Rams News

Coincidences pushed Bunting into coaching
08/12 10:39 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

MACOMB, Ill. -- Playing on Dick Vermeil's Super Bowl team in 1980 is an experience John Bunting will always cherish.
Winning a USFL championship with the Baltimore/Philadelphia Stars in 1984 -- in his last game as a player -- was memorable.
But perhaps the watershed event in Bunting's life occurred in 1987 . . . when he enrolled his son Brooks in golf class.
Turns out the golf instructor was Ted Kershner, football coach for the Glassboro (N.J.) State Profs. Kershner asked Brooks for his father's phone number. One thing led to another, and Bunting reluctantly ended up coaching the defensive line for the Profs.
``I loved playing, but I didn't want to coach,'' Bunting said. ``I didn't want to move from town to town because of my kids. Also, I'd had my share of great coaches, but I'd had my share of bad coaches. Coaches that did not respect players, that did not respect other coaches. And I still run into some of that. I didn't want to fall into that trap. I tried very hard not to coach.''
Oops. Eleven years later, Bunting finds himself coaching in St. Louis, as the Rams co-defensive coordinator along with Peter Giunta. That probably wouldn't have happened had he not enrolled his son in golf class. Nor would he have met his wife, Dawn, who coached Glassboro State's women's basketball and softball teams at the time.
``If I don't go there, I don't meet her,'' Bunting said.
It doesn't matter to Bunting, 48, that Giunta has the added title of assistant head coach, meaning Giunta gets the final say in any disagreements.
``I have never been a superstar,'' said Bunting, who played linebacker for 11 seasons with the Eagles and two seasons with the USFL Stars. ``I have never needed, with the exception of my family, a pat on the back.
``I want to be respected by my head coach when I'm coaching for him. Other than that, I've been to the Super Bowl. I just want to see Roman Phifer get in the playoffs. I want to see Todd Lyght get in the playoffs. I want to see St. Louis fans have winning football again. . . . That's where my ego's at. I want to see us be successful for everybody in this organization, and the town of St. Louis. A large number of players have been getting beaten down as Rams for a long time.''
Bunting has been there before as a player. His first four years in the NFL, the Eagles had losing records. It was something Bunting had never experienced at any level, in any sport.
``Then Dick (Vermeil) came in and changed all that,'' Bunting said. ``He made me a promise when he first came in, which I bet he made to a lot of players. That if you care enough about winning, really make the commitment and the sacrifice, and are good enough to play, you're going to win.
``I believed him. Just like I believe in him now. And it happened. Good things usually don't happen by accident. . . . It's usually not by luck.''
As a linebacker, Bunting got by with intensity, moxie and dedication that helped overcome any physical limitations. Those characteristics helped carry Bunting through a coaching career that included stops with the USFL Stars, Brown University, Glassboro State, the Kansas City Chiefs and now the Rams.
After retiring as a player, Bunting stayed on with the Stars as a coach in 1985, but he thought his future was in the broadcast industry.
The following year, 1986, he coached at Brown University, but only because the school flew him back and forth from Philadelphia to Rhode Island by private jet, so he could maintain his duties as an Eagles radio broadcaster, while coaching the team.
Still, he didn't get bitten by the coaching bug until NCAA Division III Glassboro State came calling. During that '87 season, in which he was paid a little less than $2,000, Bunting said, ``I really fell in love with coaching. When that season was over, I talked to Dick and said, `I enjoy working with these young people. Especially these non-scholarship kids. If I get a head-coaching job at this level, I think I want to do it.' ''
He got that chance the next year, because Kershner retired from coaching. Bunting quickly built Glassboro State -- since renamed Rowan University -- into a small-college power.
His final Profs team made it to the Division III playoff semifinals in 1992, and he ranks that experience right up with his Super Bowl year and his USFL title. The Chiefs came calling in 1993. Brooks, the youngest of their two children, was out of high school by then, so John and Dawn didn't mind leaving the Philadelphia area.
Bunting might still be coaching linebackers in Kansas City had Vermeil not gotten the Rams job.
When Vermeil offered Bunting a job on the Rams staff in 1997, Bunting jumped at the chance.
``There's no other person that I have as much respect for, or that I feel has had as much impact on my life as Dick,'' Bunting said.
Even though he lacks Giunta's New England accent, Bunting is from that part of the country as well -- he's a native of Portland, Maine. And Bunting has one other thing in common with his new co-coordinator: they both were assistants on that Brown coaching staff in 1986.
``It's pretty bizarre,'' Bunting said.

ARCHIVE

HOME