I knew Pat Haden, a little, more than three decades ago.

I covered the Los Angeles Rams for four seasons for the San Bernardino Sun, and Haden was in his second season when I got on the beat, in 1977.

Haden was great to work with. Bright and accessible and honest. And, of course, a quarterback. A wonderful source, back when the Rams were the biggest story in Southern California. (And they were, through the middle 1970s and into the early 1980s.)

A couple of random memories. Waiting to speak with him after a practice session at Blair Field, in Long Beach. Haden was in the shower singing Toora Loora Loora while in the shower. Not many NFL guys sing in the shower, has been my experience.

His explanation, in 1977, or maybe the next season, why he was going to make a point of being less willing to say things like “it was my fault”. He said: “If you say that often enough, people start to believe you.” When his “it was my fault” was far more about protecting teammates — or reflecting what he felt at that instant. He realized it hurt his professional career.

Anyway, a good guy, not a bad NFL quarterback despite being small and not having a lot of arm strength. He gave up the game before his 29th birthday. Because he was too smart and the game too brutal for him to stay with it to the end. He went to law school and, eventually, because the athletic director at USC.

So, when he fired USC football coach Lane Kiffin in the early hours of Sunday?

I decided that Kiffin must have really been screwing up. Really screwing up.

The Pat Haden I knew, and this is when he was a young man and, presumably, as impulsive as he ever was going to be — never made rash decisions. Not around the football field.

Firing a football coach in the middle of the season never really works out. It might provide a moment of relief or joy among fans who have turned against the guy. But it is unusual for a guy to take over in midstream and produce any improvement.

Pat Haden knows this.

So Lane Kiffin continuing on must have been absolutely untenable, for Pat Haden to meet him at the airport and fire him.

Was it giving up 62 points to Arizona State? A home loss to Washington State? Losing to both UCLA and Notre Dame last year?

Kiffin’s weird skirmishes and actions? USC being ranked No. 1 ahead of the 2012 season and finishing 7-6 and losing the Sun Bowl?

Probably all of that … with some sense that the football program had spiraled out of Kiffin’s control and could only get worse. Perhaps he knows stuff not even in the public realm yet.

I had mentioned, last week, in conversation with a fellow Yank, over here in Abu Dhabi, that I expected Kiffin to finish the season, and for a week to go by, and for Haden to fire Kiffin then. Early December. Because Pat Haden is not a rash guy. Which I believe is still the case.

Which means Lane Kiffin was a complete mess. It couldn’t be delayed. It was emergency surgery and Kiffin was the ruptured appendix. It couldn’t wait.

Being fired by Pat Haden, in midseason? We don’t really need to know any more about Lane Kiffin, other than he had to go, and right now.