PALM DESERT, Calif. – The emotional side of Dick Vermeil was visible Tuesday morning, and no coach shows his emotions better than Vermeil.

	Dick Vermeil hasn't always been in a laughing mood since joining the Chiefs.

No, there were no tears displayed. Instead, a stern Vermeil displayed bitterness toward his former team, the Rams.

The past couple of months have nagged at him. A year after retiring as head coach of the Super Bowl champion Rams, Vermeil resurfaced as the Chiefs head coach for his close friend and former coaching understudy, Chiefs president Carl Peterson.

At a coaches breakfast at the owners meeting, Vermeil discussed his emotions over the past month. He resented how the Rams treated him after he decided to come back to coach -- the Rams filed a complaint with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, stating that Vermeil violated terms of his resignation by resurfacing with the Chiefs.

Ultimately, the Chiefs and Vermeil lost a second-round choice. Now, the Rams are holding firm in their demand of first- and third-round picks as compensation if Vermeil wants to trade for Trent Green and make him the Chiefs' quarterback.

The emotions came out Tuesday morning.

"People have a way of saying, well, that's just the business side of the business," Vermeil said. "I hadn't coached one minute as the business side of it. It bothers me. I don't carry a grudge, but it bothered me."

Vermeil is a rare commodity in the business world, both good and bad in this case. He coaches for the love of game and his players, and he's good at it. He took the Eagles and Rams to the Super Bowl even though the Eagles' ride consumed him emotionally. His return to the Rams after almost two decades away from the game was a labor of love.

Because they loved and respected him, the Rams' front office tried to talk him out of retiring after winning the Super Bowl two seasons ago. Give it time, they told him. Vermeil works so successfully on following his instincts, he said no -- it was time for him to retire then.

In January, he wanted to return. The Rams were right in demanding compensation. Vermeil felt he was a victim of the business side of football and didn't like it.

He even made a sarcastic comment about Rams president John Shaw on Tuesday.

"John was leaving when I left, but it was legal for him to change his mind," Vermeil said. "Don't think that didn't impact me a little bit. I resented it, but I can live with it."

Vermeil even went on to say that the Rams are run by lawyers.

	“	When they try to block you from coaching because you changed your mind, maybe that goes a little bit beyond. If the shoe were on the other foot, I'd never put them through the same process. No way. ”
		— Dick Vermeil, Chiefs head coach

"When they try to block you from coaching because you changed your mind, maybe that goes a little bit beyond," he said. "If the shoe were on the other foot, I'd never put them through the same process. No way."

The process of fighting through the hearing with the commissioner and fighting to return even gave him second thoughts about coming back.

"If I had known that a lot of this stuff was going on, then maybe I wouldn't have gone through it," Vermeil said.

But he did. Now the process of rebuilding the Chiefs has begun and Vermeil won't concede his time and energy. He knows the team is talented enough to be competitive if he gets the right quarterback.

Trent Green would be the perfect fit. He knows the offensive system of making the quick reads in the fast-paced offense that worked so well in St. Louis. But getting Green has become an ordeal for Vermeil.

The Chiefs are dealing with the Rams. Emotions are involved. Little is getting done.

"There hasn't been enough talk to make a trade," Vermeil said.

His best guess is that this process will linger on to draft day.

For the moment, Vermeil is holding back the options of signing free agents Trent Dilfer, Troy Aikman or Steve Beuerlein. Green is the guy he wants.

Vermeil won't give away a first- and a third-round pick to get Green. After all, it cost the Chiefs a second-rounder to get him. Maybe 11 picks into the draft, the Rams will see a player they want and pull the trigger on a trade for the Chiefs' No. 12 pick

"I invested three years trying to build the Rams," Vermeil said. "I don't know why I need to keep helping build them after I'm gone."

John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.