Rams' William Hayes says Jeff Fisher was fired because 'we failed him'

Fans and media may have wanted Fisher fired, but his players felt differently

Perception and reality don't always align. So while it certainly seems reasonable that the Rams would finally, mercifully move on from Jeff Fisher after he amassed a 31-45-1 record in nearly five seasons, Fisher's now-former players feel like they could have done more to save his job.

Rams defensive lineman William Hayes seemed offended when asked if Fisher "lost" the locker room.

"Absolutely not," Hayes said, via the Los Angeles Times. "That's bull. ... Everybody in the locker room loves that guy. I don't want to get personal or throw shots at anybody, but individually, guys didn't do what they're supposed to do. We didn't win the games we should have won. We failed him."

That's one way of looking at it. Hayes began his career in Tennessee in 2008, where Fisher was the coach until 2010. The two reunited with the Rams in 2012. During their time together, Fisher has had one winning season -- in '08, the Titans were 13-3. In the six-plus years since, Fisher is 45-63-1, and on Monday he was let go.

Special teams coordinator John Fassel was named the Rams' interim coach for the final three games.

"I can't stand here and say I support the decision -- that's above my pay grade," Hayes continued. "I'm gonna give 110 percent, but at the end of the day, I thought, personally, [Fisher] did a great job leading this team.

"It's unfortunate because the losses always get put on to the head coach, but the reality is, we [screwed] it up. We messed up a real good situation. We didn't go out there and do what we needed to do. We were inconsistent, we played like [crap], and that's why he doesn't have a job."

Offensive lineman Jamon Brown thanked Fisher "for giving pretty much everyone in this room the opportunity to do what we love to do."

Brown added: "[Fisher] told us how he felt about letting us down, he apologized to us. The vibe from the room was, we really should be apologizing to him, because we didn't do everything that we needed to do to make sure something like this wouldn't happen."

In the short term, Fassel has to try to keep the 4-9 Rams on task until the end of the month.

"I think emotions are good," Fassel said. ... "You just have to find a way to corral them. In this situation, every player on the team has the utmost respect for Coach Fisher, and it has to be a little bit of a rallying cry. We're not going to go to the playoffs, so what are we playing for? We're playing because we love ball, and because we love Coach Fisher."

In the long term, the Rams need to find Fisher's replacement. Jim Harbaugh, Josh McDaniels and Kyle Shanahan have all been mentioned, and now we can add Pete Carroll's name to the wish list?

Yep, that Pete Carroll.

Yahoo.com's Charles Robinson writes, "Multiple sources with insight into the earliest stages of the Rams coaching search said there is a monster name that intrigues the power brokers inside the franchise: the Seattle Seahawks' Pete Carroll."

It ain't happening, but there you go.

In related news: The Rams are also intrigued by Aaron Rodgers, Le'Veon Bell, Julio Jones, Travis Kelce, Richard Sherman and Josh Norman.