Rams level the playing field with diversity fellows

UC IRVINE (News4usonline) – Once he retired from the game of football, former Los Angeles Rams defensive back Kevin Peterson found out really quickly how much he missed it. 

“As soon as I retired, I got bored real quick,” Peterson said after a Rams training camp practice on July 31. “I decided that I wanted to go into coaching. Just had that itch. Just always had that itch.”

Peterson was fortunate to have that itch temporarily scratched by an opportunity to be one of seven Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship coaches that the Rams brought in during training camp this summer. The Rams training camp concluded Aug. 8.  

The aim of the decades-long program, which is being used throughout the NFL, is to open the door for minority coaches for possible coaching opportunities with an NFL club down the line. By working alongside a team’s coaching staff, the coaches are able to gain invaluable experience of working with NFL players. 

Peterson, who played with the Rams from 2016-2018, was not only enthusiastic about being selected as a coaching fellow, but he also feels a unique bond with the team he once played for. 

“It really means everything,” Peterson said. “These guys gave me my second shot, but they really gave me, I feel like, my first shot in the NFL. They believed in me. They really let me flourish in the program. It was my first time making a 53-man roster. It was really my start. So, to be back here to have my first coaching opportunity is crazy. It’s amazing.” 

With the cache of his NFL playing days under his belt, Peterson said that experience would be a pivotal tool for him in working with Rams players. 

“I’ve been there before. I know coaches say that. [But] I’ve been there before. I’ve been in your shoes,” quipped Peterson. “I’ve been the guy who didn’t get a whole lot of reps. I’ve been the guy who was starting in a game. It’s just fun to be able to show guys, to be able to help guys, whatever nuances they have going on…I can be like, ‘Hey, you can get better at techniques like this or if you have any questions; being able to help guys is my main thing.’”

The seven coaches the Rams invited to training camp as diversity coaching fellows all come from different backgrounds. 

Aside from Peterson, the other recipients of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship program were Henry Burris (tight ends), Ellis Wyms (defensive linemen), Perry Parks (wide receivers), Kyle Bolton (strength and conditioning), Cameron Spence (outside linebackers and defensive end), and DP Eyman (quarterbacks). 

All the fellows arrived into training camp with impressive resumes. Parks works with wide receivers at Coastal Carolina. Wyms, once played under Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and  is a Super Bowl champion. Spence is a defensive graduate assistant coach at North Carolina. Eyman is an offensive analyst at Ole Miss, and Bolton is associate director of football human performance at TCU. 

Prior to his summer stint with the Rams, Burris has already spent some time behind the scenes working on NFL sidelines, including working as a coach for the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars. Burris, who is a Canadian Football League Hall of Famer, called the chance to be selected as a fellow an “awesome” opportunity. 

“Just to have an opportunity just to continually build, not only your knowledge based on the game of football, but also your networking base,” Burris said. “When it comes to the business world, especially in the world of football, it’s about who you know.

“For me, even though I had a long career, as far as a player, to come into this new aspect of football now being on the sidelines, it’s all about getting to know people. You know, being around some of the best in the game, especially here in LA with coach Sean McVay and his staff here. I mean, you can see why. A couple of years ago, they were hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. It’s truly a first-class organization.”

The value of having former professional football players around like Burris providing insight about the game-on and off the field-is immeasurable. Players trying to grasp a team’s playbook in order to be the best versions of themselves is tough enough.

However, there is a side to being in the NFL that is not going to be found in any team’s playbook. That’s learning how to breathe, talk and walk like a professional football player, Burris said.

“Number one, it’s all about how to be a professional, how to be a man and how to carry yourself, both on and off the field,” Burris said. “I’ve learned so many great details of knowledge from the guys who were ahead of me as far as how to be a professional and how to carry yourself at work. But now [you have] to leave it at the front door when you go home to your family.”

Burris went on to add that the discipline regiments of an NFL player don’t end at the conclusion of reading the playbook or going over plays in practice. It’s learning “how to manage your body, how to manage the football, how to manage dealing with the media, how to manage to do all those types of things, because a lot of people don’t understand the lifestyle that comes with the pressure of being a quarterback or just playing professional football,” he said.