Random Ramsdom: Rams’ COO Kevin Demoff receives prestigious award

Rams’ Kevin Demoff receives Daniel M. Rooney Lifetime Achievement Award (ocregister)

“Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff was named this year’s recipient of the Daniel M. Rooney Lifetime Achievement Award, the Fritz Pollard Alliance announced Wednesday.

Demoff received the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s highest award for his dedication and long-term meritorious history to improve the workplace surrounding the game of football, the news release read.

“We are fortunate to have the platform that the National Football League provides to lead and push for a more diverse and inclusive landscape within sports and beyond,” Demoff said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to receive the Dan Rooney Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fritz Pollard Alliance and to be associated with two legends who helped transform the NFL in Dan Rooney and Fritz Pollard. This is a crucial time to advocate for more access to opportunity and equity in our game and I am grateful to the Fritz Pollard Alliance for their commitment to and leadership in this work.”

The Fritz Pollard Alliance was founded in 2003 to help improve diversity among coaches and front office executives in the NFL. It also established the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operations opportunities.

Rod Graves, executive director of Fritz Pollard Alliance recently said, “Our mantra is to resist the status quo of diversity hiring practices in the NFL, as we build bridges and navigate barriers. Although the doors are open to ownership conversations, in many cases, the results remain barren of inclusive successes.”

The Fritz Pollard Alliance will honor Demoff and five other award winners on Feb. 9 for the 18th annual Johnnie L. Cochran Salute to Excellence Awards ceremony in Phoenix during Super Bowl LVII week.”

Finally! Rams’ Nemesis Tom Brady Retires ‘For Good’ (fannation/ramsdigest)

“Thus ends one of the most, if not the most, illustrious careers in NFL history, one spent between New England (2000-19) and Tampa Bay (2020-22). Along the way, Brady caused plenty of heartbreak across the league, but the Rams were among his most frequent victims, particularly when the spotlight was at its brightest.

While Brady’s record against the Rams was a relatively pedestrian 6-4, including 4-3 in the regular season, different incarnations of the franchise were on the wrong side of his finest hours. Two of his seven championship rings were earned against the Rams, including his first earned through the famous victory at the end of the 2001-02 campaign. The 20-17 Super Bowl XXXVI triumph over the Rams, then based in St. Louis, featured one of the first examples of a Brady comeback, guiding the New England Patriots on a nine-play, 53-yard drive that led to Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal as time expired.

Brady accounted for every yard on the trek, the bulk of it earned through a 23-yard hook-up with Troy Brown that got the Patriots into St. Louis territory. Despite throwing for only 145 yards, Brady earned MVP honors to cap off his improbable debut season as the Patriots’ starter.

“I think about that Super Bowl quite often,” then-Rams quarterback Kurt Warner told USA Today in 2022. ”If there’s one game I think about more than any others ... it’s the game against the Patriots because we didn’t play our best game on that big stage.”

“Not only did you lose that opportunity, but you also know that it started the great Patriots, Tom Brady dynasty,” continued Warner, whose 26-yard equalizer to Ricky Proehl on the previous drive lay forgotten thanks to Brady’s heroics. “You’re always going to be at the beginning of that story.”

The Rams, stationed in their current home of Los Angeles, had a chance for revenge 17 years later when they did battle with New England in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. Though Brady was held in check to the tune of 262 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception, he still played a role in the Rams’ demise with a 29-yard pass to Rob Gronkowski that set up Sony Michel’s two-yard score, the only touchdown of a 13-3 victory.

It was hardly consolation, but that victory was Brady’s only Super Bowl triumph where he did not earn MVP honors, the award instead going to Julian Edelman.

“There’s a reason why he’s arguably one of the greatest of all time,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said in the pregame hype of that latter game. “He does an excellent job of identifying whatever defensive structure you’re in, whether you want to pressure, whether you want to try to put pressure with a four-man rush and play loaded zone or some man principles behind it.”

“He’s got such an ownership on being able to get the ball out of his hand in a timely manner.”

The Rams earned a quantum of revenge en route to a title of their own in last winter’s NFC Divisional playoffs in Tampa Bay. In denying Brady and the Buccaneers consecutive Super Bowl titles, the Rams withstood one of the quarterback’s trademark comeback efforts, shaking off his work in erasing a 27-3 deficit with a Matt Gay field goal as time expired in a 30-27 win. True to form, Brady earned his own vengeance in November, engineering a late comeback to earn a 16-13 victory that partly helped Tampa Bay earn the NFC South division title.”

7 best quarterbacks Rams are scheduled to face in 2023 (ramswire)

“Even though the Rams finished with one of the worst records in football this season, their schedule in 2023 will be a difficult one. It looks particularly challenging when looking at the quarterbacks they’ll face.

Here’s a list of the seven best quarterbacks they’ll go up against next season, though we don’t yet know when each matchup will take place. The NFL will release the schedule sometime this spring, giving us a better idea of how tough the Rams’ slate will be.

Joe Burrow, Bengals

Burrow is one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL, so the Rams will have their hands full again next season when they face him for the second time in three years. Obviously, they managed to beat him and the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI, but that wasn’t Burrow’s fault. His offensive line was putrid.

With even slightly improved pass protection, Burrow should continue to get even better in 2023 and the Bengals will be among the Super Bowl favorites again after back-to-back AFC title game appearances.

Jalen Hurts, Eagles

Hurts really burst onto the scene this year and is an MVP finalist after leading the Eagles to a 14-1 record in his 15 starts. He takes care of the ball better than most quarterbacks, throwing just six interceptions, and his running ability makes him an incredibly difficult player to defend.

This season, he threw for 3,701 yards and rushed for 760, accounting for 35 total touchdowns (22 passing, 13 rushing). With 2023 being his fourth NFL season, there’s no reason to believe he won’t become an even more prolific passer next year.”

NFL Trade Rumors: Would Rams trade for Jonathon Taylor? (fansided/ramblinfan)

“When no team showed enough interest or was willing to meet the LA Rams’ asking price, the Rams reconciled with Akers. From that point on, Akers ran with new determination, very much resembling the promise of his NFL rookie season in 2020.

The Rams are poised to run, but who will carry the pigskin?

The fact that the LA Rams hired Mike LaFleur, a new offensive coordinator with a strong interest in establishing a rushing offense, suggests that Cam Akers is poised to have a career-high season for the LA Rams. Of course, there are other opinions out there. Some have commented that Akers will never carry the football for the LA Rams again. Others believe that Akers’s dispute with McVay disqualifies him as anything more than a rotational contributor on this team.

Even though the Rams and Akers seemed to come to an understanding, are those fans correct? Has Cam Akers already worn out his welcome with the LA Rams? While I don’t believe that to be the case, I cannot rule out the possibility. So what would the Rams do if Akers is no longer in their future plans at the running back position?”