Rams News

Rams make a late rush
to get Tennessee end
04/18 11:30 PM

By Elizabethe Holland
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

Leonard Little is more than likely the only draft pick this year to be welcomed by two NFL teams on the same day . . . in the same minute, for that matter.
Just as Little, a defensive end from Tennessee, was getting the grand welcome Saturday from the Pittsburgh Steelers via a phone call to his family's home in Asheville, N.C., call-waiting alerted him to another call.
``I was on the phone talking to Pittsburgh and I switched over and Coach Vermeil was on the other end,'' said Little, a third-round pick.
Dick Vermeil was calling to welcome him to the Rams.
As it turned out, the Steelers dialed Little's number a little too soon. Concerned that Pittsburgh would snag Little with the 66th overall pick, the Rams worked out a last-minute deal to get the No. 65 spot, which had been held by the New York Jets. To move up from No. 67, the Rams gave up their seventh-round pick.
Fortunately, Little was watching the draft on television while taking the confusing phone calls.
``I didn't really know that St. Louis had drafted me until I saw it on TV,'' he said.
The Rams had projected that Little, a noted pass-rusher, would be drafted late in the first round. When they saw he hadn't been taken by Round 3, they decided to make a move.
Vermeil surmised that Little wasn't take sooner because he is considered a 'tweener -- ``between a defensive end and a linebacker . . . big enough to be a linebacker, but he was just so good as a pass rusher.''
The former Vol is 6 feet 3 and 237 pounds.
Initially, Little will be a backup outside linebacker and a special-teams player. ``He's great at running people down,'' Vermeil said. ``He's a very intense player, a very high-character guy.''
And, according to ESPN magazine, the meanest man in the draft. In the magazine, Mel Kiper Jr. dubbed Little as ``Mel's Meanest'' among this year's draft picks. The title is accompanied by a photo of Little looking especially menacing.
``My mom went out and got a magazine the other day and showed me that,'' Little said. ``I am a nice guy, but on the field you have to change your personality because things are different.''

ARCHIVE

HOME