One of Punching Kitty’s favorite sports columnists, Bernie Miklasz, has a great article up on STLToday.com about former Rams coach and perennial news lightning rod Mike Martz. After stops in Detroit and San Francisco, Mad Mike is cooling his x and o’s marker as a TV analysts, but he clearly still yearns for a coaching job.
Martz, 58, hopes for a second chance at being a head coach, or even a coordinator, but recognizes the trends work against him. Owners have been hiring younger, less-expensive head coaches. And those young coaches don’t always want to bring in opinionated, high-profile coordinators.
…and Bernie thinks he deserves one…
As Rams head coach, Martz certainly had his quirks. But he also had a 53-32 record between 2000 and early 2005, when he left the sideline to deal with a health problem. His winning percentage of .624 ranks 19th in league history among head coaches with at least 50 games on their record.
We agree that Martz should still be in coaching, and we always thought Martz should have been able to at least get the last year of his contract, but lets put out the question that we realize it nothing more than an exercise since we know its not going to happen, but…
Would you be open to Mike Martz coming back to the Rams coaching staff as Offensive Coordinator or Quarterbacks Coach?
If you could somehow removed the obvious play-calling skill from the name, this is a no-brainer right? The Rams offense is a wreck, but we have a stud running back and we all know a new QB is coming in the draft so who would be better to rebuild an offense than Mad Mike?
…however, you can’t pull the skill from the name. Despite the craziness that would ensue with a Rams/Martz rekindling, there would always be the issue that has been keeping Martz from getting a job for some time now: If he is hired as a coordinator, the head coach would be looking over his shoulder despite any ownership promises to the contrary.
On the whole though, we agree with Bernie and would love to see Martz creating passing attacks again, even if it isn’t with St. Louis.
What do you think?
