Rams coach addresses newly acquired national anthem sitter
Not a single Los Angeles Rams player knelt or sat for the national anthem in 2017. While linebacker Robert Quinn did raise his fist during several anthems as punter Johnny Hekker wrapped his arm around Quinn’s hip in a show of solidarity, the fact remains that in a year where the NFL was plagued with anthem controversy, Hollywood’s football team somehow avoided it.
If anything, the Rams enjoyed the most success the team has had in years, making it to the playoffs for the first time since the 2004 season.
Rams players actually exhibited a fair level of maturity when the overwhelming majority of the league responded to President Donald Trump’s September comments ripping anthem kneelers with renewed protests.
Team leader Andrew Whitworth disagreed with Trump’s comments and supported various forms of protest, but still emphasized how much he wants to honor the American flag.
“It’s our country,” Whitworth told ESPN. “I have a lot of pride in it and the flag and what that’s about and all the people who fought for it. But I also firmly believe that those people fought for freedom. Freedom is a part of protest as well.”
For a club with a 23-year old quarterback and a 32-year old head coach, the Rams have exhibited a surprisingly mature team culture and environment. Now, the team is hoping that the established culture in Los Angeles will be enough to straighten out the talented but hot-headed Marcus Peters.
Peters, 25, was a Pro Bowler and All-Pro First-Team as recently as 2016. But the Kansas City Chiefs have given up on him after a string of incidents both on and off the field.
Notably, Peters sat during the national anthem for virtually every game last year. He eventually started staying in the locker room for the anthem.
The Chiefs even suspended Peters for a game in the middle of the playoff hunt because of an on-the-field incident where Peters threw a penalty flag into the crowd before walking off the field.
Although the trade hasn’t technically been finalized because of league rules, that hasn’t stopped reporters from asking Rams coach Sean McVay about the his newly acquired malcontent.
“Right now, just because of where we’re at in the league year, you can’t make it official, so you have to be careful with some of the tampering,” McVay told The Kansas City Star when questioned about Peters. “But in a quick nugget, he’s a great player.”
That’s a demonstrably true take on Peters’ abilities. The mercurial talent has had the most total interceptions in the league since his rookie year. When his head is straight, Peters is easily a top-three player at his position in the NFL. It’s exceedingly rare for a playoff team like the Chiefs to discard a player as talented as Peters. It’s safe to assume that his antics became too much for the Chiefs to stomach.
So how will the Rams handle Peters? According to McVay, accountability and honesty will be key.
“These are grown men, and it starts with the mutual respect that exists, where they know it’s about developing and building relationships,” McVay said regarding how he would handle Peters. “If we’re going to ask our players to be coachable, we’ve got to be coachable as coaches as well. That displays an ownership and an accountability that we try to all have and makes the players more receptive to the messages we try to implement.”
“They know exactly what the expectations are, what our standards are, and they know what it is to do it the right way,” McVay said.
It’ll be fascinating to see if the established culture of the Rams is enough to straighten out Peters. If it is, then the Rams may have one of the scariest defenses on the face of the planet next year.
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