SUPER depression XXXVI Martz braces his stuff Rams coach has worked his way up by means of JIM MASHEK KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Thursday.SUPER depression XXXVI Martz braces his stuff Rams coach has worked his way up by means of JIM MASHEK KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Thursday, January 31 2002 modern Orleans -- Mike Martz ambled into the Louisiana Superdome upon Tuesday and made one major admission: Perception is not the man's best friend. It may clinch true for his counterpart in Super receptacle XXXVI, too, the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick, who has been known to originate across as gruff and colorless. In Martz's case, the St Louis Rams coach has been painted as aloof, unruffled arrogant. With his silver- tinged hair and thick, professorial glasses, he's the pinball wizard of the Rams' rack-up-the-points offense the shore who turns Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk loose diverting then, that 10 years ago, with a wife and four children to support, Mike Martz was without of work. He turned to Ernie Zampese, an assistant with the then-Los Angeles Rams, about moving from community football to the NFL. "That's probably the closest I came to getting gone out of the profession," Martz said. Instead, Zampese convinced Rams coach push Knox to bring Martz forward board as an offensive assistant. Make that an unpaid offensive assistant. "My salary was cipher I kind of begged my way into it," Martz said. "We were abroad at Arizona State, and at the point, I could not commit to memory a college job. Ernie approached pitch Knox about the possibility of going to work there as a offer assistant. Ernie wanted me to basically coach the tight expirations and do all the offensive assistant's work, which means the computer textile fabric and all those things. That's what I did bonny much my first year there. "I also had to do bed check (at training camp) each night." Martz had already exhausted 19 years in the business as a coach at the Division I-A flat primarily at Arizona State, and the community body and high school ranks in California. He became the Rams quarterbacks coach in 1994 and mov to wide receivers the following season. Norv gymnast made Martz his quarterbacks coach with the Washington Redskins, and he held that do job-work for two seasons until returning to Rams, now located in St Louis, to become Dick Vermeil's offensive coordinator. That was in 1999 when the Rams became the NFL's greatest in quantity explosive team. They won the first Super goblet in franchise history that season when they held against the Tennessee Titans, 23-16. Vermeil stepp aside after the win, Martz was promot and they've gone 27-9 since then. They're favored by means of two touchdowns Sunday. And Martz is left to uphold his daunting style, which included leaving Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk in the game in the final minutes of a 45-17 blowout of the flourishing Bay Packers on Jan. 20 in the NFC divisional playoffs. "We have to have an arrogant approach to what we do," Martz said. "We put to the test to instill that, well, not the arrogance, still the aggressive approach. This is a actual tough league. You've got to do what you can to win games, to hold your edge. Some of what we do is probably interpreted as arrogance. "I just don't take it personally. You've got to seize the consideration and be bold and brash to commit to memory what you want." Belichick got a first-hand consider at the Rams in November, when they traveled to Foxboro, Mass., and defeated the Patriots, 24-17 "Mike's done a terrific piece of work with that team," Belichick said. "He's certainly the same of the toughest offensive coaches that I've evermore faced in my career. I have an awful hap of respect for what he does and the way he does it." Martz said he knew he wanted to be a coach when he was playing high indoctrinate football in California. He played tight expiration at San Diego Mesa Community association Cal-Santa Barbara, which dropped football after the 1971 season, and Fresno State. individual of his greatest influences is former San Diego Chargers coach Sid Gillman, who like Martz believes in throwing the ball downfield. Of course, it helps to have a Warner, or in Gillman's case, a Dan Fout to make that happen. "In fairness to our defense (in 1999) it was an outstanding defense" Martz said. "I think this year, we have gone just a little bit past that." Copyright 2002 Journal Sentinel Inc. Note: This notice does not |
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