We usually skip the comings and goings of equipment managers at this time of year, but we usually don’t come across stories about teams firing equipment managers who have been with the team for 44 years, as the St. Louis Rams have done.
Todd Hewitt, who started working for the Rams as an 11-year-old assistant to his father in 1967, has been let go by the team.
The Rams confirmed Hewitt’s departure in a brief announcement that also said assistant strength coach Chuck Faucette has been let go.
“We have decided not to retain Todd Hewitt and Chuck Faucette going forward in 2011,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said in a statement. “We appreciate their efforts in the past and wish them well in the future.”
Hewitt has declined to comment and the team has given no reason for his termination.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz had a great take on Hewitt’s termination today.
“I’m sorry to learn that the Rams have fired their longtime equipment manager Todd Hewitt,” Miklasz writes. “There doesn’t seem to be any justification for this. I also know that 99 percent of the team’s fans don’t care about who is in charge of the equipment. But the Hewitt family had a strong, proud and loyal tradition of serving the franchise. Todd had been with the Rams for more than 40 years. His father, the late and beloved Don Hewitt, was the team’s equipment manager from 1967 through 1994. I don’t understand why such a good man and a loyal employee has to be treated so shabbily.”
Here’s hoping that Hewitt, who is married with four children, lands on his feet.