Rams News

Wistrom makes it to camp,
finds an appropriate welcome
07/19 08:11 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

MACOMB, Ill. -- Grant Wistrom now has 6 million reasons to cop an attitude, develop an entourage, let success go to his head -- and his pocketbook. And that's just the signing bonus in the six-year, $12.75 million contract he signed with the Rams on Saturday night.
When he showed up at Western Illinois University late Sunday morning for his training camp debut, Wistrom got a razzing befitting a No. 6 overall pick and multimillionaire.
The defensive end from the University of Nebraska hadn't even donned his shoulder pads for his first practice when a teammate handed him a trash can. ``To carry all my money around in,'' Wistrom explained.
Even coach Dick Vermeil landed a jab when they walked over to Brophy Hall for a news conference.
``Coach Vermeil asked if I took my private jet up here this morning,'' Wistrom said. ``I said, `Yeah, because that's just the type of guy I am.' ''
Actually, Wistrom is the type of guy who celebrated his signing Saturday night with chicken and a beer at TGIF Friday's in St. Louis. By himself.
What a party animal.
So much for those rumors that Wistrom spent the night rocking and rolling at a Van Halen concert. When the Van Halen question came up Sunday, Vermeil displayed classic football coach's tunnel vision by asking: ``Is he a running back?''
On Sunday, Wistrom -- not the running back named Van Halen -- showed up for his news conference wearing:
A.) A three-piece suit, a purse, and designer sunglasses.
B.) Enough jewelry around his neck to choke a horse, or at least a third-down back.
C.) Sandals, shorts and T-shirt.
``C'' would be the correct answer for the pride of Webb City, Mo.
``I haven't seen any of the money yet,'' Wistrom said. ``Shoot, I'll probably never see it. It'll be nice to see a check with all those zeroes on it. But to be honest, I don't think it's going to affect me that much. I don't feel any different, and I probably never will.''
Well, he has already spent some of that signing bonus -- some of it in advance.
He bought his dad a Lincoln Navigator, about as upscale as you can get in the utility vehicle line.
And he's going to pay off his mom's credit cards. ``There goes his signing bonus,'' Vermeil joked.
Wistrom set about the task of earning that signing bonus in the Rams' Sunday afternoon practice. It was a relatively uneventful 1 hours for Wistrom. He showed some flashes during pass rush drills, but he was going against rookie free agents Roger Chanoine and Jeremy McKinney -- not Willie Roaf of New Orleans, Bob Whitfield of Atlanta or teammate Orlando Pace.
Afterward, his face was red and his forehead dripping with perspiration on a day when the temperature almost reached triple digits.
``The only thing I'm concerned with is I'm not in nearly as good shape as I need to be,'' Wistrom said. ``But I think that'll change in the next few weeks. This is probably the worst condition I've been in.
``It's terrible. I need to be in the best shape of my life right now. I really pride myself on being in the weight room a lot. But the workouts have just been so infrequent with everything that I've had to do over the past few months.''
There was that trading card ``shoot'' for Pinnacle, Topps and Upper Deck in Orlando in May. The NFL rookie symposium in Denver in late June. And earlier, there were the banquet circuit requirements that come with being a Lombardi Award winner, unanimous All-American, and national postgraduate scholarship honoree . . . for college football's co-national champions.
But there was one word that Wistrom said never will be part of his football resume: holdout.
``No, that's not me,'' he said. ``I think some guys hold out maybe just to cause a scene and be talked about. I just want to come in and be part of the team, and do the best I can. The only way to do that is to be in here on time.''
OK, so Wistrom did miss Sunday morning's practice at Western Illinois. But only because he didn't want to tackle the rigorous three hours-plus drive up U.S. 67 in the wee hours of Saturday night.
``I'm not a very good night driver,'' Wistrom said. ``I'm not a very good driver, period. So on those windy roads, I was a little nervous.''

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