Coach Jeff Fisher sleeps on air mattress as Rams' Southern California odyssey continues

IRVINE, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams may have relocated from St. Louis to California, but don't assume they've actually settled in to their new environment.

When head coach Jeff Fisher is done with his work and leaves the temporary and transitional training camp facility the team has at the University of California, Irvine, he goes home and sleeps on an air mattress.

Fisher, who oversaw the Houston Oilers' move to Tennessee nearly two decades ago, has sacrificed elements of his own return to his native Southern California. So when his bed is deflated from the previous night’s sleep, he fires up the air pump and refills it once again.

The 58-year-old doesn’t have the time, he said, to secure fancier accommodations.

“I’m as settled as I possibly could be,” Fisher told Paste BN Sports on Sunday evening after the Rams’ second training camp practice. “I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

But logistics are still a primary issue.

The Rams' offseason practices and training occurred in Oxnard, Calif., but the Ventura County hotel complex is the Dallas Cowboys' summer home and was't available to the Rams. So now they're based at this Orange County college campus for training camp. Once camp is done, the Rams will head to a temporary new practice facility for the next few years in Thousand Oaks on the campus of Cal Lutheran. Home games for the next three seasons will be staged at the L.A. Coliseum.

And, in the meantime, their fancy billion-dollar stadium and team headquarters are being constructed in Inglewood.

Now all Fisher must do is improve a team that's gone 27-36-1 over the past four seasons to ensure he sticks around well after the franchise is finally in its permanent home.

Bigger things to worry about indeed.

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Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes

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