January 30th, 2006

That's what I thought when I first heard his name being on the list as a prospect and then when it happened I about fell flat on my face.

And I'm sure some of you out there probably had about the same reaction when you first heard the news. After all, we as Rams fans recall this guy not just disliking but apparently loathing our beloved Rams.

Here's a guy who didn't care what he said about our team, didn't care how much he showed his dislike for our team, via the press or on the sidelines. After all this is a guy we'd see coaching against our team with almost the look of pure venom on the sidelines.

Man that's a hard picture to get out of your mind. That's a sour taste to try and remove from your mouth!

And now he's our defensive coordinator? Hard one to swallow isn't it?

But after further review and reading a lot about the guy, especially while he was with the Steelers as their DC. It raises ones eyebrows and makes you think this young, confident head coach we have, may actually know what he's doing.

Haslett, while with the Steelers didn't have much more to work with in Pittsburgh than he probably has here in St. Louis, no superstars, just average to a little above average players and he created a tough, no nonsense defense that's still being implemented to this day by the Steelers.

Another aspect of Haslett is that we all know is how intense he is, how fired up he can get along with the fact he will not allow his players to be soft. You won't see finese coming from this guy.

When you think of Haslett in this way, in what he can bring to our defense, you finally see the light and begin to understand completely why he was chosen. He was chosen to jump start this defensive unit. He was chosen to bring a mean attitude to this group. He was chosen to toughen this group of guys up and to implement a system that has worked before and one that the defense will more than likely buy into. As compared to the soft, often "I have no idea what I'm doing" type of defense that Marmie tried to so poorly administer.

We need to erase the old memories of Haslett and allow him the chance to help create the new era of the St. Louis Rams.

It's time for change and it's coming. We need to embrace it and learn to grow with it, just as our team will need to do as well.

~Lovemyrams~