Transcripts of Press Conference: Head Coach Jeff Fisher
Head Coach Jeff Fisher Press Conference
January 17, 2012
(Executive Vice President of Football Operations/Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff Opening Remarks)
“Good afternoon. Today’s a tremendously proud day for our organization, our fans, our players, our partners in St. Louis. Two weeks ago, I was standing up here and we were laying out the vision for what we wanted for this franchise. We wanted someone who could energize our fan base, deliver a winning product on the field and help us build an organization on and off the field that St. Louis could be proud of. Today, we have delivered that person who best embodies our vision and it’s Head Coach Jeff Fisher. The third winningest active coach in the NFL. He’s active as of about five minutes ago. His teams play with a passion that is uniquely Jeff Fisher. They’re tough, they’re competitive and you know when you’ve played a Jeff Fisher team and that’s exactly what we were looking for. No matter who we spoke to around the league: players, coaches, league officials. They talked about a charismatic, respective leader who teams were always prepared on Sunday. I think, as I’ve witnessed and we’ve all witnessed over the past weekend with the outpouring of support from St. Louis and our fans, our fans agree with that assessment. The time was now for a bold statement about the future of this organization and to deliver a winner to our fans. Here to talk about that commitment to winning, our owner, Stan Kroenke.”
(Owner Stan Kroenke Opening Remarks)
“I can’t add a lot to what Kevin said, but I can tell you this, as of five minutes ago Jeff and I both put our names on a contract upstairs that will keep him here for a good while and we’re really excited about it. Jeff and I had some time to talk over the last couple of weeks and I think the more we talked, the more comfortable we got. We have had occasion to be around the sports world quite a bit. It will be next year I have been here in St. Louis working on sports for 20 years. Over that time, we’ve kind of come to some conclusions, some lessons were harder to learn than others, but we developed a model that we have a lot of confidence in. And at its center is an experienced, confident head coach who has been, as we say in a lot of different situations has dealt with and seen most things that the world can throw at him in the world of sports. Jeff was absolutely what we were looking for - I told him that early on. I think, when we first talked, I don’t really wait a lot before I tell people kind of how I feel and I told Jeff early on that, that’s the way we viewed the world of sport and how important it was for us to find that kind of coach. Fortunately, we’ve been able to achieve that.”
“As Kevin said, his teams are tough. I’ve sat and watched them. We’ve had occasion to experience them. The only real game we lost in the St. Louis Rams season that we won the Super Bowl was in Nashville. At the end of the season we lost one up at Philadelphia, but we didn’t play everybody and it was our last game of the season. But the only game we lost in the regular season was to Jeff. And that was because those teams were tough and they fought.”
“Anyway, I’ll tell you he’s widely known and widely respected as you all know. He’s a great coach, he’s a great leader, he’s a great teacher. Our young players, I just talked to Sam (Bradford), I know they all echo our feelings about him, so without further adieu I would like to introduce the new Head Coach of the St. Louis Rams, Jeff Fisher.”
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QB Sam Bradford, James Laurinaitis-Press Conference
January 17, 2012
(On if he turned into a recruiter and tried to sell Coach Fisher on St. Louis)
“No. I really just tried to be myself. I wasn’t going to be anything other than who I am. I didn’t want to give him a false impression of who I was. Like I said earlier, it was just time for us to meet to learn a little bit more about each other. If that helped along the process and helped get him here then I’m very happy that I was able to do that.”
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full: www.ramsfans.com
Head Coach Jeff Fisher Press Conference
January 17, 2012
(Executive Vice President of Football Operations/Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff Opening Remarks)
“Good afternoon. Today’s a tremendously proud day for our organization, our fans, our players, our partners in St. Louis. Two weeks ago, I was standing up here and we were laying out the vision for what we wanted for this franchise. We wanted someone who could energize our fan base, deliver a winning product on the field and help us build an organization on and off the field that St. Louis could be proud of. Today, we have delivered that person who best embodies our vision and it’s Head Coach Jeff Fisher. The third winningest active coach in the NFL. He’s active as of about five minutes ago. His teams play with a passion that is uniquely Jeff Fisher. They’re tough, they’re competitive and you know when you’ve played a Jeff Fisher team and that’s exactly what we were looking for. No matter who we spoke to around the league: players, coaches, league officials. They talked about a charismatic, respective leader who teams were always prepared on Sunday. I think, as I’ve witnessed and we’ve all witnessed over the past weekend with the outpouring of support from St. Louis and our fans, our fans agree with that assessment. The time was now for a bold statement about the future of this organization and to deliver a winner to our fans. Here to talk about that commitment to winning, our owner, Stan Kroenke.”
(Owner Stan Kroenke Opening Remarks)
“I can’t add a lot to what Kevin said, but I can tell you this, as of five minutes ago Jeff and I both put our names on a contract upstairs that will keep him here for a good while and we’re really excited about it. Jeff and I had some time to talk over the last couple of weeks and I think the more we talked, the more comfortable we got. We have had occasion to be around the sports world quite a bit. It will be next year I have been here in St. Louis working on sports for 20 years. Over that time, we’ve kind of come to some conclusions, some lessons were harder to learn than others, but we developed a model that we have a lot of confidence in. And at its center is an experienced, confident head coach who has been, as we say in a lot of different situations has dealt with and seen most things that the world can throw at him in the world of sports. Jeff was absolutely what we were looking for - I told him that early on. I think, when we first talked, I don’t really wait a lot before I tell people kind of how I feel and I told Jeff early on that, that’s the way we viewed the world of sport and how important it was for us to find that kind of coach. Fortunately, we’ve been able to achieve that.”
“As Kevin said, his teams are tough. I’ve sat and watched them. We’ve had occasion to experience them. The only real game we lost in the St. Louis Rams season that we won the Super Bowl was in Nashville. At the end of the season we lost one up at Philadelphia, but we didn’t play everybody and it was our last game of the season. But the only game we lost in the regular season was to Jeff. And that was because those teams were tough and they fought.”
“Anyway, I’ll tell you he’s widely known and widely respected as you all know. He’s a great coach, he’s a great leader, he’s a great teacher. Our young players, I just talked to Sam (Bradford), I know they all echo our feelings about him, so without further adieu I would like to introduce the new Head Coach of the St. Louis Rams, Jeff Fisher.”
===============================================
QB Sam Bradford, James Laurinaitis-Press Conference
January 17, 2012
(On if he turned into a recruiter and tried to sell Coach Fisher on St. Louis)
“No. I really just tried to be myself. I wasn’t going to be anything other than who I am. I didn’t want to give him a false impression of who I was. Like I said earlier, it was just time for us to meet to learn a little bit more about each other. If that helped along the process and helped get him here then I’m very happy that I was able to do that.”
========
full: www.ramsfans.com