Rams Coach Vermeil’s ST playbook featured in 2022 HOF exhibit

Waddya know? The LA Rams franchise finally has some new ‘news’ to talk about. Only this one is not about the LA Rams at all, but rather about the St. Louis Rams. Or rather, about the LA Rams chapter of St. Louis Rams head coach Dick Vermeil. Confused? Don’t be. We can walk you through it.

The St. Louis Rams and the Greatest Show on Turf history is one of the most impossible tales in the NFL annals that eventually turned out as the story of an eventual NFL Super Bowl Champion. It has all of the best plots: Cinderella Story, David versus Goliath, cheering for the underdog, a grocery clerk ultimately becoming a Super Bowl-winning quarterback? You name it, it’s got it. And any time a new story shows up, just sit down and take the time. It’s guaranteed to be worth a read.

Each year, the  Pro Football Hall of Fame debuts its annual locker exhibit featuring artifacts from the new class of inductees who will be enshrined later in the year. This year, St. Louis Rams head coach will be one of the Class of 2022 heading to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As such, he will have artifacts from his own history enshrined in the locker room exhibit this year.
One of those artifacts will be:

• 1969 Los Angeles Rams special-teams playbook from the season Vermeil became the NFL’s first special-teams coach.

Wait, what? That’s right. The head coach who led the St. Louis Rams to their Super Bowl victory was the NFL’s first special teams coach, and with the LA Rams no less.

Vermeil: LA Rams and St. Louis Rams

Dick Vermeil was a football coach whose career spanned 36 years. He was hired by former LA Rams head coach George Allen to oversee the team’s special teams unit. He was a special teams coach, quarterbacks coach, and offensive backs coach for the LA Rams. He was the offensive coordinator and head coach of the UCLA Bruins.

He was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. After a 15-year retirement from football, he returned to become the unlikely head coach of the St. Louis Rams. He closed out his career as the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

To know Coach Vermeil is to love Coach Vermeil. Much like LA Dodgers legendary coach Tommy Lasorda, joining Vermeil’s team was to be adopted into a new family, a football family. Vermeil worked under LA Rams head coaches George Allen, Tommy Prothro, and Chuck Knox before finally being offered his own chance to become a head coach.

He became famous for his work with the St. Louis Rams, but much of that came from the basic principals he learned and deployed during his time with the LA Rams.