Rams report, 2/9: GM search widens

* General manager candidate number TEN is now on deck for the Rams. He is Steelers director of administration Omar Khan. The Rams have received permission from the Steelers for an interview. I think that by definition, Pittsburgh's is always a good front office to try and raid, so I like the Rams' thinking here. The interesting twist is that Khan is Pittsburgh's salary cap manager and chief negotiator. I thought those were still Kevin Demoff's jobs.

* Kurt Warner has been saying in recent radio and TV interviews that even with two Super Bowl wins, Eli Manning shouldn't be considered a Hall-of-Famer just yet:

"I know as well as anybody that Super Bowls are often synonymous with quarterback careers, but when I think of a Hall-of-Famer, I think of someone who is consistently great, not just at critical moments like Eli has been.... When I think of a Hall-of-Famer, I think of a guy that every time out is a great player, every season (he) displays greatness."

I don't think anyone would argue that Eli isn't at least well on his way to the Hall of Fame, and that isn't even the point. As one of many Rams fans expecting Warner to be inducted into the Hall as a first-time eligible, I'm now wondering if he just handed out a bunch of ammo against his case. #1, you've got a guy with one Super Bowl ring and one Super Bowl MVP arguing against a guy who has two of each. #2, there's the middle of Kurt's career, half his career, spanning 2002-06. He was 8-23 as a starter over that span. Benched all of 2003 after starting Opening Day. 27 TDs, 30 INTs. No 3,000-yard seasons. Now, just eyeballing Kurt's worst years, his completion percentage and passer rating are still nicely better than Eli's career marks of 58.4% and 82.1. Still, Kurt Warner had several seasons where I don't think he would say he displayed greatness. I hope his words don't come back to bite him too hard here, because if anybody ever deserved a walkover to get into the Hall, I think it's Kurt.

* Where are they now? With apologies, the apparent ethnicity of Omar Khan's name had me wondering what ever happened to former Rams capologist, the "throat slasher", Samir Suleiman. Turns out Suleiman is on LinkedIn, where he lists himself as an "independent sports professional" in the "Greater Los Angeles area". His publicly-accessible resume is pretty sparse post-Rams, with just a 4-month span as an expert witness and a 2-month consulting job with the Steelers since leaving St. Louis in early 2009. He had interviewed to be vice-president of administration of the Browns in 2009 and believed he had a verbal offer for the position, but the Browns gave the job to someone else. Suleiman filed an appeal with the league, but not only must that not have gone his way, it looks like it hurt his prospects at getting back into the league anywhere. Let alone the whole "throat slasher" business from back in '05.

Not sure why Suleiman's LinkedIn page doesn't show more than it does. Tony Softli keeps his up to date pretty nicely.

-$-