Mike Martz was on the phone a few days after the Super Bowl when Dick Vermeil walked into his office and said, "Congratulations, you're the new head coach of the St. Louis Rams."
"I said, `Maybe we ought to talk about this,' " Martz said with a smile.
Although the Rams had designated Martz as the team's next head coach whenever Vermeil decided to step down, Martz didn't expect it to happen this year.
"I was shocked, surprised," he said. "I really anticipated he'd coach at least one more year."
Martz now finds himself in a pressure situation. There's nowhere to go but down when you're the Super Bowl champion.
Martz, though, said he doesn't feel any pressure.
"I'm excited," he said.
He is the third coach since 1989 to take over a defending Super Bowl champion.
George Seifert piloted the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl title following the 1989 season after Bill Walsh retired.
Barry Switzer went to the NFC title game in his first season in 1994 and won the Super Bowl the next season after taking over the two-time defending champion Dallas Cowboys when Jimmy Johnson split with owner Jerry Jones.
At the annual NFL owners March meetings last week in Palm Beach, Fla., Martz was sounding like a coach who thinks he can live up to the standards they set.
In an era when teams seem to go up and down like an elevator -- three of the previous year's conference finalists didn't even post winning records last year -- Martz says the Rams will continue to contend.
"I think a lot of things affected those teams [Denver, Atlanta and the New York Jets], the injury situations and the retirement of [John] Elway. Knock on wood now, unless we get one of those injuries [to a star player], there's no reason we shouldn't continue to play well," he said.
He added, "We're not in [salary] cap trouble and we've got a young team. That's a good scenario."
He said he expects quarterback Kurt Warner to get a new contract and Trent Green has accepted the backup role for at least one year.
Dealing with success
Despite all the NFL's success -- or maybe because of it -- the league tends to make shortsighted decisions that ignore the best interests of the fans.
Isn't it good for the league to have the Ravens play the Redskins every year? Or to have other geographical rivalries such as the Jets vs. the Giants, the 49ers vs. Raiders, the Rams vs. the Chiefs, Bears vs. the Colts and Houston vs. Dallas?
