Rams News

Cleveland causes havoc with Rams' next preseason

Sunday, August 16, 1998

By Jim Thomas
Of The Post-Dispatch
Some Information Provided By Writers In Other Cities.

* When the NFL expands to 31 teams in '99, the Rams will have a bye week in the preseason.



Home games with Kansas City and San Diego. Away games against Denver and Washington. The Rams preseason schedule for 1999 was all set.

Until, that is, the NFL formally accepted Cleveland as its 31st member for the '99 season. The return of the Browns means there will be an odd number of teams in the league. Which means at least one team must have a bye each week during the regular season. And the preseason.

Alas, the Rams are one of four teams saddled with a bye during exhibition play in 1999, throwing their preseason plans into disarray.

Oh, they'll still have four preseason games. They'll just play them over five weekends.

At the moment, the Rams are scheduled to open their '99 preseason with the Oakland Raiders at the Trans World Dome on the last weekend of July. (Which would be July 31 if the game were played on a Saturday.)

They have a bye the next weekend - which would be Saturday, Aug. 7 - then have games on the last three weekends of August.

A Rams official, who requested anonymity, says the addition of the bye week means the games at Denver and Washington are "probably out the window" because of scheduling conflicts. Even the annual Governor's Cup preseason game with Kansas City could be in jeopardy. "That may be hard to do," the team official said.

In a sense, the Rams have only themselves to blame for this scheduling predicament. The teams receiving preseason byes were selected based on draft order. The four teams picking at the top of last April's draft were handed a bye. Arizona, which drafted third, and San Diego, which drafted second, were able to escape the bye - apparently because of commitments for a fifth preseason game.

That meant the Rams, who drafted No. 6 overall by virtue of their 5-11 record in 1997, slid into the final bye slot.



Camp Vermeil

Is the word out around the NFL about Dick Vermeil's tough training camps and tough regular-season practices?

Cornerback Todd Lyght said only one prospective free agent signee asked him about Vermeil's practices this past offseason - former Rams defensive lineman Sean Gilbert.

"He was asking me about the (practice) situation, but I don't think that's really a good example, because I knew he wasn't going to return to the Rams," Lyght said.

When Gilbert made a free agent visit to Rams Park, Lyght said he asked Gilbert, " `What are you even doing here?' "

Gilbert's reply? "My agent made me come."

Gilbert eventually signed with Carolina.

Lyght and Rams safety Keith Lyle said practice methods would be part of their formula in choosing a team if they were free agents.

"Especially when you get older, you've got to look at that," Lyle said. "When I get older, and my contract was up, I'd have to take stuff into consideration. Location. How long they practice. If the team's successful. Everything."



Cheap shots

Defensive tackle Ray Agnew missed some practice time this past week because of soreness in his knee, but not because of illegal chop blocks made by Denver offensive linemen in the Rams' preseason opener.

"That's not a good part of the game, but some guys do it," Agnew said. "Not a whole lot of guys. Most of the guys in the league respect each other. They don't do something like that to each other. We have a few that don't care."

Agnew isn't exactly sure which Denver player - or players - went after his knees, but said, "There were a couple plays where they went at me."

As part of a Sporting News survey, Rams defensive tackle Joe Phillips was asked to name the dirtiest player in the NFL. Without hesitation, he replied, "The entire Denver Bronco offensive line. They're a nasty group. They claw you, scratch you, hold you, leg-whip you, anything possible to throw the block. They're the dirtiest players in the league.

"A lot of stuff they do is within the rules. But maybe they need to take a look at the rules, and adjust them."

Phillips played the Broncos twice a year during his six-year tenure with the Kansas City Chiefs.



Postcard from Macomb

- Ron and Penny Fricke of Waverly, Ill., were guests of the Rams on Thursday. Ron, a truck owner-operator, spent $1,200 for an Isaac Bruce autographed football at a Triopia High fundraiser.

- Co-defensive coordinator Peter Giunta was a backup hockey goalie at St. John's High near Salem, Mass.

- Co-defensive coordinator John Bunting's son is named Brooks Taylor Bunting - after John's two favorite athletes. That would be former Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson and former Packers running back Jim Taylor.

- Chipmunks were running along the sidelines during Tuesday's night practice at Hanson Field.

- Holdout cornerback Ryan McNeil may hold a news conference late this week in St. Louis. The Rams believe he will announce - reluctantly - that he is accepting the team's $3.2 million tender offer as a franchise player.



Leaf & Seau

That practice scuffle between San Diego quarterback Ryan Leaf and linebacker Junior Seau? Seems Leaf took exception to some rookie hazing by Seau. Included in that category was a $2,800 tab at a posh sushi restaurant charged to Leaf's credit card, which somehow ended up in Seau's possession. Seau took about two dozen teammates out to dinner on Leaf's card.

"He got kind of riled up, but it's just one of those things you have to go through as a rookie," Seau said.



Around the league

A crowd of 28,000, paying $10 a piece, watched the 49ers scrimmage the Chargers on Tuesday night in Stockton, Calif., the Niners new training camp home.

- Emory Smith, the younger brother of Cowboys star Emmitt Smith, has a decent chance to make the Green Bay roster as a backup fullback.

- Arizona coach Vince Tobin has informed the Cardinals that training camp would be a skunk-free zone this year. Last year, quarterback Jake Plummer carried a maimed skunk into his dormitory room, thinking he was toting a plastic bag filled with chicken wings. Yes, it was one of those rookie pranks.

- World travelers: Dallas, which plays in Mexico on Monday night against New England, has played five preseason games outside the United States since 1992. They're 0-4-1 in those games.

- Denver guard Mark Schlereth had the 21st surgery of his NFL career Monday,
when bone chips were removed from his left elbow.

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