into, or their appalling “true life” NFL show “Playmakers”,
to think about the ramifications of what Werder is “revealing”.
Ed Werder turning out to be irresponsible for putting out what amounts to hearsay
or fabrication, using some unknown “deep throat” as his source to
glom onto the Warner soap opera one last time, is by far the best-case scenario
when it comes to the destiny of the St. Louis Rams and their fans.
That possible conclusion also makes the most sense, since no one has seen Ed
Werder anywhere around Rams Park. In addition, none of the local media who are
close to people at Rams Park, with connections all around St. Louis, where they
live and work, has heard an inkling of even a whisper of such a blockbuster
scoop. Not even the Rams announcers, who attend team meetings and really have
the ability to see things others don’t, have come up with anything like
this fairy tale.
Certainly once Warner recovered by the next day, after a sick headache kept
him from flying home with the team, tons of doubt at whether this was really
a concussion came to light. Even Warner commented that he felt that term had
been thrown about far too easily in his case, and that he was ready to play
on that Wednesday, when practices began for the week. Most people felt the Rams
were just being cautious with Warner’s diagnosis, especially since more
tests were done when Warner returned home Monday, after the night in the hospital.
There were lots of questions concerning the competency of the Rams medical
staff after Warner was thought to have played most of the Giants game with a
concussion, when head coach Mike Martz didn’t even know there was any
problem until the teams took the field for the second half. Martz got barbequed
for possibly playing a dinged quarterback without taking the time to notice
there was a problem even when Warner was not getting the play calls in his helmet.
If Werder is telling it like it really was, it means that the Rams’ team
doctors and local physicians, and Mike Martz intentionally brought down the
heat on themselves, to a point where Martz was called a “moron”
in headlines; just to allow him to more stealthily elevate Marc Bulger to the
starting job from then on. Presumably, Kurt Warner had had too good an off-season,
camp, and pre-season, before the eyes of the nation, to be replaced by Martz
without an injury excuse being formulated.
In many ways, the entire positive image that Dick Vermeil brought with him
to St. Louis could crumble if Ed Werder speaks the truth in his piece. If what
he says is true, then the Rams have people at the heart of their organization
willing to mislead the media and their own fans, willing to put a further medical
question mark on a two time MVP, and as righteous a person as any who ever donned
an NFL uniform.
Could anyone ever support a coach who feels that deception, no matter what
is involved, is the best way to sway the press and the fans to agree with his
personnel decisions? Since Kurt Warner has had a couple real concussions in
his career, it becomes a very serious charge to say doctors who knew that it
was a lie, intentionally added a third concussion to his official medical history.
I’m no attorney, but my guess would be that doctors who did such things
for any reason would be in big trouble with the AMA, not to mention every player
in professional sports. I would also guess that false medical diagnoses that
could have a big effect on the kind of money a player might stand to earn in
his future would make for a big fat lawsuit against the Rams and their doctors.
Why is it that this reporter finds it hard to believe that a smart man like
Mike Martz, who has two bosses who are attorneys and CPA’s, who work for
a team partly owned by a real estate developer who has seen his share of litigation,
would ever take the chance this conspiracy theory would espouse? Plus the scheme
had to be hatched and executed in about 12 hours, making it even more compelling
that the case for Werder’s scoop is nothing more than baloney.
Since Mike Martz has a deal with five years to run, and most of the power,
when it comes to how his team is made up, why would anyone think he needs some
subterfuge to make any change in his lineup? Why would anyone believe that he
would do what Werder says he did? Why would anyone buy ESPN Magazine when it
allows a story like this to run?
Mike Martz is well aware that the only way he will be judged for his personnel
decisions will be the performance of his team, so the reason he makes a move
doesn’t matter one bit, and he doesn’t really have to worry about
any hurt feelings either, either the player’s or the fans.
That’s a head coach’s job, to decide who plays, and I can’t
imagine that same ESPN scribe believing that Bill Parcells would fabricate a
situation to ease a move he had in mind, even if he did have some “inside
source” saying it happened. While many, including this reporter, think
Martz made a mistake replacing Warner when he did, it really doesn’t matter
what we think. Martz, like any head coach, obviously doesn’t care anyway,
and really shouldn’t, because public opinion doesn’t usually get
coaches fired, losing does.
This is all more of the same stuff heard all too often last year when Bulger
hurt his hand and was replaced by Warner, now almost fully recovered from his
broken pinky. There was talk that Martz made that up as well, though everyone
in the local media saw the evidence with their own eyes, that Bulger was hurt
and could not grip a ball at all.
The local media also saw Kurt Warner’s hand when the Rams said it wasn’t
broken, then later admitted it was, a situation that also led to plenty of erroneous
rumor concerning Warner “concealing” the extent of the injury from
Martz. That stuff in 2002 was drummed up garbage, probably to distract the Rams
players somehow, so they wouldn’t be as dominant over the rest of the
league, and the teams those writers root for. Martz believed there were “people
who want to see us fail”, early last year when so much about his team
became a confusing drama. Werder states “Martz has grown tired of the
QB’s tendency to deflect blame after losses.”
Can any fan that has listened to any Warner post game sound bite or read a
quote from him find even one time where Warner “deflected” blame?
In fact it is usually Martz who immediately takes most of any blame on himself
following losses. Most of the time, Warner takes far too much blame on himself
when the team fails to win, even when the defense collapsed completely in 2000.
For Werder to make that unfounded assertion that Rams fans know is false, right
off the top of his head, besmirching Warner’s leadership and attitude
and how it affected him losing his starting job, is scandalous and wrong. Werder
finishes his “piece” (which I think pretty much describes its value
when followed by two more words), with the usual, “Warner is done as a
Ram, Warner is done period”, diatribe, complete with a quote from an “unnamed
GM” commenting on Warner’s free agent or trade value after the season.
Too bad team President John Shaw, who has a bit more clout that some unnamed
“mole” at Rams Park, already said ON the record that Warner will
be here in 2004, and that the reality of the salary cap virtually assures it.
Werder says Warner is “fuming that Martz gave his job away after just
one game”, an opinion for which he offers no proof, though obviously Warner
is not happy about it, just like any other star athlete would react to a demotion.
Even Martz has said that he would be “very angry” if Warner just
accepted being second string. Werder also says of the differences between QB
and coach that Martz and Warner “Didn’t sit down to try to resolve
them until the team’s bye in week five.”
That of course is untrue, since both Warner and Martz spoke on the record of
a meeting they had the day after Bulger was named the starter for game two and
beyond, one that each said was difficult (Warner said they prayed together,
Martz said what went on was going to stay between he and Warner).
One wonders how such a highly publicized meeting between Martz and Warner could
be missed by Ed Werder, a pow wow that made Sportscenter, NFL Live, NFL Matchup,
and every other ESPN NFL offering, including their much hyped magazine.
Maybe that’s why this writer isn’t biting on Werder’s lure,
the fact that he either forgot, or failed to mention this earlier meeting, let
alone any others that Warner and Martz may have had at Rams Park.
All it takes is one glaring error to call an article such as Werder’s
to serious question. If the writer can’t even get facts right that everyone
knows without research, how can he be at all believed about some “inside
stuff” that doesn’t make logical sense. The thing is, Ed Werder
knows his “source” will never be revealed, he knows that no one
would ever know for sure if he made it all up, he knows he is “absent
malice” and so ESPN can’t be sued for the article true or not.
Ed Werder knows that many fans, wanting as much of his kind of tripe as they
can swallow, will buy into his “exclusive” and maybe someday bring
him the fame and paycheck of “Sports Illustrated’s” Rick Reilly,
another writer who loves to stir things up. He knows that if a story can’t
be proven wrong for certain, he is home free, and he gets thought of as a true
insider to boot by those who are easily fooled by hype.
The saddest by product of this foolishness is that Ramsnation will be hearing
echoes of this journalistic fart for months; many treating it as Gospel long
from now, with the advantage of time helping cloud memories of what really happened,
and how Werder should have been ridiculed, not believed, by anyone with a clue.
It’s also sad that fans can’t depend on ESPN, from whence they expect
the best in sports to emit, to put truth over flash.
What Rush Limbaugh did may have been hurtful to some and damaging to the network,
but most fans already knew he was a bigot and a blowhard; however, these subtle
efforts to play “fast and loose” with ESPN’s “bully
pulpit”, are probably far more hurtful and damaging to all involved, and
to the credibility of the network. Someday, ESPN may have devolved a point where
it means Expect Slanted Prefabricated
Nonsense.