One great Ram player passing the torch to another great Ram player.
Deacon Jones to Jack Youngblood. Tom Mack to Dennis Harrah. And Ken Iman to RICH SAUL.
made by fearsome foursome
When Jack Youngblood, Pat Haden, Fred Dryer talk about Rich Saul. It is clear that Rich was a better person than a football player.
If that is true, he must be one hell of a guy because he was a GREAT player.
Celebrating the NFC championship win in 1979
Here is Vince praising his offensive line in a Super Bowl XIV postgame interview LISTEN Here is the great John Facenda talking about the 1977 Los Angeles Rams offensive line LISTEN
Rich doing what he did best
To the 38 writers who vote for the NFL Hall of Fame. Do your vote some justice. Get every playoff game from every player considered for the HOF and see who beats who in the trenches.
If you do that, Rich Saul belongs in Canton. In 7 years, Saul was the starting center in 12 playoffs games. Out of those 12 games, the Rams offensive line lost one battle. That was the NFC championship game in 1975 against the Cowboys. I was at that game and Dallas was so hot they would of made God punt.
I know what those voters are going to ask "Well, why didn't the Rams they win?". When you spot either Dallas or Minnesota 17 points by turnovers and blocked FG attempts.If those great Steeler teams did that, they wouldn't be great.
Listen to these words and check his probowls and see who dominated who in those playoff games. LISTEN
Rich played his entire career for the Los Angeles Rams. During those 12 seasons he played several positions, all on the offensive line: guard, tackle, and center. His versatility earned him the nickname "Supe," or "Super-sub" by the mid-1970s.
"You have to feel dedication, determination, self-sacrifice, and pride. You have to love to compete daily, you have to want to rise to the occasion, and you have to do your best in the fourth quarter. You run the last 110 yards faster than the first 110, even though you're dying.
"Why? Because ever since you're a kid, you love that total release, that feeling of wanting to win. Those kinds of feelings have to be part of you.
"You look back on your years in football, and you remember that you sweat, you bled, you laughed, you cried, you did it all. Every week you were going into battle, counting on the next guy. It's something which you just have to experience."
Rich talked briefly about his surgery at MSU in 1968. But he remembers having his knee hurt a week earlier in the Notre Dame game, a 21-17 victory. Then against Ohio State, he was clipped after a play ended. They carried him off, Doctor Johnson performed his complex surgery, and Rich was determined to play the `69 season and graduate with his class. He did both, and he´s still grateful to Johnson. Projected earlier as a first-round pick, Rich was chosen in the eighth round, due to his 1969 operation. "NFL football wasn't so specialized then. We had 40-man rosters, and George Allen didn't keep many rookies. He didn't like `rookie mistakes,´ which cost you wins. "George's system was complicated, but I was a Scholastic All-American, and I studied it and learned it. I was a `crazy guy´ that first year. Our assistant coach, Marv Levy, charted the special teams, and I made 51 tackles in 14 games on kicks."Later, I became the regular center, but I still played on special teams. Then I began making the Pro Bowl, and I played in the Pro Bowl my last six seasons, 1976 through 1981." The six-time All-Pro also observed, "In the Seventies, 90% of the revenue came from the fans. Today, less than 30% of revenue comes from the fans. It's television. I liked it better when you had to play for the fans, when the players were more involved with the fans. "But I enjoyed our `iron-man´ football. I played with a lot of great guys such as Merlin Olsen. Today it´s more specialized. Maybe a Dick Butkus or a Joe Schmidt wouldn´t play as much today."
Since retiring from football, Rich has worked in banking, in real estate, and with arena football. He likes the arena game: it is designed for players to give an all-out effort and to be more involved with the fans. "Life is about giving back," Rich commented.
"There are four quarters in life. In the first quarter, you grow up and learn from your parents and coaches. In the second, you break away from your parents and work on your career. In the third, you concentrate on your family and your friends. Finally, in the fourth quarter, you go into your twilight years and you say, `What have I accomplished?´ Your success in each quarter depends on how well you played the previous quarter. "Right now I'm enjoying the third quarter--make no excuses, make no mistakes, make no waves."
FOOTBALL: Newport Beach resident, whose cancer is in remission, cherishes each day, this one with former Rams. By Jessica Irizarry NEWPORT BEACH — One of the toughest Rams of all time, Rich Saul, came to support the latest Mr. Irrelevant, David Vobora.
The Daily Pilot caught up with Saul, a Newport Beach resident, at the Lowsman Trophy Banquet and Rams Reunion at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa Wednesday night.
Question: What do you think of this whole experience with Irrelevant Week and being back here?
Answer: It’s a great opportunity for Dave to be the Irrelevant guy. It’s big for sports, it’s good for Orange County for sports. It’s a good time to get together with some of the ball players, former ball players.
Q: How does it feel to be back here with your old teammates being able to reunite with them?
A: It’s always good because at the end of the day we played football but the real things that lasted was the camaraderie. A lot of these guys we laughed together, we cried together at different games, wins losses, we sweated, we bled and we hurt. It’s hard to describe. It’s camaraderie. You’re going out to do battle in those games. You have the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dallas Cowboys and you go out to battle it’s nice to know somebody has your back. You’re going out in front of 80 million people, 100 million people are watching instant replays and there is a lot of pressure. It’s just like the military, being in a fox hole with guys, unless you’ve been there, the average person can’t really grasp that until you’ve been part of it.
Q: Do you keep in touch with any of your old teammates?
A: Oh yeah I keep in touch with Jack [Youngblood] … Dennis Harrah and Tom Mack. I get to see them once or twice a year and Lawrence McCutcheon, it’s always good to see him, ‘Double Clutch.’ Just all the guys, Jackie Slater, a real solid ball player. There is an unspoken camaraderie, a togetherness, we did battle together, and we were teammates, part of a team.
Q: What can Vobora bring to the Rams?
A: He has his work cut out for him. There is no All-Tokyo team after the NFL and these are the greatest guys in the world. There is nobody going to be out there with a red shirt and a white beard giving him anything, this will not be Christmas. I think he’ll learn it and I would encourage him not to get hurt being a rookie, he can’t get hurt and don’t make mistakes, mistakes will kill you. It’s all right to make a mistake but don’t make the same one twice. Try to be an example to young people. Just go out there and do your best and hopefully things will work out and he’ll make the team. <> Q: I hear you have leukemia and you’re still fighting against that, how is that going for you?
A: It’s good. I’m in remission, I’ve had three different kinds of cancers, from colon cancer and leukemia ramped up, but I have good doctors and they keep an eye on me. I go in about every three months to get checked and watch things. It keeps your feet firmly planted on the ground, on solid ground not dangling in mid air. I’m not kidding myself. There is nobody getting out of here alive in these bodies.
God gives you today and I’m enjoying each day that he gives me. And it is fun to give back and I want to make sure I do that.
Q: You’re a motivational speaker, where do you go and what do you talk about?
A: I talk to different groups, different church groups about Christ, and what he has done in my life. And I’ll talk to the kids, like football teams. And I go and talk to different football teams up in Washington, they asked me to come and different things about trying to give back, tell them about some of the experiences that I’ve had and what I think is important in life.
Q: What do you think is important in life?
A: First of all, I think Christ. You need to have that, life’s tough. Life’s tough with Christ, life’s tough without Christ. With Christ, you have a purpose and hope. Without Christ, people don’t have Christ and life’s just tough. I don’t know how they do it. When you get a lump on your arm or your kid gets hit and you don’t know if he is going to make it or not, I don’t know how they do it without Christ.
And then I think family. Family is very, very important. I love my kids, my son graduated from Northwestern and my daughter from Norte Dame, they are both doing extremely well and I’m proud of them. My wife, she is a sweetheart and she works with me. We’ve been together 43 years, 39 married and dated four. I think that’s important and I don’t make excuses
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