St. Louis Rams send Coach Steve Spagnuolo and General Manager Billy Devaney packing – NFL News
St. Louis Rams Owner Stan Kroenke has fired Coach Steve Spagnuolo and General Manager Billy Devaney after a disappointing season that ended with a defeat on Sunday.
Spagnuolo spent three years with the franchise while Devaney had a four-year stay.
A statement from Kroenke on Monday said that all the decisions were made in the interest of the franchise.
"I would like to personally thank Steven and Billy for their dedication to the St. Louis Rams over the past several seasons. This was a difficult decision for many reasons. We have tremendous respect for Steve and Billy as people and football professionals.
... However, we believe it’s in the best interest of the St. Louis Rams to make these changes as we continue our quest to build a team that consistently competes for playoffs and championships."
Under Spagnuolo, the Rams played 48 games, but managed to win only 10. In his first year as head coach in 2009, the franchise only won one game and lost 15.
The next year, Spag led the Rams relatively well and recorded seven wins. However, current season proved to be a disaster. The Rams finished at the bottom of the National Football Conference West division after being defeated 14 times.
Spag had earlier said that he had no intentions of leaving the franchise and said that he wanted to win the Super Bowl for the franchise. But things did not go his way.
On the other hand, Devaney’s four years with the Rams earned them only 12 wins whereas they were defeated 52 times.
After his dismissal, Devaney thanked the franchise’s current and previous owners for hiring him and lauded the fans for their support.
Meanwhile, Kroenke has said that it is unjust to blame any one person for the team’s slump. After firing the coach and the general manager with one year left on their contracts, the owner was of the view that everyone should be held accountable for the failures.
He asserted that the interest of the franchise is always considered when making such decisions and vowed to introduce those administrators who would contribute towards making the Rams a better team.
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