Rams Coach Jeff Fisher: I Keep Sports and Politics Separate

Richard Nixon considered the wild idea of adding Vince Lombardi to his presidential ticket in 1968. Any politician harboring similar desires for St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher better rid themselves of them immediately.

Judging by his comments Monday, Fisher might take a Shermanesque stance on any attempt to rope him into politics: “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

“It’s my personal opinion and I firmly believe that it’s important that I keep sports and politics separate,” Fisher told reporters on Monday. His remarks, reported by Stltoday.com’s Jim Thomas, came in the wake of a half dozen of his players performing “hands up, don’t shoot” gestures before and during Sunday’s 52-0 obliteration of the Oakland Raiders at the Edward Jones Dome. The displays expressed solidarity with slain teen Michael Brown, who lost his life in a confrontation with Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson.

Fisher just doesn’t want to talk about it–the stunt. He’ll gladly talk about the game. The coach was positively Belichickian in his tight-lipped response to the controversy embroiling his team.

Fisher insists of the “hands up” poses that he “didn’t know anything about it”–spoken like a natural politician.

“I’m a head coach,” Fisher told journalists. “I’m not a politician, an activist, or an expert on societal issues.”