Putting on the Pressure : Rams Counting on Gary Jeter to Come All the Way Back From a Bad Back

A quarterback dropping back to pass against the Rams in recent years has had the luxury of entering a sanctuary otherwise known as the pocket.

For most quarterbacks, this place is Hell’s Kitchen, a no-parking zone where careers and bodies often end up in pieces on the ground.

But for Ram opponents, the pocket has long been a quiet little spot in the backfield to which a quarterback can go for a leisurely look at the game as it unfolds. They don’t call the Ram defensive front the Fearsome Threesome these days.

The Rams had just 43 sacks in 1984, 17th best in the NFL.

With nothing but time on their hands, opposing quarterbacks completed nearly 70% of their passes last season.

So it’s no secret in Ram Camp that the pressure on the defensive line this season is to put a little of it on the quarterback.

But is it possible? The Rams didn’t trade or draft for a bona fide pass rusher in the off-season, and their best one, 35-year-old Jack Youngblood, isn’t even in training camp yet because of a bad back.

So, it is under this hanging cloud of doubt that all eyes turn to Gary Jeter.

Ram Coach John Robinson says: “He’s a huge cog in the wheel.”

Defensive line coach Marv Goux says: “We’re counting on Gary being an outstanding pass rusher.”

Gary Jeter says he welcomes the responsibility.

“In order for the Rams to be in the Super Bowl, Gary Jeter has to put tremendous pressure on the quarterback,” he said.

And that seems to put tremendous pressure on Jeter, too, especially since he doesn’t even start.

Jeter’s role this year will be as a specialist. Playing behind Reggie Doss at right end, he has been appointed the Rams’ designated sacker. In passing situations, he’ll come off the bench to zero in on the opposing quarterback. Or at least he’d better.

The Rams made a trade with the New York Giants in 1983 to get Jeter, a former All-American at USC whose forte was giving quarterbacks migraines.

But, there are a few things you should know about the man on whom the Rams are so heavily counting.

A year ago today, Gary Jeter was lying flat on his back in Centinela Hospital Medical Center. He was aching from a herniated disc and figured his career was over.

Tackling a quarterback was the furthest thing from the mind of a player who couldn’t tie his own shoes.

Jeter spent 11 days in the hospital and another month on his back at home. His 6-4, 260-pound body was losing its muscle tone because of inactivity. Jeter, then an aging 29-year-old defensive end, didn’t want to play football again.

“I didn’t want to go back out there,” he said. “I thought I could get hurt real bad. I said, ‘Fine, it’s been a good career, I made some money and I met a lot of good people.’ ”

Jeter figured that rushing a quarterback was hard enough without having to worry about his sacroiliac.

“Oh, it’s very simple,” Jeter said jokingly of the art of pass rushing. “All I have to do, in three seconds, is get by a 290-pound guy who looks like he hasn’t eaten in about three weeks.”

Jeter injured his back on the first day of last year’s training camp while attempting to throw 267-pound offensive tackle Irv Pankey out of his way.

Pankey went right, Jeter went left and his back went out.

“I don’t like to show pain when I’m hurt,” Jeter said. “I like to play the macho thing. But I was hurting so bad the tears would just start rolling out of my eyes. I would say, ‘God, please stop my back from hurting.’ ”

Jeter tried to cover up the injury, but his coach, Goux, soon noticed that something was wrong with Jeter. Goux has long suffered from back problems.

“You can tell by the eyes,” Goux said. “You can see the pain.”

So Jeter checked into the hospital and spent most of the next two weeks in traction.

“Going to the bathroom was a challenge,” Jeter said. “I could imagine what it would be like to be paralyzed. All the obstacles and the little things you have to overcome. And I wasn’t getting any better. It was like I was handicapped. I was flat on my back. It was the only way to keep pressure of the disc.”

But slowly, Jeter started to get better. He began swimming in the pool near Rams Park in Anaheim. Ram strength trainer Garrett Giedmont put Jeter on a light exercise program, and he gradually regained his strength.

Jeter spent 10 weeks on the injured reserve list, but he returned to play in five games. He was hardly the same player.

“I didn’t think he would come back last year,” Goux said. “I really didn’t. But he wasn’t Gary Jeter. He could play, but he wasn’t in shape. He was about two steps slower, but when you have a bad back, you can never really be at full speed.”

With a full off-season to recover, Jeter says he is back at full strength.

“I don’t even think about my back unless somebody brings it up,” he said.

Robinson, known as a great motivator, has been praising the play of Jeter thus far in camp.

“I give him a serious chance for becoming the NFL’s comeback player of the year. I’m serious,” Robinson said.

And so is Jeter.

He seems to have regained the look and attitude of a mean and nasty defensive end.

Sitting recently in his training camp room at Cal State Fullerton, Jeter’s eyes got wide when he started talking about quarterbacks.

“I want to get there,” he said of hitting the quarterback. “If I get knocked down, then I’m crawling.

“I just have a dislike for quarterbacks. I really do. I see these guys dropping back to pass in their protective little environment. They make a lot of money. In training camp, they’re not tired and sore like I am because they got these red shirts on so you can’t hit them.”

Ram quarterback Steve Dils, overhearing the conversation from another room, opened the door and yelled: “Hey, hey, hey, take it easy.”

Jeter just smiled.

“I have nothing against Steve Dils, but when he drops to pass I don’t see Dils, I see a guy I could care less about. I don’t hit them cause they got red jersey’s on. You hit one of them and you get yelled and screamed at. When I was with the Giants, I used to get a lot of 15-yard penalties (for roughing the passer). I figured, hey, I got through here, I want to hit him.”

Jeter said it takes an attitude like that to be a great pass rusher.

But he said the real key is outsmarting your opponent.

“Ninety-nine percent of pass rushing is mental,” Jeter said. “Everybody in this league is large. I just played against a kid from the Chargers in a scrimmage. He was 290 pounds. You can’t run over them. You’ve got to trick them. These guys nowadays are lifting tons and tons of weight. It scares me.”

But Jeter knows his role well and can’t wait to go to work, to pick up the slack and pick up some sacks on the defensive line.

And the time is now.

“If I’m coming off the ball late and am just dancing there while the ball is being thrown, . . . If I’m not at the quarterback by one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, then I’m lost. I might as well be sitting on the sideline.”