‘My roots are there’: This Rams fan in KC knows Vermeil should represent Philly in HOF
Dick Vermeil helped bring joy to football fans in my hometown of St. Louis. He revived a listless program in Kansas City. But he cut his teeth in Philadelphia. The former Chiefs head coach made the correct choice to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, as an Eagle.
There is no finer place than Kansas City, Vermeil told me Tuesday. But Philly is home for Vermeil, who became coach of the Eagles in 1976 and led the team to a Super Bowl appearance after the 1981 season. His children attended high school there and 11 grandchildren were born in the the City of Brotherly Love.
“My roots are there,” Vermeil said.
For years, Vermeil brought joy to football fans across Missouri. As head coach in St. Louis, he led the moribund Rams franchise to a Super Bowl title after the 1999 season. The Rams quarterback was Kurt Warner, a former Arena Football League player and stocker at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Iowa. Keep in mind, football’s Dicky V. stepped away from coaching in 1982 due to burnout. He resurfaced 15 years later in St. Louis in 1997 and won a Super Bowl championship two years after that.
A five-year tenure in Kansas City followed. Vermeil ushered in a pass-happy attack that was a departure from the team’s run-heavy, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust scheme under previous coaches Marty Schottenheimer and Gunther Cunningham, beloved figures in Kansas City.
Vermeil’s Chiefs, led by quarterback Trent Green, was one of the NFL’s most dynamic offensive teams during that time.
But Vermeil is best known as the former college coach at UCLA who led the 1981 Eagles to an appearance in the Super Bowl. He coached in Philly for seven seasons. He reserves the right to represent the Eagles as a Hall of Fame coach. His contributions in St. Louis and Kansas City could never be forgotten. Football fans here were lucky to call one of the game’s best coaches of all time one of our own.
