National Football League

Rams COO says former HC, current Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo deserves second chance

Published Feb. 13, 2024 7:33 p.m. ET

Steve Spagnuolo just won his fourth Super Bowl ring as a defensive coordinator, continuing to elevate his track record in that role into one of the best in NFL history. Not only has the beloved coach known as "Spags" been an integral part of all three of the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl titles over the past five seasons, including their 25-22 overtime victory against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, but he also coordinated the New York Giants defense that famously upset NFL MVP Tom Brady and the then-undefeated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2008.

This past season, Spagnuolo's retooled Chiefs defense was the team's strength at several points, as the usually dominant Kansas City offense designed by head coach Andy Reid and led by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce often sputtered before coming alive when needed most. Star pass-rusher Chris Jones returned from an early-season holdout to anchor the team's defensive line, while young cornerback Trent McDuffie took a star turn of his own to lead one of the NFL's stingiest secondaries.

The Chiefs ranked second in both total defense and scoring defense this past season and ended it with another championship, but Spagnuolo got zero head coaching interviews this past cycle, and his name has rarely come up as a head coaching candidate over the past several years.

A big presumed reason for this is his struggles as head coach of the then-St. Louis Rams from 2009-2011, during which Spagnuolo went 10-38 over three seasons.

But after both Jones and former Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill advocated for Spagnuolo to get more head coach interest in recent days, Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff added his voice to the "In Spags We Trust" crowd. Demoff, who started his role with the Rams in 2009, the same year Spagnuolo started there, said the circumstances around the team at the time were set up for failure and Spagnuolo did not get a "real shot."

As Demoff pointed out, the Rams were in the midst of turmoil and transition when Spagnuolo joined the team. Spagnuolo was hired in January 2009 — five months later, co-majority owners Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, who had inherited the team when their mother Georgia Frontiere died in 2008, put the team up for sale. Demoff joined the Rams weeks after Spagnuolo did, and former minority owner Stan Kroenke did not finalize his purchase of Rosenbloom's and Rodriguez's majority stake until August 2010.

In other words, Spagnuolo walked into what Demoff described in a series of posts on X Tuesday was an organizational mess on several levels.

Demoff went on to call the state of the Rams when Spagnuolo arrived as an "awful situation" and blamed himself for not helping the then-coach fix the broader issues as much as he could have.

It's not the first time this offseason Demoff has been vocal about a head coaching candidate he thought was being underrated. In January, Demoff publicly and repeatedly vouched for then-Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to get a head coaching opportunity, both on X and in a podcast interview with FOX Sports reporter Peter Schrager.

The lobbying from Demoff, Rams general manager Les Snead and others seemed to pay off as the Atlanta Falcons hired Morris as their head coach over several other candidates including legendary ex-Patriots coach Bill Belichick in late January.

Morris, who was previously head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is one of three to get their second NFL head coaching opportunity this cycle, along with the Washington Commanders' Dan Quinn and Los Angeles Chargers' Jim Harbaugh. Time will tell if Spagnuolo will eventually get his own second chance — or, to hear Demoff tell it, his first "real shot."

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