- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 8,874
Music's in the air at Rams Park
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_a85b1d8a-f5fd-5917-84d5-6000e7328d81.html
When the music starts outside, inside the media workroom at Rams Park the bass beat can be heard thumping through the walls. It’s a signal that practice is about to start for reporters, who joke that “the nightclub has opened.”
Walk outside and huge speakers set up near the edge of the practice field are blaring out a tune. Over the course of the next few minutes while the defensive backs, linebackers, and defensive linemen are working in separate groups, safety Cody Davis, linebacker James Laurinaitis, and defensive tackle Aaron Donald can be seen getting their dance moves on sporadically.
Just a few seconds at a time, while they’re waiting in line for their turn during the drill. Yes, we said James Laurinaitis — Mr. Serious when it comes to all things football.
“Just feeling the beat,” Laurinaitis explained. “Sometimes when you feel it in your soul, you’ve just got to move, man.”
Hard to argue with that logic. And when it’s the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, coming through over the loudspeakers, how can you not move your feet?
In recent years, the Rams have played music at training camp sessions that were open to the public at Rams Park, both before practice and during the stretch period and individual drill portion of practice.
But it was all business once the regular-season hit and practices were closed to the public. Coach Jeff Fisher wouldn’t even play simulated crowd noise during practice like several of his Rams head-coaching predecessors have done prior to road games.
Fisher’s thinking was something along the lines of: If you didn’t treat crowd noise like a problem, the players won’t think of it as a problem.
Well, that’s all changed this year — even in the regular season. Music has been played not only during stretching and individual drills, but has spilled over into the meat of practice — namely, some of the 11-on-11, or “team” segments.
“Well, we’re just kind of substituting crowd noise for a little bit of music and get them to focus a little bit,” Fisher said. “So it’s been good, and rather than turn it off when the defense goes on the field, we just left it on. The defense can communicate through it, too. It worked for us last week.”
And there’s the key. “It worked for us last week.”
Coaches are notoriously superstitious characters. After having the music on in practice — including teams periods — the Rams pulled off a big upset at Arizona last Sunday. So the music’s back this week.
Now that could change if the Rams lose by four touchdowns this Sunday in Green Bay. But for now, well, it’s ... Hammer Time.
”Can’t Touch This.”
That was one of the songs played Wednesday, a decidedly old school day in terms of music. The playlist also included offerings by AC/DC, Queen, War, Blackstreet, Coolio, Vaughan Mason & Crew, and the aforementioned James Brown.
“I loved today’s mix,” Laurinaitis said after Wednesday’s practice. “Old school. That’s what I loved about it. It was good, solid tunes.”
The nature of the mix caused many to speculate that it was a coach’s playlist. For each practice, a player or member of the coaching staff gets to choose a playlist of songs.
“Some of the stuff, if you’ve paid attention to it, has been a coach’s playlist,” Fisher said. “Just kind of the old, I guess, classic rock ’n’ roll stuff. When guys were walking out (Wednesday) and ‘Macarena’ was playing, none of them had heard it before. They weren’t born.”
It’s usually not difficult to decipher who’s responsible for the day’s playlist.
Rap, hip-hop, some occasional punk — the players.
Motown, country, Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band — one of the coaches.
“We enjoy it,” safety T.J. McDonald said. “It kind of simulates crowd noise. And it also brings more juice to practice.”
Playing music during practice is mainly a collegiate thing. Laurinaitis said during his days at Ohio State, then-coach Jim Tressel used to play music during practice with white noise mixed into the background.
“Except Jim would make sure everything was edited,” Laurinaitis said.
In other words, no cusswords. (You never knew when a recruit and his family might be dropping by.)
The Rams once again entered the season as the youngest team in the NFL, so most of their players aren’t far removed from a collegiate atmosphere.
“What it forces you to do, it forces you to communicate in those situations,” Laurinaitis said. “You don’t want the first time you’re going into Lambeau and it’s third down to be the first time these guys (on offense) are going silent count. So it forces you to kind of get through those things throughout the week so it’s not a surprise on the weekend.’
As for who’s responsible for the practice music this season, blame Nick Foles.
“I guess it took Nick Foles just coming here and being like, ‘I want music,’” Laurinaitis said. “Usually, the quarterbacks get their way.”
“I like it,” Foles said. “I think it’s great for us, just having distractions. I’m a big guy on making it hostile at practice as much as possible in the sense of making guys distracted by hearing the music, making it loud for communication purposes.
“We have to over-communicate in the huddle. We have to over-communicate at the line. Guys have to really pay attention to the play because at first you want to dance to it — guys want to enjoy it — but you realize you’ve got to hear the play call, you’ve got to play.
“So it’s sort of getting you as ready as possible to step into the game and having all of the crowd noise, having the adrenaline.”
You know, when it’s Hammer Time.
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_a85b1d8a-f5fd-5917-84d5-6000e7328d81.html
When the music starts outside, inside the media workroom at Rams Park the bass beat can be heard thumping through the walls. It’s a signal that practice is about to start for reporters, who joke that “the nightclub has opened.”
Walk outside and huge speakers set up near the edge of the practice field are blaring out a tune. Over the course of the next few minutes while the defensive backs, linebackers, and defensive linemen are working in separate groups, safety Cody Davis, linebacker James Laurinaitis, and defensive tackle Aaron Donald can be seen getting their dance moves on sporadically.
Just a few seconds at a time, while they’re waiting in line for their turn during the drill. Yes, we said James Laurinaitis — Mr. Serious when it comes to all things football.
“Just feeling the beat,” Laurinaitis explained. “Sometimes when you feel it in your soul, you’ve just got to move, man.”
Hard to argue with that logic. And when it’s the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, coming through over the loudspeakers, how can you not move your feet?
In recent years, the Rams have played music at training camp sessions that were open to the public at Rams Park, both before practice and during the stretch period and individual drill portion of practice.
But it was all business once the regular-season hit and practices were closed to the public. Coach Jeff Fisher wouldn’t even play simulated crowd noise during practice like several of his Rams head-coaching predecessors have done prior to road games.
Fisher’s thinking was something along the lines of: If you didn’t treat crowd noise like a problem, the players won’t think of it as a problem.
Well, that’s all changed this year — even in the regular season. Music has been played not only during stretching and individual drills, but has spilled over into the meat of practice — namely, some of the 11-on-11, or “team” segments.
“Well, we’re just kind of substituting crowd noise for a little bit of music and get them to focus a little bit,” Fisher said. “So it’s been good, and rather than turn it off when the defense goes on the field, we just left it on. The defense can communicate through it, too. It worked for us last week.”
And there’s the key. “It worked for us last week.”
Coaches are notoriously superstitious characters. After having the music on in practice — including teams periods — the Rams pulled off a big upset at Arizona last Sunday. So the music’s back this week.
Now that could change if the Rams lose by four touchdowns this Sunday in Green Bay. But for now, well, it’s ... Hammer Time.
”Can’t Touch This.”
That was one of the songs played Wednesday, a decidedly old school day in terms of music. The playlist also included offerings by AC/DC, Queen, War, Blackstreet, Coolio, Vaughan Mason & Crew, and the aforementioned James Brown.
“I loved today’s mix,” Laurinaitis said after Wednesday’s practice. “Old school. That’s what I loved about it. It was good, solid tunes.”
The nature of the mix caused many to speculate that it was a coach’s playlist. For each practice, a player or member of the coaching staff gets to choose a playlist of songs.
“Some of the stuff, if you’ve paid attention to it, has been a coach’s playlist,” Fisher said. “Just kind of the old, I guess, classic rock ’n’ roll stuff. When guys were walking out (Wednesday) and ‘Macarena’ was playing, none of them had heard it before. They weren’t born.”
It’s usually not difficult to decipher who’s responsible for the day’s playlist.
Rap, hip-hop, some occasional punk — the players.
Motown, country, Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band — one of the coaches.
“We enjoy it,” safety T.J. McDonald said. “It kind of simulates crowd noise. And it also brings more juice to practice.”
Playing music during practice is mainly a collegiate thing. Laurinaitis said during his days at Ohio State, then-coach Jim Tressel used to play music during practice with white noise mixed into the background.
“Except Jim would make sure everything was edited,” Laurinaitis said.
In other words, no cusswords. (You never knew when a recruit and his family might be dropping by.)
The Rams once again entered the season as the youngest team in the NFL, so most of their players aren’t far removed from a collegiate atmosphere.
“What it forces you to do, it forces you to communicate in those situations,” Laurinaitis said. “You don’t want the first time you’re going into Lambeau and it’s third down to be the first time these guys (on offense) are going silent count. So it forces you to kind of get through those things throughout the week so it’s not a surprise on the weekend.’
As for who’s responsible for the practice music this season, blame Nick Foles.
“I guess it took Nick Foles just coming here and being like, ‘I want music,’” Laurinaitis said. “Usually, the quarterbacks get their way.”
“I like it,” Foles said. “I think it’s great for us, just having distractions. I’m a big guy on making it hostile at practice as much as possible in the sense of making guys distracted by hearing the music, making it loud for communication purposes.
“We have to over-communicate in the huddle. We have to over-communicate at the line. Guys have to really pay attention to the play because at first you want to dance to it — guys want to enjoy it — but you realize you’ve got to hear the play call, you’ve got to play.
“So it’s sort of getting you as ready as possible to step into the game and having all of the crowd noise, having the adrenaline.”
You know, when it’s Hammer Time.