Rams Are Seeking Old Times With a New Look

It’s training camp time, where violence is golden, and the Rams head to Cal State Fullerton today searching for the street-fighter image that left them a sad season ago.

Other things disappeared in 1987, too. Eric Dickerson and LeRoy Irvin, for example. A collective bargaining agreement and a defense. A winning record, playoff bonuses, stature, Dominic, direction, tackling--all gone.

It was a year the Rams would blip from the pages of sports history if possible. Everyone left with egg on their faces, not just picket-line crossers.

It was John Robinson’s first losing season as a head coach, college or pro. The Rams finished 6-9, and had their season punctuated rudely Dec. 27 with a 48-0 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

Robinson has sorted through the rubble and is convinced the year was more aberration than harbinger (Note the statistics of strike quarterback Bernard Quarles, who led all Ram passers with an 81.9 efficiency rating).

Robinson has surfaced this week as bubbly as ever, humbled somewhat, but wiser.

“We’ll try to use it in a positive sense,” he said of 1987. “It points out to each of us that the difference between success and failure is very small, that if you allow any little thing to creep into your focus and concentration it can be disastrous.”

The distraction, if you remember, wore No. 29 and goggles.

“I think we’ve all been stung by it and are embarrassed and eager to get back to the kind of football team we think we are.”

The Rams are taking things more seriously this season, from the front office to the front line.

True confession: Last year’s exhibition game in London was nice, but the itinerary was probably better suited for a chess team. Looking back, the only benefit gained might have been locking Dickerson and Irvin in the Tower of London.

Robinson says now that a week in England left his team a little soft and gooey, kind of like microwave cookies.

This year, the team’s first exhibition game, July 30 against Cincinnati, moves from Canterbury to Canton, Ohio, where if the players get bored they can catch a Dick Butkus highlight film at the nearby Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Robinson’s practices this summer promise to be more violent, and competitive, with as many as 30 of 47 roster spots up for grabs. This the result in part of a defense that fell apart, slipping from fifth overall in 1986 to 21st last season.

The Rams, for all their plodding in past years, were always well-conditioned and hard-hitting. Not last season.

“When you get punched right in the mouth, all of a sudden it shakes you up,” Robinson said. “You react one way or the other: you get defensive, or you look at yourself and say, hey, we’ve got to change some things. I think we’ve done a good job at doing those things. The test will be whether we be can stay on course when the going gets tough.”

The Rams are in transition on many fronts. They’ve seemed to learn that outside distractions can be hazardous to a team’s health, that players react accordingly to maneuvers in the front office.

The Eric Dickerson fiasco/trade left the them with 10 top draft choices this year and next. Pretty exciting. The ordeal also exhausted the franchise, players and coaches alike.

The Rams, it appears, are trying a new course.

Example I: Instead of allowing cornerback Irvin to bring his contractual problems to camp, the Rams cut him off at the pass and signed him to a 3-year, $1.65-million extention.

Irvin, happy as ever, will report to camp with the veterans Thursday. Problem solved.

Example II: The Rams have already signed 10 of their 14 draft choices, including three players aligned with the Stockton-based agentry firm of Mike Blatt and Frank Bauer, orchestrators of two Henry Ellard holdouts and one-time No. 1 enemies of Ram managment.

So is this longtime front-office reign of terror, presided over by Ram contract negotiators John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt, loosening a bit? Maybe, but it’s not a rumor they’d want spread around town or anything.

And remember, they’re still playing hardball with their first-round choices.

“We’ve been aggressive about negotiating with people,” Robinson said. “People that are being signed are being signed for comparable salaries. But there was this rumor, or atmosphere, that the Rams are desperate and, from an agent’s standpoint, they could get us for anything. That ain’t going to happen either.”

So what’s happened?

“We’ve tried to be fair,” Robinson said, “but we don’t for a minute think we’re not going to have some issues. If a player comes in and says I want to make double what I make, we’re not going to pay that. But I think there is a real spirit and focus of getting continuity back into the organization.”

The Rams are changing quickly, moving out the old and bringing in the new. Dennis Harrah is retired. Gaston Green is inspired. Ron Brown is gone. Aaron Cox is in. But the Dickerson trade left the team with the foundation for a promising future.

This year, 5 of the first 47 college draft selections went to the Rams, and look for main-line speed infusions into the lineup.

On offense, wide receiver Aaron Cox, the first-rounder from Arizona State, is expected to move in for the retired Brown. UCLA’s Gaston Green, the fastest burner on the draft board, should give the Rams the speed and receiving skills in the backfield that Charles White lacks.

White, by virtue of his NFL rushing title last season, returns to tailback, a position that is his to lose. He earned it with 1,374 yards in 324 carries.

He won’t, however, be burdened with Dickerson’s heavy work load.

“I’m not sure you want to play Charlie 16 games,” Robinson said. “I think he needs a little help. And Gaston fits right in there.”

The Rams are replacing Dickerson by committee.

The other rookie flash on offense is Willie Anderson, who is an instant deep threat.

Again, Robinson swears the Rams aren’t changing on offense, only expanding. He contends this will still be a run-dominated team and that White, at season’s end, will have gained 1,000 yards or more.

“I don’t think anybody believed we could continue to run the ball successfully (after the Dickerson trade),” Robinson said. “But the fact that Charlie did good was indicative that we’re determined to to that.”

Robinson also denies any friction last season between his run philosophy and offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese’s passing game.

“There was no tug,” said Robinson, who cited team failures across the board.

Yet, the success of the team’s running game this year rests largely on the young shoulders of tight end Damone Johnson, who is asked to replace a great run-blocker, David Hill, released at season’s end.

“The conflict of running and passing can hit you there,” Robinson said. “It’s one of our biggest concerns. But I expect D.J. to do it. He’s been around, and has seen what David accomplished as a blocker. I think he expects to be a good blocker.”

And what about Jim Everett, the league’s 23rd-rated quarterback in 1987? His efficiency rating was a chilling 50.5 through the first eight games of 1987, but then soared to more than 100 during the five-game win streak.

Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a quarterback with more energy and better work habits than Everett, who all but moved a cot to Rams Park in the off-season.

Wait, there’s more changes. The Rams have scrapped their safety-first defense in favor of a new look, one that features only two down lineman and five linebackers.

It’s a new twist on the attacking, pass-rushing defenses of the Chicago Bears and New York Giants.

The Rams were looking for twists, since 16 NFL teams had more sacks than they had last season.

The team also has much more talent at linebacker than on the line, especially with the addition of rookie Fred Strickland. What what better way to put more good players on the field at once?

“It was time to move,” Robinson said. “If we’d have been 12-3, I would have come out of the year saying we’re changing our defense. We were a club that tried to win with one or two pitches. Now we’re mixing a slider in there.”

Ram Notes

Now that Ron Brown has failed to make the United States Olympic Team in the 100 meters, could he return to the Rams? Brown has said his football days are over, but Coach John Robinson has at least left the door open. “He has to kind of come to grips as to what he wants to do,” Robinson said. “There’s no animosity about Ron not being here, or choosing that game over this game. It’s the commitment-type thing we’re concerned with.” Still, Brown’s return seems unlikely, especially since the team has given his uniform No. 89 to rookie Aaron Cox, Brown’s heir apparent at wide receiver. . . . A few veterans, including wide receiver Michael Young and linebacker Mark Jerue, are expected to check into camp today with the rookies. . . . The best surprise of the first week was running back Robert Delpino, considered by many experts to be a steal on the fifth round. . . . Talks between John Shaw and Gaston Green’s agent, Leigh Steinberg, continued Saturday. “We’re trying to work toward closing the gap,” Steinberg said. . . . However, calls to the Rams by Ernie Wright, Cox’s agent, were not returned. . . . In an 11 on 11 scrimmage against the Dallas Cowboys Saturday, Hugh Millen completed 9 of 13 passes for 186 yards with 1 interception. Sixth-round pick Keith Jones led the Rams with 72 yards in 12 carries. . . . Linebacker Fred Strickland, a second-round pick, led the Rams with 10 tackles.