Rams News

Rams offensive line is giving
the media the silent treatment
08/07 11:08 PM

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

The Rams offensive line will have at least one thing in common this season with their Denver counterparts: They're not talking to the media.
Earlier this week, the offensive linemen decided not to speak to the media this season. The silent treatment took effect immediately:
> Tackle Wayne Gandy turned down an interview request from Sports Illustrated writer Austin Murphy, who had traveled to Macomb, Ill., to do a preseason story on the Rams.
> When approached by the Post-Dispatch on Monday, tackle Roger Chanoine politely said, ``I can't talk, or I'll get in trouble from the veterans.'' Chanoine is a rookie free agent from Vanderbilt.
> One Rams offensive lineman bluntly told a visiting television crew: ``We're boycotting the media.''
The offensive linemen have let Rams officials know that their ``boycott'' is an effort to create unity among their group.
Which coach Dick Vermeil thought was strange logic.
Not talking to the media, Vermeil said, will have ``nothing to do with their performance. It can't help them, and can't hurt them. So I think it's a waste of concentration.''
If they wanted to foster group unity, Vermeil said, ``They should go have a beer together. But not to talk to the media all together, I think that's the wrong way to do it.''
Vermeil said he had not heard of the boycott until approached Friday by a reporter.
Offensive line coach Jim Hanifan said he first learned of it earlier in the week, when he saw one of his blockers turn down an interview request as the team was walking off the practice field.
``I kind of went, `Huh?' '' Hanifan said.
So obviously, it wasn't Hanifan's idea, either.
``They got together, and they made this decision as a group. `We're not talking. We're going this route. And if anybody talks you're fined, and so on and so forth,' '' Hanifan said. ``It's kind of like what the Broncos did.''
Last season, the Denver offensive linemen decided not to speak, citing similar ``group unity'' reasons. But at the Super Bowl, when the league threatened to fine each player $10,000 a day for not participating in mandatory media sessions, ``group unity'' took a backseat to their pocketbooks. The offensive linemen talked, and talked profusely.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Broncos gashed Green Bay's vaunted defense for 179 yards rushing -- at 4.6 yards a carry -- and allowed no sacks.
The offensive line of the Broncos, who play the Rams at 7 tonight in the preseason opener for both teams, will reinstitute its media blackout at the end of training camp Aug. 19. ``Once these 30 days (of camp) are over with, it's over for us,'' offensive tackle Tony Jones recently told Broncos reporters.
For his part, Hanifan says he always has emphasized positive media relations during his coaching career.
``As a coach, I've always sat for interviews with the press and so forth,'' he said. ``And when I was a head coach, I would talk to my team about the relationship with the media. I know it's a very big thing with the National Football League to do that.''
The standard player contract includes a clause on media cooperation.
``I've always looked at the situation in this respect,'' Hanifan said. The media ``have a job to do. Part of that job is interviewing. So if I can help you do your thing, then that's what I should do. It's also good for the game, and it's good for the player, and it's good for the team.''
But in this instance, Hanifan says he can't force his players to talk.
``There's things I can control, but that's one thing I can't,'' he said.
And if the media boycott somehow brings the offensive line closer or makes it perform better, fine. ``Exactly,'' Hanifan said. ``I look at it in a positive note of hey, let their actions speak louder than their words.''

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