White Wows Robinson, Again : Ex-USC Running Back Impresses His Ex-Coach During Tryout With the Rams

Charles White, a football player looking at the end of the road, may have found his future at the off-ramp to Anaheim.

The 1979 Heisman Trophy winner Tuesday apparently passed a brief tryout for his former USC coach, John Robinson, and will sign with the Rams.

“I had an interest in only one thing,” Robinson said after White caught several passes from reserve quarterback Steve Dils, “to see if there was still any quickness in his legs.”

And?

“Hell, yes,” Robinson said.

Robinson was concerned that five years in Cleveland of injuries, drugs and the burden of carrying college football’s highest honor on his back had taken a toll on the tailback he still calls “the toughest man I’ve ever been around.”

White, 27, appeared fit and trim in his blue Ram shorts and complained only that he hadn’t had time to break in the new shoes he was issued.

Said Robinson: “He’s in great shape. I see him as a complement to Eric (Dickerson) and Barry Redden. I don’t see him as a rival for either one. I see him and Barry as the kickoff returners.”

Redden shared the NFC lead in returning kickoffs with an average of 23 yards last season. That role might be considered a comedown for a player of White’s one-time stature, but he realizes that Rams Park is a long way from his college days in the Coliseum.

“It’s a different situation,” said White, who rushed for 5,598 yards for the Trojans. “My role now is to come in and do whatever is necessary to make this ball club. It’s not like when I was at SC, carrying the ball 35 and 40 times a game, and I understand that.

“We watched some films this morning on what the offense is all about: Eric Dickerson right, Eric Dickerson left, Eric Dickerson up the middle. He said he’s gonna use me in some situations--maybe coming out of the backfield to catch a ball, of course kickoff returns, and that I could probably be an attribute to the team as one of the leaders--the winning edge.”

Robinson isn’t known for playing favorites, but he doesn’t try to disguise his affection for White.

“I have an admiration for the intensity he plays with,” said Robinson, who recalled White--who was bleeding from a lacerated nose--carrying the ball 39 times for a Rose Bowl record 247 yards in a 1980 victory over Ohio State.

“This is a game of toughness,” White said.

He got that way growing up in the streets of San Fernando.

“You want to see some tough people?” he said. “I went back home last night and played some basketball. No teeth. Earrings in their ears. Hair looking all crazy. That’s tough.”

It was also there that White picked up the one bad habit he took with him to Cleveland. Two years ago, he wound up in a drug treatment center and credits Brown owner Art Modell and former coach Sam Rutigliano with helping him straighten his life.

“Cleveland has been good to me, as far as turning my life around,” White said. “I wish I could have done a lot more for Cleveland, but I think I touched a lot of people in many different areas.

“Rutigliano and Art Modell are understanding people. They care about the human aspect of the athletes. I want to get into the community here, also, and help out with the problems. I’m not gonna solve any problems, but I can tell people there is a light down at the end of the tunnel. If they can see how a person like myself turned around, it might give them hope.”

With all his problems, White produced only 942 yards rushing for the Browns, who agreed after last season to try to trade him to a Southern California team. But the last year of his original six-year contract would have called for him to receive a $310,000 salary this season, and nobody wanted to pick that up.

Instead, he was placed on waivers, cleared and became a free agent. As a sixth-year player, he must be paid a minimum of $100,000 this season but probably will receive more.

White was not concerned.

“Just tell me where to sign,” he said. “I want to start to work as quick as possible. I don’t want to miss a day, so they can see how my attitude is. You can tell I’m excited. I’m ready to play. I’m ready to go.”

White, 5-feet 10-inches, weighed in at 192.

“When we get to training camp, I’ll go down to 185, and that’s primo for me. I feel light, quick. I just feel good. I feel like playing football again.”

He missed the ’83 season with a broken ankle and last July had arthroscopic surgery that revealed a stretched ligament in his right knee.

“It feels good,” White said. “It’s tightened up. I’ve been working on the leg extensions and the Cybex machine we had in Cleveland.

“I think I’ll perform better when it’s warm in December. The first time I ever saw snow come out of the sky was when I went to Cleveland in 1980. People back there couldn’t believe I’d never been in snow before. The first 30 minutes was fun, throwing snowballs and stuff. Then after I stood out there for two hours, I couldn’t wait to get back inside.

“After a couple years, I said, ‘I just can’t perform in weather like this.’ Give me warm weather, like out in the Valley. I went out there last night. It was 90 degrees at my grandmother’s place.”

White owns a condo in Laguna Niguel but plans to buy a house in Orange County. His wife Judy, expecting their fourth child in September, is from Mission Viejo.

“This is it: our last go-round,” White said. “We plan to settle here even if in the future something wouldn’t work out with the Rams. But I feel very good about the way things are starting to turn out.”