When Rams owner Stan Kroenke decided to clean house the day after a 2-14 season ended in St. Louis, Kroenke opted not to replace executive V.P. of football operations/COO Kevin Demoff.
Apart from Demoff’s skills and abilities, his family connections surely helped the Rams reel in their new head coach, Jeff Fisher. Fisher’s agent is Marvin Demoff; Marvin is Kevin’s father.
So how would that link help Kroenke catch Fisher? Kevin Demoff was in position to obtain from Marvin Demoff in trustworthy, reliable fashion the things that Fisher truly needed in order to take the job.
That’s an important tool when it comes to the nuances, subtleties, and/or gamesmanship of high-stakes negotiations, especially when the subject of the search has managed to pit two franchises against each other. Whenever Marvin Demoff told the Dolphins that the Rams were offering some specific term that the Dolphins weren’t, the Dolphins couldn’t be completely certain that they were getting the unvarnished, unembellished, and/or undeniable truth. But when Marvin Demoff made it known to Kevin Demoff that which Fisher needed and/or that which the Dolphins were offering, Kevin Demoff would have been in a better position to trust that he was hearing correct information.
It gave the Rams a clear advantage -- the confidence of knowing that what the father was telling his son was accurate, free from puffing, preening, and/or posturing. Even if Marvin Demoff was at all times completely honest with the Dolphins (and we have no reason to believe he wasn’t), the Dolphins weren’t in the same position as the Rams when it came to accepting that Demoff was indeed being completely honest.
When the time comes for deals to move quickly toward conclusion, that dynamic gave the Rams an enhanced ability to move efficiently, confidently, and/or decisively.
In hindsight, the father-son dynamic should have prompted Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to steer clear of the Fisher tug-o-war. In the end, one team was going to feel that its interest was used to leverage a better deal elsewhere. Unless the deal in Miami was dramatically better than the deal in St. Louis, there’s no way Marvin Demoff would have put his son in the unenviable position of having to explain to Stan Kroenke how Kevin failed to make the most of his fairly intimate relationship with the man who represents Jeff Fisher.