Bain Wins the Head Game : Ram Tackle Once Thought He Wasn’t Good Enough, but Then He Became a Positive Thinking Man’s Player
The Rams, ever trendy, have hired a team psychologist.
“It’s just to help with concentration and relaxation,” Coach John Robinson said.
“Sounds like voodoo to me,” Bill Bain said.
If there are two people at training camp who probably should not meet, they are the psychologist, Dr. Saul Miller of Los Angeles, and the left offensive tackle, Bain.
Miller, who will be on call for the Rams this summer, also works with the New York Mets and has been with the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Wranglers and Vancouver Canucks.
“There are techniques available to improve performance,” Miller said. “I encourage them to be aggressive with their minds.”
But if Miller were to explore the depth of Bain’s mind, he might need scuba gear. Bain, who holds a degree in public administration from USC, is a deep thinker who often cuts across the grain of conventional thought.
For openers, he said: “There’s no such thing as a sports psychologist.”
It’s not that Bain is a skeptic. He once went to a psychologist himself.
“I had low self-esteem,” he said. “Low self-esteem is a human condition. It has nothing to do with sports.”
Bain’s problem was that by the 1982 season, he had been cast as a career backup in pro football and was only too willing to accept that role.
“It got to the point where I thought I was just no good,” he said.
“We were getting beat, 45-0, and Ray (Malavasi) still wouldn’t put me in. You think that isn’t demoralizing?”
Worse, he was most distinguished as the owner of football’s least flattering physique, about 300 pounds arranged without much thought to sex appeal.
But after seeing Dr. David Juroe of Orange for four months, Bain changed his opinion of himself.
“What I didn’t realize was that there was nobody else better to back up,” he said. “Even though I still wasn’t starting, I felt great about myself.”
Bain figured that because he had to know four positions, “there were 28,000 things I needed to know, and I knew ‘em.”
So when Irv Pankey tore an Achilles’ tendon in the second exhibition game of ‘83, Bain had to get ready to play against the Giants’ All-Pro linebacker, Lawrence Taylor.
Bain, the newborn positive thinker, thought to himself: “He’s good, but I know I can block him.”
Bain played so well that day and all season that Pankey couldn’t dislodge him when he returned in ‘84, and he seems the one sure tackle to win one of the two positions in a three-way contest this summer with Pankey and Jackie Slater, back after a knee injury.
“You’re always scared,” Bain said. “That’s the way the game is. Shoot, the sucker (you’re playing against) might be good. But I’m as good as anybody else, and I’m gonna go out and prove it again. I don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Bain, with his devastating presence among those ushering Eric Dickerson to his record 2,105 yards last season, seems about ready to step up to the next level of his profession--star--but he’s resisting the trappings that accompany the status.
The Raiders’ Lyle Alzado does TV commercials.
“Let Alzado do that stuff,” Bain said. “I just like being with my family.”
Teammate Jack Youngblood has a national underwear poster.
“He deserves it,” Bain said. “He’s the greatest player I’ve ever been around.”
Recently, Bain had an offer to appear in a television movie.
“They wanted a big, funny guy,” he said. “Freddie Dryer gave them my name. But I’d already booked a golf tournament the day they wanted me to read. I just don’t want to do that.”
Bain plays the celebrity only by participating in various charity golf tournaments during the off-season.
“That’s something I give back to the community,” he said.
He is appreciative of his status and of the people he believes helped him achieve it. How many players have given bronze, engraved plaques to sportswriters for voting for him in All-Pro polls?
“I had to go to L.A. a couple of times last week and was on the freeway locked up in that traffic,” Bain said. “I looked around and thought, ‘These people do this every day . I’m lucky as hell to be a football player.’ ”
And what a football player he has become. Even he believes it now.
“I know what they used to say,” Bain said. “ ‘He’s fat. He can’t play.’ Well, watch this old fat guy play.”
Ram Notes
Wide receiver Philip Shores, a free-agent rookie from Oklahoma, left camp Thursday with these parting words to Coach John Robinson: “I think it’s time for me to go get a job.” . . . The most impressive and encouraging part of the Rams’ efforts against the Cowboys in Thursday’s scrimmage, Robinson indicated, was the play of the defensive line, plus rookie linebacker Kevin Greene, the fifth-round pick from Auburn. Robinson especially thought that defensive end Booker Reese and nose tackle Hal Stephens played with extra effort. . . . Quarterback Jeff Kemp completed 10 of 10 in a non-contact passing drill before the scrimmage. Dieter Brock hit on 9 of 15, with one interception. Scott Tinsley completed 11 of 18 in the full scrimmage. Running back A.J. Jones, apparently competing with former USC Heisman trophy winner Charles White, rushed 7 times for 32 yards and a touchdown, and caught two passes for 14 yards. White was 8 for 29 rushing. . . . Rookie Dale Hatcher had a punt blocked, but it wasn’t his fault, Robinson said. Somebody missed a blocking assignment. Placekicker Ken Potter was 2 for 6 on field-goal attempts. . . . The squad will practice twice today, once Saturday then take Sunday off. The veterans will start practicing Monday and go to La Jolla to scrimmage the Chargers next Friday.