Jeff Fisher at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl game at the Rose Bowl last year. ( Jordon Kelly / Getty Images)
The man whose firing led to the Sean McVay era with the Rams has been tabbed to breathe life into the wobbly Arena Football League.
Jeff Fisher, a longtime NFL coach and executive with deep Southern California ties, said Tuesday that he replaced AFL commissioner Lee Hutton III and became interim commissioner. Fisher is president of football operations for the Nashville Kats, one of 10 teams still operating in the league that began play April 27.
The AFL relaunched this spring with 16 teams five years after it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2019. But it soon became clear that several franchises weren’t going to last. The Minnesota Myth, Philadelphia Soul, Iowa Rampage and Georgia Force folded in the last few weeks.
“This league is good,” Fisher said. “We’re looking forward to continuing and finishing the season.”
Fisher, 66, grew up in the San Fernando Valley, playing youth football for the Reseda Rams before starring at Taft High in Woodland Hills. He played on the 1978 USC national championship team in 1978 and played four years in the NFL after the Chicago Bears drafted him in 1981.
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Coaching was his true calling, and by 1991 he was back in L.A. as defensive coordinator of the Rams under John Robinson, who had been his coach at USC.
Fisher became head coach of the Houston Oilers at age 36 in 1994, and led the team to the Super Bowl after the 1999 season in their third year after they relocated to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans.
Following a 17-year stint with that franchise, Fisher was hired by the St. Louis Rams in 2012, saying, “I’m really excited that the Rams are the best fit for me. I hope I’m the best fit for the Rams.”
He wasn’t, slogging through four losing seasons before the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 2016. While it marked a homecoming for…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/afl-teams-folding-league-names-182445662.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-05-15 18:24:45
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