Rams News

Armey aims for the right mix
07/25 07:28 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

MACOMB, Ill. -- Charley Armey and Dick Vermeil have known each other for decades through the football circuit. And the cocktail circuit.
Armey was defensive coordinator at Colorado State 20 years ago, when Vermeil was coaching the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles and Miami had been trying to sign one of his players. Armey had nudged the player toward Vermeil.
Perhaps to show his gratitude, Vermeil invited Armey to Philadelphia for a few days.
``I attended one of Dick's parties, and his bartender didn't show up,'' Armey recalled. ``So I tended bar for him.''
What kind of a bartender was Armey?
``Not very good,'' Armey said, laughing. ``But they didn't notice. At least he knew I could do something.''
These days, Armey's duties for Vermeil extend beyond mixing a dry martini. Instead of being the life of the party, Armey's trying to put some life into a sagging franchise. As the Rams' vice president of player personnel, Armey is the point man, the coordinator, of all player acquisitions, be they through the draft or free agency.
``The head coach is extremely busy,'' Armey said. ``When he makes a decision on a football player -- and it ultimately boils down to what Dick wants to do -- you've got to provide him with the best possible information you can.''
Armey was hired by the Rams after the '97 draft -- from New England -- to head the team's pro personnel department only. At that time, John Becker oversaw the entire personnel department -- college and pro. Becker ultimately decided to return to his area of greatest expertise -- college scouting.
So Armey took over the VP of player personnel title, and duties, from Becker. Becker returned to the director of college scouting duties he held with the Rams before Vermeil's arrival.
``It was John's decision, not mine,'' Vermeil said. ``I went along with his decision.''
The change was announced very quietly late last season, which seems to suit Armey's style. He doesn't care much for the spotlight. His brother, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), gets enough of that for the entire family. Especially a family from Cando, N.D., a town of 1,500 not far from the Canadian border.
``It's the durum wheat capital of the world,'' Armey said.

Long and winding road
Armey's father Glenn was a farmer who ran a grain elevator, and also delivered coal in the winter. His mother Marion graduated from college at age 17.
As a senior at Cando High, Armey was told by the high school superintendent to find a job working on a farm because he was not capable of going to college.
Hah!
First came a stint in the Navy as a sonar operator. Armey saw duty in the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuban missile crisis. Next came college. He played football at Valley City (N.D.) State. He was more politically active in college than his brother Dick, once debating North Dakota Gov. Bill Guy on the merits of the Vietnam War.
``I held my own,'' Armey said.
He got a master's degree at North Dakota State, and was headed to law school and perhaps his own career in politics. But he was married by then, and had bills to pay. He bypassed law school for a job teaching and coaching at Graceville (Minn.) High.
Thus began a long and winding road in football that took him to North Dakota State, Montana Tech, the University of Montana, and Colorado State as a coach.
In 1978, he switched from coaching to personnel -- and from the college ranks to the NFL -- when hired by Chuck Knox to scout the west for the Buffalo Bills. Stints followed with Denver, Memphis, and Chicago in the now-defunct United States Football League. In the NFL, he worked with Green Bay, Atlanta, New England and now St. Louis.
Along the way, Armey worked with Knox, Marv Levy, Bill Parcells, Ron Erhardt, Forrest Gregg and now Vermeil.
``You're talking about some high-powered guys,'' Armey said. ``All these guys have been successful, and all of them may be a little bit different in ideas and philosophies. They all have influenced my thinking.''
So did Norm Pollom, a longtime NFL personnel man who helped Armey get that first pro football job with Buffalo.
``Norm never let emotion get in the way of a personnel decision,'' Armey said. ``He knew how to evaluate the player for what he was. I learned from him how to deal with pressure situations. He was a master at it.''
There were plenty of pressure situations in New England. In less than seven years there, Armey watched the Pats go through four owners and four head coaches. While Parcells took most of the bows for the Patriots' resurgence in the mid '90s, Armey had an influential role in drafts that landed the likes of Drew Bledsoe, Curtis Martin, Willie McGinest and Chris Slade.
But Armey went from running the drafts to working for Bobby Grier -- a man who once worked for him. The latest Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, decided to elevate Grier.
``I wasn't forced out,'' Armey said. ``I could have stayed there as the director of college scouting probably as long as I wanted to. I had a great relationship with the owner. And a good relationship with Bobby Grier. Bobby's very capable, so I didn't have any problem with it.''
As Armey has said on more than one occasion: ``That's the way this business goes. One year you're the head coach, and the next year you're somebody else's assistant.''

Bringing order from chaos
Then the Rams came calling. Armey came highly recommended by Becker, whose opinion Vermeil values highly. When Armey was hired, the Rams' pro personnel department was a mess, -- plain and simple.
``We really, for all intents and purposes, didn't have one,'' Vermeil said. ``There wasn't a written report (on pro personnel). Not a single written report that I could find. OK?''
Armey is attempting to bring some order to that chaos.
``Charley brings a system,'' Vermeil said. ``There's a lot of administration involved in being personnel director -- a lot of things to understand, a lot of rules to know that I don't know. So I lean on Charley for those reasons, too. Because he hasn't been out of the league 14 years (like Vermeil). He's been in it.''
Armey isn't about to criticize what preceded both he and Becker's brief regime.
``I'm not into evaluating what they did and didn't do here,'' Armey said. ``I do know that I've got a very good system that's very disciplined, and it covers all the bases. It gives you a chance to make good decisions.''
Armey wants to continue putting that system in place and maintain some continuity. He wants to help build a roster that reflects Vermeil's personality, his thinking, his way of doing things. That means acquiring players who are ``effort'' guys. Production and character are perhaps as important as height, weight, and speed in this player evaluation formula.
``This team is evolving that way,'' Armey said.
It's too early to judge Armey's performance. But if nothing else, the Rams finally have a clue in pro personnel. Not to mention a tireless source of Bill Clinton jokes, with impeccable connections in Washington.
Never mind the football, ``I also want to know what's going on in the White House,'' said Vermeil, a card-carrying Republican.

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