I have to disagree here, IMO, this is the one time the Ram front office was on the same page across the board. The FO met with both Vermeil & Martz first they wanted Vermeil to be okay with agreeing to extend Martz, which Vermeil informed them, he would retire after his contract was up, which would have been after 2001 season. Martz was more than willing to wait the two years and be head coach in waiting and this was prior to the Super Bowl victory and Vermeil deciding, he wanted to go out on top.
In fact before Vermeil retired, George tried to talk him out of it, but Vefmeil felt at that time the time was right. Look I was never a fan of Frontier or Shaw, but they did right be Vermeil as the were indebted to him.
Owner Georgia Frontiere tried to talk Vermeil out of it, team president John Shaw said he should at least wait to make sure and special teams coach Frank Gansz made an impassioned plea. Rams players just wanted the best for the coach who made it a point to get to know all of them.