Rams Coach Jeff Fisher knows all the right moves about franchise relocation

Rams Coach Jeff Fisher offers encouragement during the first day of training camp at UC Irvine on July 30.

By Gary Klein

Aug. 1, 2016 5:15 PM PT

As rule, football coaches lead transient lives, moving from city to city, wherever the job takes them.

Rams Coach Jeff Fisher is a different type of nomad.

The NFL’s Houston Oilers hired Fisher in 1994 and he subsequently guided them through stops in Memphis and Nashville en route to their becoming the Tennessee Titans. In their third season after the move, the Titans reached the Super Bowl, and Fisher remained with the franchise through 2010.

The Rams hired Fisher before the 2012 season, and he has served as an experienced point man in the franchise’s return to Los Angeles after more than two decades in St. Louis.

Fisher, 58, is the only head coach in NFL history to be part of two franchise moves and the only one to oversee two teams in five cities.

“I’ve declined several opportunities over the years to do a book on the move from Houston to Nashville,” Fisher said. “Maybe when I’m done, I’ll do a book on both.”

The latest chapter in Fisher’s career started last week as the Rams opened training camp at UC Irvine — after a move from St. Louis to Los Angeles . . . after workouts in Oxnard . . . and before another move to Cal Lutheran, the team’s temporary headquarters in Thousand Oaks, as the franchise prepares for a 2019 transition to a new stadium and home in Inglewood.

Fisher went 7-8-1, 7-9, 6-10 and 7-9 in his first four seasons with the team and critics wonder why the Rams did not turn to a new leader to start a new era. The Rams have not had a winning season since 2003 and last made the playoffs in 2004.

But former Titans players who transitioned from Houston to Tennessee under Fisher know he’s the one they’d want directing the moving vans.

“He’s the perfect guy to do it,” said Blaine Bishop, an Oilers and Titans safety from 1993 to 2001. “He’s a players’ coach and great at communication. If anybody can do it twice, he’s the man.”

Said tight end Frank Wycheck, who played under Fisher from 1995 to 2003: “There is no one better than Jeff to handle that transition. He just has a great personality and a great way to build up your confidence, and doesn’t allow that kind of noise to get in the locker room.”

After the NFL approved the Rams’ move from St. Louis in January this year, Fisher led a March team meeting in Manhattan Beach and prepared the players for nine weeks of off-season workouts and organized team activities in Oxnard in April, May and June.

They will be in Irvine for about six weeks before moving to Cal Lutheran, where they are constructing a temporary practice facility that will be home for at least the next three seasons. A permanent practice facility also is expected to be built in the region.

The Rams will play the next three seasons at the Coliseum before moving into a $2.6-billion stadium in Inglewood.

“I don’t think a head coach could have handled this year better than Jeff has handled it,” said Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer and vice president of football operations. “He helped us prioritize . . . Having Jeff gave us a blueprint of how we wanted to do it and made the process that much easier.”

There was nothing easy about Fisher’s first move with the Oilers, who were owned by the late Bud Adams.

Fisher said he is forever indebted to the Adams family for giving him the opportunity to become a head coach, but there are differences in the way Adams and Rams owner Stan Kroenke approached — and funded — the moves.

The Oilers set up temporary quarters in Bellevue, Tenn., outside Nashville. Their facility included a compound of dilapidated trailers.

“When Bud decided that he wasn’t going to put up a satellite dish at our temporary facility because he wanted it at his home,” Fisher said, “and I had to run out to a sports bar and see if I could get a satellite feed of an upcoming opponent and copied on VHS because we didn’t have an advance scouting department — it’s a little different.

“The money, the investment that Stan has made on each stop along the way, has been great from our standpoint. Just to be first class and making sure that the players have every opportunity to be successful.”

The Oilers left Houston after the 1996 season. They played their home games in 1997 at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, about 200 miles from where they trained outside Nashville.

“In the first preseason game, there was a dude in a tank top holding a turkey leg, a Fred Flintstone brontosaurus-sized turkey leg,” Wycheck recalled. “I was thinking, ‘What in the world is this guy eating?’”

Crowds were so small, Wycheck recalled, that before games an assistant coach could chat with his wife seated 20 rows up from the field.

And the Oilers did not enjoy much of a home-field advantage.

It rained during one game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Many in what was already a pro-Steelers crowd donned yellow rain jackets.

“It looked like it was all Steelers fans,” Bishop said. “It felt like they ( were playing at home.”

The Oilers flew to their games in Memphis, but family members had to drive back and forth.

“I would have dinner ready for my family in the kitchen,” Fisher said, “before they were done with their drive back.”

The 1998 season was not much better. The Oilers played home games at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and finished 8-8 for the second year in a row.

“Fisher just never really brought up moving or excuses,” Bishop said. “We were a middle-of-the road team in that span and he just kept us focused and did a good job of drafting.”

The Tennessee Oilers were rechristened the Titans in 1999 and moved into brand new Adelphia Coliseum. They won the AFC title before losing to the Rams in the Super Bowl. Fisher’s popularity soared as the team put together consecutive 13-3 seasons.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a coach be such a rock star in the city,” Wycheck said.

Fisher coached 14 seasons in Tennessee before he and the Titans parted ways after a 6-10 finish in 2010.

A year later the Rams hired Fisher, who has ended up in the middle of another move. This time, Fisher has an advantage beyond his experiences with the Oilers/Titans — he has returned home. Fisher grew up in the San Fernando Valley and played defensive back at USC.

“The fact that we didn’t have to introduce him to Los Angeles has been a big plus,” Demoff said. “You don’t get questions like, ‘How far is that from here? How long is it going to take to get there?’

“Being a native and having grown up here makes a big difference.”

The players have noticed.

“He did a great job explaining everything,” rookie receiver Pharoh Cooper said upon his arrival at Irvine this week. “We knew we were going to have to do a lot of moving when we first got drafted. He’s handled it pretty well.”

Said two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald: “He did it before and knew what to expect, how to handle things so it made our jobs easier.”

It will be “kind of cool” to have coached two teams in five cities, Fisher said, but he is focused on getting the Rams ready for the season and is aware of expectations that come with playing in Los Angeles. Being the only coach to help move two NFL franchises is more an answer to a trivia question than a highlight on a resume.

“I asked someone, ‘Does that give me a chance to get in the Hall of Fame?’” Fisher said, laughing. “I don’t want to tell you what their answer was.”

It was pretty obvious.

“We’ve got to win,” he said.