Rams Head Coach Jim Haslett
December 29, 2008
(Opening Remarks)
“I’ll give you a quick update on the players who are going to get surgery this off season. Really there’s only two right now. (TE) Anthony Becht is going to get his elbow scoped and (TE) Joe Klopfenstein’s knee and then really you have a (linebackers) coach, Mike Cox is going to get his knee done. It’s been a long year.”
(On if DT La’Roi Glover is going to have surgery)
“It’s possible; that’s just the ones we have right now. His will be his knee scoped, but it’s not on the books yet.”
(On what happened to TE Joe Klopfenstein)
“He’s been hurt the whole year. These guys have been fighting through this stuff all year, Anthony (Becht), his elbow locked out on him in Week 6, he hasn’t straightened it all year. Joe’s knee, Joe has a torn ligament in his wrist that he has to let repair. La’Roi’s (Glover) knee, so these guys have been fighting through that all year.”
(On what happened to linebackers coach Mike Cox)
“He’s getting old.”
(On what message he left the team with)
“I just told them that I thought that game (vs. Atlanta), and I said this yesterday, will define you as a person, as a football player and as a team for the following year. The year before, Arizona put a licking on this team and I didn’t think they played real hard and I didn’t think it was a great game. I thought everybody played hard, they were into the game, they wanted to win the game. I didn’t see anybody laying down and I think that kind of defines you as a person, so when people start looking at you on film you can at least walk away saying you gave everything you had.”
(On if it’s been a long season)
“Well, anytime you don’t win a lot of games, it’s a long season for coaches, for players and for everybody in the building. It’s disappointing from that aspect. We started out strong, started winning a couple games after a slow start, so you got your hopes up. But then we played four games, right in a stretch, right in the middle that were really bad football. Then, actually the last four or fives games we played well enough that we’ve been in every game and had the chance to win every game, so it’s disappointing. But I think you saw what everybody could do yesterday, the players gave everything they had. Obviously we’re just not good enough and there’s going to be changes made. That’s the way the league works and they know it, coaches know it. That’s just how this league works, so it’ll be for the better.”
(On what he does now)
“Evaluate all the players, rank them, grade them, write their strengths, weaknesses, the needs of the football team. I’m going to act like I’m head coach and then we’ll go from there.”
(On if he’ll have a formal interview for the head coaching job)
“I don’t know, I haven’t been informed, I haven’t really talked about it. We’ve been busy all morning and haven’t really been informed of anything yet.”
(On how important RB Steven Jackson is to the team)
“Well, obviously you saw the way he ran yesterday, we ran for 200 yards, I think he had 165 (yards). He’s the guy they need to build this football team around, at least the offensive side. You should build your football team around him and if you’re going to have a 240 lbs. tailback that’s fast and he can hit it up in there, then you better have some guys up front to open up some holes for him, better get a tight end that can block for him and a fullback, which he haven’t had the last couple years. You have to get a fullback for Steven and I think that’s the guy that you build your offensive football team around.”
(On what he thinks will be the time frame for hiring a new head coach)
“I don’t know, I really don’t. I don’t have any idea, I haven’t been in this situation. I’m going about business as usual and then when I find out something I’ll let you know.”
(On if he’s taking calls from other teams)
“We’ve been at this, you’re talking about 12 hours. We’ll find out. I’ve got people around the league that I know and friends and colleagues, so there will be some movement, but I told you before, I like the city, I think this team’s not far away, my family likes this place, so if I have the opportunity I’d love to stay, but I understand the business, I understand what goes on and we’ll deal with that when it comes.”
(On how good he feels about his chances of being head coach next season)
“I don’t know, I really have no feel for it one way or the other.”
(On how the last three months have been for him)
“Well, it was fast. You take a team over in the middle of the season, it’s not the ideal situation, which I said before. It’s not your ‘type of players’ because every head coach has a different view of what they want. It’s not your coaching staff per se and there were good coaches upstairs, don’t get me wrong, but you’re looking for maybe a different thing. It’s not the greatest environment that you’re taking over, but I understood the circumstances when I did it and I knew it was going to be a hard road, so it’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into and I think the flaw is we won a couple games early and then (RB) Steven (Jackson) got hurt and we struggled the next five games without him. He was in and out most of the time and then obviously him coming back in full tilt the last couple games you can see where your football team’s not far away from the teams that we just lost to. Atlanta just won 11 games; Miami won 11 games doing the things that I believe in and building around their running game and playing pretty good defense, so it showed it can be done. I think it shows you what one guy can mean to your football team.”
(On if he anticipates there will be a formal interview for the coaching job)
“I don’t know, I really don’t know. Like I said, I came to work today, we graded the film. We looked at it, put all the numbers down, met with the players and that’s all I’ve been doing right now. I haven’t thought about it and you try not to think about it.”
(On if he has talked with Rams Owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez about coming back next year)
“A few hours, yes. We’ve talked before.”
(On if he got any feeling one way or the other from their meetings)
“I don’t know. I could come up with a million questions for somebody if I had to sit down with them for a couple hours and talk with them, but I really don’t know.”
(On if he has any regrets taking this job with regard to his reputation as a head coach)
“I thought about that last night and I really don’t because I love coaching and I like being around the players. If I could do it again, I wish I could say I understand our offense a little bit more, where I could say let’s do this, do that, do this, this is what I want. Or, if I could understand the special teams a little more, which was easier for us, because we actually improved in that area. The defense was no problem. In a perfect situation, you would like to say I have an offseason with somebody that I can say, ‘Hey, let’s do this, let’s run flanker drive, let’s run this, let’s do this,’ but I couldn’t do that. Do I have regrets? No, I really don’t, because I really like coaching and I enjoyed coaching these guys. For the most part, on this team, there’s no, I don’t want to say bad guys or however you want to phrase it. The guys work hard, they like football. They did want to win. Obviously, we were short in a lot of areas, but they put everything out there, that they could, to win. They laid it on the line. From that standpoint, I can’t ask any more from a (player) than what they are. Are we good enough? No, we’re not good enough. It’s evident. We’re not good enough and I told them the same thing. There will be changes made, one way or another, to get the football team better, but the effort and the concentration and the classroom work and the practice was outstanding. If you could have much better players and do that same thing, you’re going to be a better football team. To answer your question, no. If you go back over my seven years doing this as a head coach, and someone said this the other day, I have two bad losing seasons and both of them were really out of my control, this season and the year we got displaced in the (hurricane) Katrina season. Other than that, I’ll let my first five years stand for themselves. I thought, taking over a team that was much worse than this, winning a bunch of games. So I’ll let that record… but if you’re going to judge (me) off the two seasons, then people, if they’re blind by those two seasons, then they are. There’s nothing I can about that. Hopefully, there’s people in the league and in this organization who will look beyond that and look at the good stuff. In 2000, I was coach of the year. We won 11 games in New Orleans. I’m a better coach now than I was then. I know a lot more about the game and game-day management and how to handle players and all of those situations. I’m much better now than I was then. Back then, something would set me off, I’d lose my mind, but now, I can deal with it the way I have to deal with it.”
(On if he will make a pitch to try to sway Rams General Manager Billy Devaney and the owner’s decision)
“I’m hoping I don’t have to sway it. (Rams General Manager) Billy (Devaney) and I have been kind of tied at the hip since we took over, so Billy (Devaney) knows exactly what this football team needs. Him and I have talked about it and I’ve given him my input on the players on this team and what we need and I’ve also given him my input, this whole three months, on how I would like to build this football team and I think him and I are on the same page that way, just like I mentioned in reference to Steven (Jackson), and on what I would like from the defense and the special teams standpoint. If I’m not the guy who’s doing it, then Billy (Devaney) also has a pretty good idea, whoever it is, how to fix this problem.”
(On if he thinks changes need to be made to the defense)
“I think there have to be some changes made. I don’t want to get into that area, but there have to be some… You have to get better on defense. You have to have some bigger bodies to play in this league. If you’re going to play the Falcons and you’re going to play the Steven Jackson’s of the world, you have to have some bigger bodies to stop the run. When we got here, it was small, small, and we’re trying to get big, big, but it’s still a small team.”
(On if the defense is mostly his or if it was in place when he was hired)
“There’s a little bit of both probably. I’m not going to get into the specifics of it, but there’s a little bit of both.”
(On playing some of the younger players and on if he thinks that will benefit whoever is coaching here next year)
“When you take over a job, I think no matter what you do, you do what’s best for the organization, period, and no matter what the circumstances are. To me, the right thing to do was to try to play these young guys to see if they can play and if they can develop just like the O.J.s (Atogwe) of the world and the (Ron) Bartells of the world. If you don’t ever play them, how are you ever going to know if they’re any good? When we got here, we started O.J. (Atogwe). I think he’s proven he’s pretty good. Ronnie’s (Bartell) an ascending player, he’s getting better and better. We let a couple of guys go who I thought were ascending players. (John) Greco had a heck of a game yesterday. I think he has a lot of room for improvement, but I thought he did a good job yesterday. We threw Jon Wade in the mix and I think he showed a little bit of what he can do and what he can’t do. I thought that was right for the organization, not necessarily for me or to win games right away, but I think it’s the best for this organization. I would have loved to get Roy Scheuning on the field a little bit more and Chris Chamberlain, but we just didn’t have that opportunity.”
(On if he thinks they will resign S O.J. Atogwe and CB Ron Bartell)
“That’s hard for me to answer. I’ll hit you with that one later. They’re good football players, both them. I think they’re rising. I think they’re getting better.”
(On if he would like to have Atogwe and Bartell if he were back)
“For me? Yes, I would love to have them. They’re both doing a great job. I think O.J. (Atogwe) still has room to improve and I think Ronnie (Bartell) still has room to improve, but I think they’re both ascending football players.”
(On the player’s petition to retain him as head coach)
“First, I didn’t know if it was true. I heard about it. Actually, I heard about it when I was getting on the bus to the game, so I asked a couple of guys and they said that’s true. I didn’t get all of the (details), I didn’t think that was my place. It makes you feel good as a coach that at least they feel that way about you and they want you back. It makes you feel good about your work. Obviously, the wins and losses, it didn’t equate to that, but at least you know the way they fell. Someone else said that to me, if you’re a ‘player’s coach,’ or the players are voting for you, they could have a chance to walk on you and walk all over you. That’s bullcrap, because that will never happen. I think they know that. Actually, when I took over, we conditioned and we did a lot of different things that we didn’t do in the past. If they didn’t feel like you were a pretty good football coach, I’m sure they wouldn’t have done that. At least I feel humbled by it.”