Jack Faulkner

Bryce Alderton

Costa Mesa resident Jack Faulkner has a good thing going and he is

not about to give it up.

The 78-year-old has spent most of his adult working life with the

NFL’s St. Louis (formerly Los Angeles) Rams, quenching his thirst for

a football fix.

“I’m nothing but a football guy. That is what I love to do,” said

Faulkner, who began his career in the NFL as a defensive backs coach

with the Rams in 1955.

After spending time with San Diego, Denver and Minnesota, Faulkner

returned to the Rams in 1965 and has stayed ever since.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Faulkner has held several jobs

during his NFL tenure including coach, assistant general manager,

director of pro personnel and his current status as administrator of

football operations and pro personnel.

Faulkner scouts the Rams’ next opponent. He reviews film from the

opponent’s previous game and grades every player before submitting

his findings and opinions to coaches.

He reviews both offense and defense, but has a keen eye for

defense, where he patrolled the field as a linebacker at Bordman High

in Youngstown.

“I don’t get into any coaching. I just look at the personnel,”

Faulkner said. “I like working with the players.”

Faulkner traveled to St. Louis for six games this season,

including the NFC Divisional playoff game when the Carolina Panthers

upset the Rams, 29-23, in double overtime.

“That about made me [sick],” Faulkner said of one of the wildest

finishes in NFL history in which each team missed field goals in OT

to win it. The Rams trailed by 11 points with 6:29 in regulation

before tying the game on a Jeff Wilkins field goal, a point of

contention among many observers, who felt head coach Mike Martz

should have gone for the game-winning touchdown instead of settling

for three points.

“It is easy to criticize, but I think Martz lost confidence in

[quarterback Marc Bulger], who threw the interception that set up

Carolina’s winning touchdown drive,” Faulkner said. “That is part of

the game.”

Faulkner is a Rams’ stronghold, still working out of one of the

team’s corporate offices in Santa Ana. The main headquarters is in

St. Louis.

He holds no hard feelings about the move to St. Louis from Anaheim

following the 1994 season.

“It was a great thing for the team. They made lots of money and it

was a big effort on St. Louis’ part to get the team to move,”

Faulkner said. “I would have liked for them to stay, if possible, but

they’ve got a great facility and a good team. We are a [darn] good

team.”

Jeff Brewer, the Rams’ treasurer, has known Faulkner since the

team still called Anaheim home. Every Monday during the season the

two discuss the previous game.

“We’ve been good friends since the 1980s,” Brewer said. “Jack is a

great guy.”

Faulkner’s most memorable moment with the Rams came in 1980, when

they made their first Super Bowl appearance.

“It was a thriller and heartbreaker,” Faulkner said.

The Steelers became the first team to win four Super Bowls with a

31-19 triumph in front of 103,985 fans in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

“We had a chance to win it, but didn’t do it,” Faulkner said.

“That is what happens.”

Faulkner felt a similar sensation in his stomach two years ago

when the New England Patriots won their first Super Bowl by upsetting

the Rams, 20-17, on kicker Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal as

time expired.

“That was a heartbreaker. It drives me crazy,” Faulkner said.

“[Vinatieri] is so valuable. He is right on. That is how valuable a

kicker can be to you. It’s hard to get over [a loss] because some of

those things are so easy to criticize. You [have to] be going for it

all the time to win in this league. You better be good or you will be

gone.”

But with the losing also comes the winning. The Rams held on to

defeat the Tennessee Titans, 23-16, in Super Bowl XXXIV, when

linebacker Mike Jones stopped the Titans’ Kevin Dyson mere inches

from the goal line on the game’s final play.

Faulkner graduated from the University of Miami, Ohio, in 1949 and

joined Sid Gilman’s staff at the University of Cincinnati as a

defensive coach. When Gilman took the head coaching job with the

Rams, Faulkner came along.

“He was one of the guys that could be credited [with developing]

the passing game of today,” Faulkner said. “Sid Gilman started

putting three and four receivers and, now, almost everyone is doing

the same thing.”

Defenses have also changed.

“If a team is in the red zone, I’ve seen teams with two men

rushing and nine guys dropping back for pass coverage,” Faulkner

said. “It depends on personnel and what you can do. Once in a while,

teams will go unbalanced on the line.”

No matter the record, each team is difficult to prepare for in

Faulkner’s mind.

“Every team is so tough,” Faulkner said. “There is so much parity

in the league and that is what [former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle]

wanted. Everyone is taken care of now. There are no real weaklings.”

Faulkner’s wife, Debbie, is a superintendent of a school district

in Yreka, Calif., where the couple spends a few weeks each year.

Faulkner has lived in Costa Mesa for 15 years, a smidgen of the time

he has spent with the blue and gold of the Rams.

“I will go until I am 95, I don’t care. I can’t get out of the

game,” Faulkner said.