It took nearly 32 months, but I'm on board with Scott Linehan.

Linehan made a plea with Rams' management to let him address his former team one final time before leaving Rams Park, and when they gave in, Linehan did something many coaches wouldn't even think about doing: He told the players---who, at the very least, played some role in his demise---that they may be a losing football team, but there were no losers in the Rams' locker room.

“He just told us that we’re winners, we’re not winning right now but there’s good people in the room and there’s winners in the room and basically if we need anything, and this is of course the Cliff’s Notes version, we can always call him if we need something,” Long said. “I appreciate that. He’s going to do well. He’s going to find a place where things are going right and he’s going to do well.”

Seriously...how impressive is that? The guy has been going through a living hell, just lost for the 8th straight time, got a phone call at 2 a.m. to meet with ownership at the Four Seasons downtown...and then he offered up the selfless gesture of requesting to address his team and let them know he would always be there for them.

That's an illustration of character. And, perhaps it confirms what many had suspected about Linehan: good guy...bad coach.

I thought it was incredibly enlightening on yesterday's ITD Morning After when ESPN's Chris Mortensen told us that Linehan's boss in Miami, former Dolphins Head Coach Nick Saban, told Mortensen when Linehan was hired that he thought Linehan was a hell of coordinator...but he wasn't sure he was ready to be a head coach.

The end wasn't a surprise. The choice of Jim Haslett to replace Linehan was a surprise...at least to me.

If you're going to convey to your decreasing fan base that ownership understands a massive overhaul is necessary, why go with someone who symbolizes more of the same? How could the Rams justify replacing Linehan with the only guy in the building who may have been *more* responsible for just how awful this team has been over the last 20 games?

To his credit, Bernie Miklasz asked Haslett that question point blank yesterday afternoon on The Bernie Miklasz Show on Team 1380. Bernie told Haslett that many fans on his STLToday.com forum Bernie's Pressbox were against Haslett getting the gig...based on the reasons above. Bernie asked Haslett how he would win those fans over and what he would say to that criticism.

And, here's where I got on board with Haslett.

"(Those fans) are right. I don't really have an answer, because we didn't play well on defense. I would agree with them, to be honest with you. I thought we played much better (against Buffalo), but if you're going to base (your evaluation) off of just the first three weeks of the season, hell no, I wouldn't give the job to me, either."

Awesome.

Honesty. Blunt honest. So refreshing.

Haslett went on to say that if fans took a look at his track record in New Orleans that they'd see a team that played hard, and he cited the Saints' battles with the Greatest Show On Turf as examples to build his case.

"We knew we couldn't hang with the Greatest Show On Turf, so we just took the other approach and said, "Let's beat the heck out of them."

And, it worked two times in 2000 and one time in 2001 when Haslett's Saints rallied from a massive halftime deficit to pin one of just two regular season losses on the eventual NFC Champions.

Listen...I'm not under the impression that Haslett's hiring is going to lead the Rams to the playoffs. Most likely, he'll be gone after the Rams play 12 more games. But, his personality---the bluntness and the fire---will at least make the next few games interesting...which is more than you can say for the last few games of this season...and, unfortunately, last season. It'll be intriguing to see if Haslett's personality transfers to the team and they play with fire and somehow knock off one of the three monsters (Washington, Dallas, New England) lurking on the schedule after the bye week...or will many of these 2008 Rams just fade into oblivion on their way---at the very least---out of town...and possibly out of the NFL?

The change had to be made, and hopefully, it's the beginning of a new era with many more changes to follow in January.

At the very least, however, Monday gave us a look inside the character of Scott Linehan and the I-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think honesty of Jim Haslett.

Strangely, the former head coach may be better suited to be a coordinator, and the former coordinator may be better suited to be a head coach.

Are you on board with the promotion of Haslett to Interim Head Coach? Post your comments below.