Awaiting Hall of Fame enshrinement, Dick Vermeil talks Dennis Quaid, Joe Burrow, Tim Couch, more
Ten quick notes on Class of 2022 Hall of Famer Dick Vermeil.
- The Cleveland Browns returned to the NFL as an expansion team in 1999, the year Dick Vermeil won the Super Bowl as head coach of the Rams.
The Rams earned their nickname, "The Greatest Show on Turf," at about the time they beat the Browns 34-3 to improve to 6-0. Tim Couch, the No. 1 pick of the 1999 draft, fell to 0-5 as the Browns' starting QB.
"I thought Tim was going to be a good player," Vermeil said. "Did they have the right supporting cast? Did they have the offensive line to be what he needed to be? The quarterback needs the right cast around him more so than any position."
Kurt Warner, the Rams' new starting quarterback that year, played behind Hall of Fame left tackle Orlando Pace, the No. 1 overall pick of the 1997 draft.
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- In talking about the 1999 game against Cleveland, Vermeil remembers Marshall Faulk as a running back who could weave magic without a line.
"Marshall raced around for a 33-yard touchdown in that one," Vermeil said. "I turned to our line coach, Jim Hanifan, and said, 'Jim, we didn't block anybody.'"
Faulk was NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
- If Vermeil took over a team now and could have any current quarterback, Cincinnati's Joe Burrow would be his pick.
"He has no equal," Vermeil said. "I've never seen a quarterback come out of college throwing the football as accurately as he throws it. He throws a ball that is so easy to catch. He throws the ball so accurately that an average receiver is going to catch a lot of balls."
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- Actor Dennis Quaid played Vermeil in "American Underdog," which hit theaters on Christmas Day last year.
"He did a very good job, probably a better job of being me than I do," Vermeil said.
The movie portrays the ascent of Kurt Warner from undrafted reject to winning a Super Bowl in the 1999 season, with Vermeil as his head coach. Warner is played by Zachary Levi.
In a 2006 football movie, "Invincible," Greg Kinnear plays Vermeil as head coach of the Eagles. Mark Wahlberg stars as Vince Papale, a 30-year-old Philadelphia bartender who fought his way to a roster spot.
- Football movies don't draw like The Avengers. In a recent check of Box Office Mojo, the domestic grosses of "Invincible" and "American Underdog" were $57.8 million and $26.5 million, respectively. "Draft Day," the Browns-based 2014 film starring Kevin Costner, was at $28.8 million.
- Vermeil was an underdog in his own right as a player. He was a high school quarterback in Calistoga, California, a small town 70 miles northeast of the Golden Gate Bridge. He first played college ball at Napa Valley, about 10 miles from his home.
Vermeil transferred to San Jose State, 110 miles downstate, and, in his only year as a starter, 1957, threw for one touchdown and nine interceptions on a team that went 3-7. He went out in style, winning 12-0 at Hawaii in the final game of his career.
- Warner wasn't the only underdog who played quarterback for Vermeil.
The list of his primary starters when he was an NFL head coach includes (1976-82 with the Eagles) Mike Boryla and Ron Jaworski; (1997-99 with the Rams) Tony Banks, Steve Bono and Warner; (2001-05 with the Chiefs) Trent Green.
Jaworski (No. 37 overall draft pick, 1973), Boryla (No. 87 overall, 1974), Warner (undrafted, 1994), Banks (No. 42 overall, 1996), Bono (No. 142 overall, 1985) and Green (No. 222 overall, 1993) all arrived as down-the-line prospects.
Vermeil's only other starter was No. 2 overall draft pick Roman Gabriel, but that was when Gabriel was 36 years old and on his last legs, in Vermeil's first year with the Eagles.
- Vermeil's ability to get playoff-style work out any quarterback is a big reason he made it to the Hall of Fame.
The Eagles reached the postseason in four of Jaworski's first five seasons as the starter. Before Vermeil's arrival, Philadelphia had been in the postseason once in 27 years.
Warner was 28 when he made his first NFL start in 1999. Warrner, Vermeil and the Rams won that season's Super Bowl.
Green was 8-11 as an NFL starter before Vermeil brought him to the Chiefs in 2001. In 2003, Green beat the Browns 41-20 in a game that got the Chiefs to 9-0.
- Vermeil first sought to turn Trent Green into a starter in 1999, when he brought in the 29-year-old veteran as a free agent. Green's preseason knee injury forced Vermeil to use then-unknown Warner.
In 2001, as the new head coach of the Chiefs, Vermeil traded a No. 12 overall draft pick to acquire Green.
Green was the only starting QB Vermeil had for the next five seasons, which produced records of 6-10, 8-8, 13-3, 7-9 and 10-6.
- Both NFL teams from Pennsylvania took shots at former Youngstown State quarterbacks in 1977. Vermeil's Philadelphia team obtained fourth-year pro Ron Jaworski in a trade. Pittsburgh spent a fifth-round draft pick on Cliff Stoudt.
Vermeil got Philadelphia to its first Super Bowl in 1980, when Jaworski was second in league MVP voting to Cleveland's Brian Sipe. Stoudt's year in the sun was 1983, when Terry Bradshaw spent his last NFL season mired in injuries. Stoudt started all but one game for a team that went 9-6.
Vermeil left coaching to be a network analyst in 1983, when he was replaced by one of his assistants, Marion Campbell. Jaworski stayed on at QB on a team that went 5-11.
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil loves Bengals Joe Burrow
