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The distance the Rams have created between their past and present is sufficient enough to render most of the pain and misery of previous seasons obsolete.
Situated in the thick of an exhilarating division championship and playoff chase, a remade franchise focused on an enviable present and bright future, it’s almost detrimental to peek back on wretched memories.
Almost.
Some things are better served holding onto, though. To be recalled at just the right time, for just the right reasons.
Like, say, the sting, anger and embarrassment of being the collateral damage of a vendetta being carried out between an opposing head coach and his former colleague. And the motivation those feelings will provide Sunday at the Coliseum when the Rams host the New Orleans Saints in a critical showdown between two of the best teams in the NFC.
The Rams have plenty of incentive as it is to win the game.
With the Seahawks nipping at their heels, a victory ensures at least a one-game lead over Seattle in the NFC West. Coming off a loss to the first-place Vikings in Minnesota last week, the Rams can’t afford another confidence-eroding loss against a fellow NFC power. And with the postseason a very real possibility, every win from here on out will assist in getting at least one home playoff game.
But there are even deeper, more personal motivations at play as well.
Like the marker they need to collect from Saints head coach Sean Payton for the way he stuck it to former Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams — who served the same role under Payton from 2009-11 — by running up the score in a 49-21 win over the Rams last year.
It was a humiliating loss to say the least.
“All I remember was I wasn’t playing in the fourth quarter because we were getting beat so bad,” remembers Rams running back Todd Gurley. “So that’s not a good thing.”
But even more so knowing the backstory between Payton and Williams, and how the Rams were unwilling participants in the contentious beef between the two former colleagues.
That is, unless you believed Payton’s explanation for dialing up fourth-quarter trick play with the Saints already holding a 42-21 lead as: “(it) just came up at the right time.”
Considering Payton was laughing on the sideline when the gratuitous double-pass trick play went for a 50-yard touchdown, everyone from New Orleans to Los Angeles knew what was really going on. This was all about Payton’s disdain for Williams, his former assistant. Williams, you’ll remember, was a central figure in the Saints’ infamous “Bountygate” scandal in which defensive players were being paid slush money for everything from downing a punt inside the 10-yard-line to knocking opposing players out of the game. Williams’ role in the illegal activity eventually cost him his job with the Saints, an indefinite suspension and whatever relationship he had left with Payton, who served his own one-year suspension for his part in the drama.
It was well known in New Orleans that Williams and Payton were never on good terms to begin with. The messy breakup only exasperated their ill-will for each other.
All of which made the trick play Payton called, his joy in its success and the delight he got in running up the score on Williams and the Rams so personally satisfying.
Albeit painfully obvious to the Rams.
“Obviously, we had Williams there and Payton was trying to get after him,” Gurley remembered.
That it came at the Rams expense was immaterial. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And considering their ineptness last season, incredibly powerless to do anything about it.
So sit there and take it they did.
Afterward, a few of the prouder Rams promised to remember the feeling of getting caught in the crossfire of the beef between Payton and Williams. And the fury they felt in the pleasure it resulted in on the opposing sideline.
Paths will eventually cross again, they insisted. And a day was bound to arrive in which they were sufficiently equipped to exact their revenge.
Don’t look now, but that day is upon us.
The transformed Rams welcome Payton and the Saints to the Coliseum on Sunday armed with the second-best scoring offense in the NFL, playoff aspirations and a growing confidence level.
And while they won’t blatantly talk about it, you get the sense there’s a debt out there that needs to be collected. If the opportunity presents itself, a little bit of payback is in order.
“That’s always been my philosophy is let’s run the score up,” Gurley said. “I feel like that now. We’ve got a high-powered offense it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve been getting our tails kicked the last 10 years, so let’s do the opposite now.”
There’s a million reasons why the Rams want to win on Sunday.
But some are just a little more personal than others.
