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St. Louis Rams team president John Shaw, flanked by Jay Zygmunt, president of football operations, right, and interim head coach Joe Vitt, talks to the media on Monday in St. Louis about the health of head coach Mike Martz, who will step down indefinitely because of a bacterial infection in his heart. Vitt will lead the team in Martz's absence.
Tom Gannam/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Football coach out with heart infection
BY JIM SALTER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST.LOUIS — St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz is out indefinitely with a bacterial infection of the heart.
Martz was told by a specialist Monday that his condition, which kept him out of two practices last week, had worsened. The 54-year-old has been ill for more than a month and was tested for endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the lining of the heart or a heart valve.
After the Rams' 37-31 loss Sunday to the Seattle Seahawks, Martz said he shouldn't have been on the sideline. St. Louis dropped to 2-3.
Rams president John Shaw said Monday that Martz will be hospitalized four to 12 days but would not speculate on the length of his absence. Shaw said he wasn't told the specific name of the illness, but was led to think that Martz's heart valve had weakened since last week.
"I think he was concerned he was letting down a lot of people, but also had concern about the gravity of the situation," Shaw said.
The antibiotics that Martz began taking on Friday didn't seem to help, Shaw said, but he
didn't know if any additional procedures would be necessary. Severe cases of endocarditis can require open-heart surgery.
Assistant head coach Joe Vitt will take over as coach. Martz told his players during a brief, but emotional, team meeting that he would step aside, Vitt said.
"The team is his concern," Vitt said. "His health is our No. 1 concern."
Martz spoke with a raspy voice after Sunday's game but sounded optimistic about his health. Still, he said that in retrospect, he should have allowed offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild to run the show.
"I wasn't myself this week, the game plan wasn't clear for me," Martz said. "It's over with now, but I just feel what happened to me has affected this team, and that breaks my heart."
Martz was first hospitalized Sept. 30 with what was thought to be a sinus infection. He coached two days later during a 44-24 loss to the New York Giants.
Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, a friend of Martz's, advised the Rams coach to be careful with his health.
"With the health problem like
he seems to have, he's got to take care of it. He's got to take care of himself, his family. He's got to think of way more things than football, of winning a football game," Holmgren said. "But it's hard for us. It's hard for all of us to back away on something like that."
Endocarditis affects 10,000 to 20,000 Americans each year and in some cases can require open-heart surgery, said Arthur Labovitz, director of cardiology at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
"It's a very serious condition," Labovitz said. "There can be some serious complications that are probably influenced by how you take care of yourself once a diagnosis is made."
Now in his sixth season with the Rams, Martz is 56-36 including the postseason. The Rams have missed the playoffs just once in his tenure (2002) and reached the Super Bowl after the 2001 season, losing 20-17 to New England.
Martz joined the Rams as offensive coordinator in 1999, and his high-powered offense led St. Louis to its first Super Bowl title that season. He became head coach following Dick Vermeil's retirement after that championship run.
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