Mother calls Rams' Jeff Fisher about language used on 'Hard Knocks'

BySteve Dilbeck ESPN logo
Thursday, August 11, 2016

IRVINE, Calif. - And yet another lesson to be learned when your near every move and sentence is being recorded for public consumption.

Mom is watching.

Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher learned that after the first episode of the HBO "Hard Knocks" documentary series aired Tuesday night, capturing him using some R-rated language. The next day came a phone call.

"I got one of these yesterday, 'Jeffrey!'" Fisher said. "This is from mom. So I said, 'Sorry, mom. That's our world. I'll try to do better.'"

"When I hear 'Jeffrey!' It's uh-oh. Something went wrong."

The segment in question captured Fisher addressing the Rams in a morning meeting before the second day of practice. In the opening practice, star receiver Tavon Austin had been carted off when he cramped up after only eating two bananas at lunch. Then he cut receiver Deon Long for having a female guest in his room.

"Little things are important, you follow me?" Fisher said. "I am not f---ing going 7-9 or 8-8 or 9-7, OK? Or 10-6 for that matter. This team is too talented. I am not going to settle for that, OK? I know what I am doing. We had some 7-9 bulls--- this morning. Now, Deon's gone. That is 7-9 bulls---. We don't need it."

The Rams went 7-9 last season. Some wondered just how far he would continue his countdown, how high his expectations for this team.

"Part of the whole process is inviting them in to the meeting rooms," Fisher said Thursday. "But there are spontaneous things that come up, that as coaches, you have to go and address. So I addressed something that took place in the morning and wanted to get my point across. People can read into whatever they want. But that was me talking to the team as if the cameras weren't there. I was OK with what I said.

"I stopped at that point. I could have gone on. You don't know that I didn't go on because there's an edit guy there. So there's a lot of stuff that takes place that is edited."

Just not exactly for mom.