Rams News

Bruce keeps tuning those hamstrings
07/31 10:52 PM
By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff 
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The typical day begins with about 10 minutes on the exercise bike. Just to loosen up. After that he does his ``crunches,'' then Isaac Bruce heads over to the weights.
``It may be upper-body one day, lower-body the next day,'' Bruce says. ``After all that, I go outside and run out in the 95-degree weather.'' Sometimes it's with a ``parachute'' attached to his back, an exercise frequently used by track athletes to build up the legs, the abdomen, and help the running form. Then he runs up the hill next to the parking lot at Dean Lotz's Memphis, Tenn., gym complex. Lotz, former University of Memphis strength coach, is Bruce's personnel trainer.
There's a football field on the complex, so Bruce usually runs routes, with one of the locals throwing to him.
``The day's about done for me after that,'' says Bruce. Next stop -- the couch. ``By the time I hit the couch and find something good to watch, I'm asleep,'' Bruce said. ``I watch `The Big Valley,' then `Jeopardy,' and that'll be it for me. By the time the final question's on, I'm asleep.''
Workouts. Classes at the University of Memphis. ``The Big Valley.'' That, in a nutshell, was Bruce's not-so-glamorous offseason. The Rev. Ike spent about two months in St. Louis, participating in minicamps and the team's offseason conditioning program at Rams Park.
The rest of the time he was in Memphis, with an occasional side trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to visit his mother. The discerning Rams fans might study Bruce's workout schedule and wonder: What, no special hamstring exercises?
Not to worry. ``I worked them a lot,'' Bruce said. ``I did a lot of stiff `dead' lifts. A lot of leg curls. Leg lunges. Whatever you can imagine for a hamstring, I did it. I'm still doing it now. I'm just trying to get through training camp. I get through this, it's smooth sailing.''
So far, so good in the Rams training camp. But the team's star receiver didn't even hit choppy waters until Aug. 6 last preseason. He tweaked a hamstring that day -- the Hamstring from Hell.
Bruce would sit out a couple of days, then try to return. More discomfort. So he'd sit out a few more days, then try to return. Pain. Before he knew it, Bruce had missed the Rams' final three exhibition games. Then four of the first five regular-season games. The only game he tried to play among those five, Week 3 in Denver, he re-injured the hamstring after about a half-dozen plays.
Rest and exercise is the only way to heal a hamstring. So after the Denver game, Bruce shut it down. Wide receivers are human versions of finely tuned race cars, and Bruce couldn't go full throttle until midseason.
``Like I've said, it didn't frustrate me at all,'' Bruce said. ``I know it's a part of the game. Even Jeff Gordon has a flat tire. He has to get his engine re-tuned and everything. And he's back.''
Suffice it to say, Bruce feels ``re-tuned.'' He was never really 100 percent healthy the entire '97 season.
``After the hamstring started getting stronger, I twisted the ankle,'' Bruce said. ``Then my hand was totally messed up. I think I was about 70 percent, but I was just trying to be on the field for the guys.''
Bruce actually thinks his hand was broken, near the wrist, although several X- rays detected no breaks. ``I was surprised, because the pain was just unbearable,'' he said.
Mentally, Bruce insists no sting remains from a couple of bumps in the road with coach Dick Vermeil last season. For one, Vermeil chided Bruce for failing to work out full-time with the team during the offseason (prior to the '97 season). For another, Vermeil lashed out at Bruce after Bruce criticized some team members -- he didn't mention names -- for not trying hard enough to end the Rams' losing ways.
``Honestly, I never had a problem with Dick,'' Bruce said. ``Maybe he had a problem with something I said. But as for me, there was never a problem.''
Bruce, by the way, increased the time he spent in St. Louis this past offseason and may move permanently to St. Louis once he completes work on his college degree at Memphis.
Bruce was very close to Mike Martz, his receivers coach from 1994-96, but says he's getting more comfortable with his current position coach -- Dick Coury -- who was brought in by Vermeil.
``Mike's still my man, and if we can hook up in the future one year down the road, I'd love it,'' Bruce said. ``But Dick's a great coach and gets his points across, along with (offensive coordinator) Jerry Rhome. They help out a lot. I'm just happy we can have a working relationship.''
The soft-spoken Bruce isn't the easiest person to get to know. ``He's a loner,'' Coury said. ``He's got his own personality, but he's a great guy. He wants to learn, and he wants to get back to the Pro Bowl, which is great, because he's got that kind of ability.''
Bruce made the Pro Bowl in 1996, when his 1,338 receiving yards led the NFL. Coming on the heels of his astounding '95 season, when he set franchise records with 119 catches for 1,781 yards, Bruce was widely considered among the game's elite receivers.
Then his production fell off in the injury-plagued '97 campaign (56 catches for 815 yards). The media and public have short memories. In one of the preseason magazines that flood the market this time of year, Bruce wasn't even included in a list of the top 10 wide receivers in the league.
Concealing his intense pride, Bruce shrugged and said, ``That's the way it goes. I really don't read them. I know what I can do. And I'm pretty sure other defensive coordinators know what I can do. Next year, I'll probably be above No. 1. I'll be zero.''
That was a joke. In the next breath, Bruce said with the utmost sincerity, ``I come in here to camp with the mentality that I'm just trying to make the team.''
Just a wild guess, but Bruce probably makes the 53-man roster. Beyond that, the Rams are doing what they can to make sure he's in all 16 contests this year.
Vermeil adjusted the team's training camp practice schedule so the receivers as a whole do a little less running. He's also instructed Coury to keep an eye on Bruce at all times.
``Coach (Vermeil) is real conscious of it,'' Coury said. ``He wants me to know if he's tired or worn down. If it gets to be real hot and stuff like that to let him know. Because we sure don't want to lose him.''
Bruce has felt so frisky, he occasionally worked on the Rams punt return ``scout'' team before the team left Macomb for Champaign. Which is a scary thought. A $3 million a year special teams player . . . with a history of hamstring problems.

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