Rams News

Linebacker hopes for long stay
08/05 11:28 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

MACOMB, Ill. -- Ask Rams linebacker coach John Bunting about London Fletcher, and he can't stop talking about Sam Mills -- the now-retired NFL linebacking great. Bunting and Mills were once teammates in the USFL. Mills was tough, even-keeled, relentless . . . and 5 feet 9.
``London has got some of those same characteristics,'' Bunting said. ``He loves football. He's very, very quick. He has a real chance.''
And you should see Fletcher on a basketball court. He was good enough to earn a Division I college basketball scholarship to St. Francis (Pa.), starting a couple of games at point guard as a freshman. Basketball always was his escape.
When his world was crashing in around him, Fletcher headed to his backyard court at home. Sometimes, he'd be out there till 4, 5 in the morning -- the thump, thump, thump of the ball occasionally waking his family.
Fletcher's mother, Linda, has been battling a drug addiction since he was 14.
``She still has problems,'' Fletcher said. ``It's not as bad as it once was.''
His sister, Kecia, died in a rape and beating when he was 12.
``I think about her a lot,'' said Fletcher, 23. ``What might have been.''
But a funny thing happened to him at St. Francis. He missed football. St. Francis had a team, but Fletcher didn't like the coach. So before his sophomore basketball season, he transferred to John Carroll, an NCAA Division III school in his hometown of Cleveland.
By the time he completed his senior season for the Blue Streaks, Fletcher was a small-college star. He set school records for most tackles in a game (29), and most tackles in a season (202). He was named national linebacker of the year in Division III.
But he wasn't invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in February, and he went undrafted in April. Fletcher weighs 245 pounds and runs a 4.5 in the 40. But he's Sam Mills-like in stature -- a mere 5-10. And John Carroll wasn't playing Michigan, Notre Dame and Florida State every week.
``I was extremely disappointed on draft day,'' Fletcher said.
But the Rams quickly signed him to a free agent contract, and now he's trying to find a job at a position -- middle linebacker -- where the competition is stiff. Eric Hill is the starter. Lorenzo Styles is an emerging backup. If that weren't enough, former Florida State star Daryl Bush is trying to make the roster as a rookie free agent.
Yet Fletcher is eerily confident.
``I can't worry about what those other guys do,'' Fletcher said. ``What I'm trying to do is make it so tough on the coaches, that they can't keep me off the team. Where they say, `We've got to have this guy on the football team somewhere.' ''
With apologies to Mills, Fletcher's role model in the sawed-off linebacker genre is Mike Singletary, the former undersized Chicago Bear who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.
``Me being a shorter linebacker is more to my advantage than a disadvantage,'' Fletcher insists. ``The game of football is a game of leverage. A lineman is going to have to get pretty low to `out-leverage' me. He's going to have to be on his knees basically to get lower than me.''
Given his squat build, Fletcher looks like a fast-moving tree stump running around the practice fields at Western Illinois University.
``Some guys feel like they were born to do certain things,'' Fletcher said. ``I feel like I was born to play football, just based on my instincts, the things that I do, and the things that God has just blessed me with naturally. I feel like my potential is unlimited. Once I'm given an opportunity to play, there's no telling what I'll be able to do on the football field.''
Never mind the long odds he faces as an NFL linebacker because of his short stature. Fletcher is fast enough and mobile enough to play outside linebacker, but Rams coaches are hesitant to use him there because he's too short to see over the tight end into the backfield.
The tedium of two-a-days? His current lowly status on the depth chart? The NFL competition he will face, beginning with Saturday's preseason opener against Denver? No problem.
``When I think about the situations that I've dealt with, this is easy for me,'' Fletcher said. ``This football stuff is very easy. I've battled a lot of stuff in my life, with my mom, and having a sister killed.
``Those types of situations have made me so much tougher, that nothing on a football field could faze me. The biggest lineman, or the hardest-hitting fullback -- none of that stuff can faze me.''
He'd like to make it for his mother. ``I've always tried to make her proud, to try to get her self-esteem back up,'' he said.
Time will tell. Despite their similarities, Fletcher currently lacks Mills' uncanny ability to shed blockers. But sometimes, that's a skill that can be learned.
``What he does have is the ability to run around,'' Bunting said. ``Tremendous coverage skills. He might be a great special teams player.''
And a fine addition to the Rams' offseason charity basketball team.

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