Articles on the firing

Rams players believe they let Jeff Fisher down

Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/32248/rams-players-believe-they-let-jeff-fisher-down

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Jeff Fisher addressed his team one final time on Monday, shortly after learning he had been fired as the Los Angeles Rams’ head coach.

At one point, Fisher apologized for letting them down.

“We really should be apologizing to him,” Rams offensive lineman Jamon Brown said later. “Everybody probably didn’t do what they needed to to make sure something like this wouldn’t happen.”

Fisher was fired the day after a 42-14 blowout loss at home to the Atlanta Falcons, a game that was haunted by five turnovers. It was the Rams’ eighth loss in a span of nine games, dropping them to 4-9 and giving Fisher his 165th career loss, tying Dan Reeves for the NFL record. After the game, several players spoke up about why their struggles should not fall on the coaches. And on Monday, the prevailing sentiment was that they let Fisher down.

“It’s unfortunate because the losses always get put onto the head coach, but the reality is we f—ed it up,” said defensive end William Hayes, who has spent eight of his nine NFL seasons playing under Fisher and called him “my football dad.” “We messed up a real good situation. We didn’t go out there and do what we needed to do. We were so inconsistent, and that’s why he doesn’t have a job.”

Players respected Fisher for how he led them, and how understanding he was when they weren’t healthy enough to play, and how he asked about their families, and how he seemed to genuinely care about their overall well-beings. He gave the majority of the players in that locker room their first shot in the NFL, calling them on draft day, and so many of them felt indebted.

One reporter brought up the possibility that Fisher might have lost the locker room, considering the Rams’ past three games were lopsided losses.

“That’s bulls—,” Hayes spat. “Everybody in the locker room loves that guy. I don’t want to get personal, throw shots at anybody, but individually, guys didn’t do what they’re supposed to do. Guys played like s—, and that’s why we don’t have a head coach. We didn’t win games we should have won — Detroit, New York. If we won, we’d still have a head coach. We f—ing failed him.”

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” middle linebacker Alec Ogletree added. “Guys in here love and respect him, would’ve done anything for him, and he would’ve done the same for us. … We hate to see him go, but it’s a production business, and they want to see wins on the table. Everybody needs somebody to blame.”

The Rams have been no better than 7-8-1 under Fisher, who has finished .500 or worse in 14 of his 20 prior full seasons as an NFL head coach. Fisher inherited an organization that had lost 65 of 80 games in a span of five years and immediately made it competitive, but the Rams were never able to advance toward legitimate contention. They continually committed too many penalties and were never able to field a productive offense. And down the stretch of their first season back in Los Angeles, they unraveled.

“He treated us the way we’re supposed to be treated and in return we didn’t do enough for him,” Rams quarterback Jared Goff said. “That’s really what it comes down to. We didn’t get it done, and unfortunately it falls on him. Us in the locker room blame ourselves, and we need to be better.”

Fisher, who will be replaced by special teams coordinator John Fassel in the interim, told the players to keep fighting and to not give up on a season that has long been lost.

Brown was asked why Fisher was so well-liked and he talked about how well he handled the criticism that surrounded him over these past few days. Then Brown, 23, started to get emotional.

“I don’t even know how to explain it, but it’s encouraging,” Brown said. “It’s encouraging for us moving forward, because he didn’t let anything get him down, he didn’t let anything bother him. He just came back to work. And that’s kind of what he’s telling us to do. Although this might be a distraction, we have to keep working.”