Hand Injury Won’t Keep Dickerson Out of Action

Eric Dickerson is worried that the Atlanta Falcons will try to bite one of the hands that feed him Sunday.

“If I was playing on the other side of the ball and I knew a running back had a hurt hand or foot, anything hurt, I’m going to make sure I try to work on that injury,” he said Wednesday.

Dickerson broke a bone in his left hand at Seattle on Monday night and didn’t practice with the Rams on Wednesday because of a bruised right ankle.

Both injuries occurred Monday night, but nobody mentioned them then. Dickerson was upset that the hand injury had been made public.

Playing his first game after a summer-long holdout, he complained of a bruised hand in the dressing room afterward. But what is being called a “small crack” by Ram officials wasn’t diagnosed until late Tuesday.

Coach John Robinson didn’t mention it when listing team injuries during his Tuesday press luncheon, even when questioned about Dickerson’s practice schedule for the week. He didn’t even tell the Ram public relations staff.

“We just didn’t handle it very well,” Robinson said Wednesday. “It was never an issue in my mind.”

The ankle wasn’t mentioned until Wednesday as the Rams were about to start practice without him. Dickerson dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, with both hands taped.

Boy, will that confuse the Falcons.

Later, after treatments, he left Ram Park with the left hand heavily wrapped.

“It’s not that bad,” he said. “I can play.”

The Rams listed Dickerson as “probable” when the official National Football League injury list was posted Wednesday. A club spokesman said the injuries were so insignificant that Dickerson wouldn’t have been listed at all if he weren’t so prominent.

“(Even) if he were a quarterback, he would play this weekend,” Robinson said. “Believe me. The issue isn’t going to be an issue by Sunday.”

The ankle didn’t appear to be serious. Dickerson jogged frequently during practice.

Said Dickerson: “It feels fine. He (Robinson) just gave me the day off. I could run on it.”

Robinson said he didn’t think the Falcons would try to aggravate Dickerson’s hand injury.

“I think he’s growing to the status a Walter Payton has that no one tries to intimidate him,” Robinson said. “You don’t bother to try those kind of things that only get you a more aroused football player.”

But Jack Youngblood disagreed. The recently retired All-Pro defensive end, who still works out at Rams Park, said: “Sure. Certainly. There’s some young ones out there that will take advantage of any opportunity to hurt somebody. You don’t quite have the same attitude when you get older and more mature. We’re competing. We’re not trying to hurt people.”

Team physician Dr. Robert Kerlan said: “A problem with football players is they will try to do things like that. It’s a shame, but they do, especially if it’s a star like Eric.”

But Kerlan also said the injury probably could not be aggravated, even if the Falcons tried.

“We’re not worried about anything happening to complicate the injury,” he said. “We have to treat it as a fracture even though it’s an extremely small crack. We’re more concerned about the soft tissues around it, the swelling and the discomfort. We can protect the crack. We’ve got guys that play all the time with small fractures in their hands.”

Dan Henning, Falcon coach, said by phone from Atlanta: “Well, we’re aware he has a broken bone in his hand, but we have to tackle Eric Dickerson whenever he has the football. Tell him we apologize.

“I don’t think anybody would legitimately try and hurt his hand.”

Tom Pridemore, the Falcons’ eight-year veteran safety, said: “A broken hand is not something you can go after. We’ve got to go after Eric Dickerson when he has the football. We’ve got to tackle him, and you don’t tackle him by grabbing him by the hand.”

After one of the games against Atlanta last season, former Ram running back Dwayne Crutchfield said the Falcons were taking cheap shots at Dickerson.

“I’ve never heard him (Dickerson) say anything to back up that statement,” Pridemore said. “We’ve always been an aggressive defense, but we don’t go after him with any intent to physically hurt the guy, other than what we’d normally do through the course of a ballgame.”

Dickerson wasn’t convinced.

“What do you think they’re going to say? If I was on defense and we might win if we got this guy out of the game, so what?”

Dickerson injured his hand in the first quarter but didn’t mention it to team doctors, only to trainer Jim Anderson, who taped a pad over it. Dickerson continued to play and rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns in his 1985 debut.

“I talked to him several times during the game and he never said anything about his hand,” Kerlan said.

But when Dickerson got up Tuesday morning the hand was so swollen that when he showed it to Anderson, the trainer called Kerlan, who ordered X-rays. A radiologist at Anaheim Memorial Hospital suspected a small fracture but wasn’t sure, so Kerlan called in a hand surgeon, Dr. Herbert Stark, who said there was a “possible” break.

Anderson said the fracture, which is where the bones leading to the thumb and forefinger meet, is a “non-moving bone (and) won’t affect his play at all.”

Dickerson will wear a wrap of plastic packing material.

Dickerson injured the ankle on the last of his 31 rushing attempts, a 14-yard sweep of right end. He lay on his back for a few seconds, then got up and raised one finger to indicate he was coming out of the game, but not because of the ankle.

“I was winded,” Dickerson said Wednesday. “I wasn’t hurt. They were already sending Charlie (White) into the game.”

Otherwise, he said, “I’ve never taken myself out of a game”--and the Falcons won’t, either.

“No one intimidates me,” he said.

Ram Notes

Dr. Toby Freedman of the Rams’ medical staff said wide receiver Ron Brown “is doing remarkably well” in his recovery from pancreatitis. Freedman said Brown’s case was “moderately acute.” Brown has already started to do weight work and is due to start running next week. . . . Guard Dennis Harrah (torn thigh muscle) is listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game, although Harrah said he definitely will return by the following week. Reserve linebacker Norwood Vann is questionable with a knee injury. . . . Offensive tackle Bill Bain didn’t practice Wednesday because of the flu. . . . Falcon injuries include rookie starting guard Bill Fralic (pinched nerve in the neck) and his backup, Jeff Kiewel (back). Both are listed as questionable. . . . The game was 22,000 tickets short of a sellout to lift the local TV blackout at 1 p.m. Wednesday.