Jeff Fisher, Les Snead deny ‘toxic’ relationship reports

Both Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead denied reports of a “toxic” relationship on Friday.

“I don’t know where this came from. Les and I have been on the same page since Day 1,” Fisher said Friday, via Rich Hammond of the Orange County Register. “We communicate all the time. We work together. We make decisions together.”

The Rams arranged an in-season interview for Snead to deny the stories as well, calling his relationship with Fisher “really good.”

“I’m well aware of kind of what’s come out,” Snead said. “I think it’s painted a picture totally different. The relationship is really good. We have worked together from the start with decisions, every decision that is made, especially from a personnel standpoint. From a game-plan standpoint, that’s not my role, nor should it be and I couldn’t be of any help. But on decisions, we have worked together from the beginning.

“Relational, it’s fine. We work together very well. You’ve got a guy who has been in the league a lot of years. He’s got very astute wisdom. To sit beside him making very tough decisions has been an honor, because there’s wisdom there. It’s not irrational. It’s rational.”

The forced denials were inevitable. It doesn’t necessarily mean that all is rosy in southern California. Stories like the one that originally brought this about don’t just happen for no reason, and with the team mired in mediocrity, there’s probably some discontent within the organization.