Rams News

Rams tell Heyward: Show up or live with the consequences

08/22/98

By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

The only way the Rams will even consider releasing Craig ``Ironhead'' Heyward is if he reports to Rams Park. So says coach Dick Vermeil, responding to Heyward's oral broadsides in Friday's Post-Dispatch.
Vermeil said Heyward's playing status is ``a bigger issue for him than it is for me. I know he's become aggressive and is throwing the words around. But it's a `no-win' for him.''
When Heyward failed to report for a scheduled weigh-in on July 24, the Rams placed him on their reserve-did not report list. As long as Heyward carries that designation, he doesn't count against the Rams' roster limit, and the Rams don't have to pay him. In effect, Heyward is in roster limbo.
The Rams are fining Ironhead $5,000 a day during his absence. As of Sunday, those fines total $150,000.
``Our fullback position is better than it was last year,'' Vermeil insisted, in reference to Heyward's replacement, Derrick Harris. ``Any teammate on the offensive football team will tell you that. Our backup situation, we're training a tight end. It would have been nice to have had Ironhead here and have him battle for the starting job.''
But there's no way Ironhead will be a Ram again now, is there?
``Didn't someone say there's no way he would play for me? That I work him too hard? And that I don't communicate and all these other things?'' Vermeil said.
Heyward made those remarks -- and more -- in a Thursday interview from his home in Atlanta.
``Guys, it's the National Football League,'' Vermeil continued. ``Not Hillsdale High School. Not Napa College. Not UCLA. It's the St. Louis Rams. It's not his right to play in it. It's a privilege to play in the National Football League.
``There were standards to be met by everybody that was on this field. All he had to do was meet them.''
Heyward would be in the second year of a four-year, $4.5 million contract. ``You've got to sell a lot of Zest to make that kind of money,'' Vermeil said, a sarcastic reference to Heyward's soap commercials.
Barring an unexpected truce, the only way Heyward can make that money is if the Rams trade him. (If he's eventually cut by St. Louis, Heyward would have to negotiate a new contract.)

More from McNeil
At his Friday news conference, holdout cornerback Ryan McNeil said he agreed to a free-agent contract with St. Louis one year ago ``because I believed in the way the organization was run. I believed in where the organization was headed, and I believed in the people that were involved.''
But McNeil said his feelings have changed. ``The way the situation is now, if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have chosen to have come here,'' he said.
McNeil also said he was upset to learn that the Rams talked to free-agent cornerbacks Doug Evans and Jeff Burris during the offseason -- both of whom eventually signed with other clubs.
``That baffled me,'' McNeil said. ``Why would you do something like that when you have a Ryan McNeil designated as your franchise player? Their response to me, from Coach Vermeil, was if they had signed Jeff Burris, they would have taken the franchise designation off.
``I don't think that's the way you do business. If you designate me the franchise player, then I think all energies should be channeled to signing that particular player. You shouldn't be engaged with me and dating other people.''
McNeil and his agent, Brian Ransom, met with Rams senior vice president Jay Zygmunt over the weekend, but there were no new contract offers by either side.
The Rams have offered two-year and four-year deals, which McNeil and Ransom have turned down. The four-year deal is for $13 million, with a $3.6 million signing bonus. The two-year deal is for $6 million, with $4 million going to McNeil in the first year, plus a proviso that the Rams would not designate McNeil a franchise player at the end of the contract.
Ransom said he would accept a multiyear deal that averages
$4 million to $5 million a year, with 50 percent of the money either in the form of a signing bonus or other guaranteed money. Few contracts in the NFL have 50 percent of their money guaranteed.

The Enis watch
Go figure Curtis Enis' contract. The running back from Penn State turned down a six-year deal with a $7.2 million signing bonus, and a five-year deal with a $5.5 million bonus. Instead, he signed a three-year deal that included a $3.6 million bonus.
In the NFL, where you're never more than a play away from a career-threatening injury -- particularly at running back -- signing-bonus money frequently is the only guaranteed money in a contract.
``Three years from now, people are going to say Greg Feste is a trend-setter,'' said Enis' agent, Greg Feste.
Huh?

Around the league
Coach Steve Mariucci has made it official in San Francisco: Unheralded Dave Fiore is his starter at left tackle, replacing the oft-injured Jamie Brown. Brown, acquired from Denver for a second-round draft pick, has been out since July 26 with hamstring, groin and abdominal injuries.
> Oakland cornerback Albert Lewis, who is entering his 16th season, has announced that he will retire at the end of the year.
> Former Ram Sean Landeta has some competition in Green Bay, with Monday's acquisition of Brian Hansen from the New York Jets.
> Arizona's current roster features three conference defensive players of the year in college: unsigned Florida State defensive end Andre Wadsworth (Atlanta Coast Conference); Arizona State safety Pat Tillman (Pacific 10 Conference); and Southern Mississippi linebacker Marchant Kenney (Conference USA).

Ram-blings
Because of space considerations, the Rams offensive line overview story did not appear in Sunday's Post-Dispatch. It is scheduled to run in Monday's paper.

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