WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – To paraphrase a famous Nike commercial, maybe it was the shoes.
Defensive end Braden Fiske has long worn predominantly white cleats in his one-and-a-half NFL seasons played so far, but last Sunday against the Saints, he decided to switch it up: Air Jordan 1 cleats with a colorway mirroring the Rams' royal (blue) and sol (yellow) color scheme.
"I always wear white cleats," Fiske explained Monday. "That's something I've always done for a long time. I love wearing white cleats. I wear white shoes. If you ask anybody in this building, they know I wear my Air Maxes every day. But no, I just wanted to change it up. A guy I went to college with, Blake Bosma, at Western Michigan. He designs cleats, and he paints cleats. And he had hit me up about doing... My Cause My Cleats, and he showed me some other designs, just different things. And I think you can expect a few more throughout the season of me changing up my cleat game. It'll stay with the Jordan 1s, but it'll be a different cleat game going forward."
Whether it was that, or, more likely, constantly living in opponents' backfields, Fiske claimed his due first sack of the season in L.A.'s win over New Orleans at SoFi Stadium.
The excitement, and perhaps relief, was evident after that moment in the Rams' eighth game of the season.
"If you could tell by my reaction and the reaction of the rest of the guys on the d-line, I think it was pretty damn good," Fiske said. "I think it's tough going into Week 9 and not having one and finally breaking that seal, and yeah, we got home, felt good. Guys were happy. And now it kind of feels like alright, that weight's off the back. We can just get rolling now. And hopefully these start coming in bunches."
The Rams are glad to have Fiske and his new cleat colorway further removed from his early-season oblique injury than when they faced the 49ers the first time this season. That Week 5 matchup was three weeks from when he tweaked his oblique in warmups in Week 2 against the Titans.
"It was definitely pretty annoying to deal with early on in the season," Fiske said. "I know those first few weeks, it was just frustrating. It's tough to know what you're capable of, being hindered by something that just you don't feel like you can be your complete self on the field with. But now we're all healed now. I'm feeling so much better. And, yeah, I put that in the past, but yeah, that definitely sucked. I don't want to deal with that again. That sucked."
It was just last week that defensive coordinator Chris Shula joked that if there was a stat for assists on sacks, Fiske would probably lead the league. Which is to say, even if it hasn't always shown up on the stat sheet, Fiske's impact has certainly been felt this season.
"It was nice to see him finish and get one," Shula said. "And I think with the coolest part is you see how happy his teammates are for him. That's just the type of guy he is, he's just an unselfish player. He's not worried about the stats at all. Obviously, he wants to get sacks just like everybody else. He just wants to win and play good defense."
