LA Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher “Not Uncomfortable” About Keeping Job Beyond 2016

In his day after press conference, Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher said he is “not uncomfortable” with regard to his employment status with his contract expiring at the end of this season:

There are two separate ideas in there worth considering.

“I'm not uncomfortable at all."

You can read into that in two ways.

With rumors that discussions regarding an extension go back to late 2015 when the Rams’ top brass confirmed that Fisher’s employment status was not tied to the final win-loss record the Rams would record, there is reason to think that an extension has already been signed and unreported or simply agreed upon.

The other way to consider this is that the conditions for Fisher’s continued employment might have been detailed to him. The idea that Rams Owner Stan Kroenke sat Fisher down at some point and laid out the criteria for remaining head coach beyond isn’t that hard to visualize. That Fisher would feel comfortable that he’s met that criteria is quite obviously tied to the second part of that quote.

"Stan and I are on the same page. He understands what we've been through."

I’m not sure if he’s talking about the franchise relocation or the roster re-build or some ethereal excuse built on the emptiness of hackneyed phrases he has made a history of relying upon so that he never has to take responsibility for their ultimate failure to materialize (see: this year’s ”culture change”).

It doesn’t matter. What matters is that whatever it means, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams is, at least in Fisher’s mind, in lockstep with Jeff Fisher.

This should trouble Rams fans.

It should trouble Rams fans that four and a half years into Fisher’s tenure atop the Rams’ coaching staff, they have yet to produce a winning record at the end of a single season and certainly don’t appear to be on the back of a four-game losing streak.

It should trouble Rams fans that the owner of the team they support is “on the same page” as the head coach who is just four losses away from having the most losses in NFL history.

It should trouble Rams fans that the owner of their team, of OUR team, is so dismissive of the fans’ concerns.

The Rams will open a new stadium in 2019. It’s understandable that ownership (as in the entity and its surrogates, not just Kroenke) isn’t necessarily concerned with the chapter of Rams football before Kroenke’s palace opens. It’s not justifiable though that ownership continues to take fans’ commitment so lightly.

The Rams haven’t had a winning season since 2003, seven years before Kroenke bought the team. I know because I looked over Jeff Fisher’s shoulder. It doesn’t look great. And I wish Stan and I were on the same page.

I guess he doesn’t know what we’ve been through.