Rams News

Rams aren't sold on Camp Vermeil

Sunday, August 30, 1998

By Jim Thomas
Of The Post-Dispatch

Farewell to the preseason. Now, it's real.

But you'd have a hard time convincing Rams players that what has transpired in the last five weeks - six weeks for rookies and selected veterans - was some sort of trip to Fantasy Football Island.

Beyond the stats, the final scores, the who's playing well/who's not, the story within the story of the Rams' 1998 preseason was the grueling training camp conducted by coach Dick Vermeil. The team that ended exhibition play with a 2-2 record after Friday's 10-6 victory in Kansas City was tired and beat up. A little more beat up than the '97 version, according to some players.

No Rams player will say it publicly, but after the long trip to San Diego for preseason game No. 2, and the draining return to Macomb, Ill., for 3 1/2 more days of training camp, this team was a couple steps shy of mutiny.

But Vermeil, whose team opens the season next Sunday against New Orleans, will hear none of it. He has driven this team to the edge because he demands excellence in his own eccentric way. He wants to instill mental toughness. But also because he knows no other way.

This basically is the way he's always coached. Hard work never hurt anybody, Vermeil has said frequently. It did, however, drive him out of the game with burnout in 1982.

One of the most curious scenes since the franchise moved to St. Louis unfolded last week at Rams Park. During the NFL-mandated open locker room period - an allotted time for the media to interview the players - the lights were dimmed in the locker room. Many players were napping. And they weren't playing possum to avoid the media. These were young men in their physical prime, napping in the middle of the day.

After Wednesday's practice, the Rams held a team barbecue for players, their wives and children, and all Rams employees. The barbecue was Vermeil's idea - a good idea - to bring the organization closer together. But few players attended. A silent slam at Vermeil? Probably not.

Most players probably were too tired to attend. Or wanted to get away from football - even in that casual setting - for a while. Most days in training camp began at 7 a.m. and ended after 10 p.m.

Even back at Earth City for the last 10 days, we're talking 10-hour days, with players on the field for 3 1/2 hours of practice. When is enough enough in terms of meeting time and practice time? When do you reach the point of diminishing returns?

Listen to Joe Phillips, a 13-year veteran and a conditioning freak.

"I just keep a positive attitude and think things will turn out well for us here," Phillips said, amid those dim lights in the locker room. "You can't work as hard as we work and not have things turn out well. You just can't.

"It might be sooner, it might be later, but eventually it will. Because there are talented people in this room, and when you rehearse it the way we rehearse it, as many times as we rehearse it, eventually it's going to carry over."

And this from D'Marco Farr, an undersized overachiever who gets by in the NFL largely on effort: "He promised by the regular season, we'd have our legs back. So we're going to hold him to it."

"He," of course, being Vermeil.

Back from Kansas City, the players had treatment, film review and meetings on Saturday. Sunday and Monday are days off. That means three days off the practice field. Will that be enough to freshen up the legs?

Some players feel it takes 10 days to two weeks to get the effects of training camp out of their bodies. Vermeil slacked off some once the team left Macomb. But did he slack off enough?

If he didn't, and if the team starts slowly in the regular season, one player mumbled, "then you might see a revolt." Or a team that mentally gives up on the season.

The results of the final two preseason games might help. Sure, the Rams displayed plenty of warts in victories over Dallas and the Chiefs, but they were victories. Maybe the hard work will indeed start paying off.

"You always want to get a victory," safety Keith Lyle said. "But preseason doesn't mean much. You're looking at so many different guys. Now don't get me wrong, it means something, because you've got to be smart, and play well, and stay healthy. But it's time for the big one."

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