Rams Notebook : Hill May Be Out of the Linemen Club After ‘Long’ Reception

Tight end David Hill’s 37-yard pass reception in the third quarter was his longest in eight years, since a 61-yard scoring catch for the Detroit Lions in 1977.

For Hill, 31, his run after the catch seemed like eight years.

“The few passes I catch, I usually get hit right away,” he said. “This time, I turned and looked upfield and there was nobody there. It was a shock.

“Everybody told me I was waiting for somebody to catch me so I wouldn’t have to run any more.”

Hill was slow getting up after free safety Lonnie Young knocked him out of bounds, but not because he was tired.

“I fell on the ball and bruised my ribs,” he said. “You can go ask the doctor.”

Hill is used mostly as a blocker these days, but the play may disqualify him from the ranks of the offensive linemen.

“I caught a pass for more than 10 yards, so I’m out of the club,” he said.

Tony Hunter, acquired from Buffalo in the Vince Ferragamo trade last summer, had to think hard to recall the last time he had caught two touchdown passes in one game.

“The last time was at Notre Dame,” he said. “I was a freshman and it was against USC.”

The USC coach was John Robinson.

Henry Ellard doesn’t mind returning punts, but his courage was severely tested when E.J. Junior, the Cardinals’ 235-pound linebacker, broke loose on a fake punt. Ellard, outweighed by 65 pounds, was the last man between Junior and the goal line.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my God!’ ” Ellard said. “ ‘A big man like that, what can I do?’ I figured all I could do was try for a shoestring tackle or try to slow him down until help got there. If I’d have jumped on his back he probably would have just carried me into the end zone. It was kind of scary.”

Ellard was saved, however, when referee Chuck Heberling whistled the play dead. The 30-second clock had run out on the Cardinals before the snap, and they were penalized five yards for delay of game.

“It sure was nice to hear the whistle,” Ellard said.

Ram linebacker Mike Wilcher was asked how many passes he tipped Sunday.

“Three,” he said. “Two on one play.”

In the second quarter he tipped a pass by Neil Lomax and the ball went toward inside linebacker Jim Collins, who tipped it back to Wilcher, who tipped it again before it fell to the ground.

“It looked like we were playing volleyball,” Wilcher said.

Eric Dickerson was barely towel-dried when the first questions started rolling in about next Monday night’s game against the Raiders at Anaheim Stadium.

“Gee, Eric, would that little game mean anything now that you’ve already clinched the division?”

Said Dickerson: “If we were 15-1, we’d want to win that game.”

From the “How many times does this happen?” department: Members of the Ram special teams, ranked No. 1 overall in the NFL, were introduced individually before Sunday’s game . . . Former Ram Coach George Allen, who emphasized special teams play, would have been proud.

Allen, in fact, attended the game. He was the color commentator for St. Louis radio station KMOX.

So what does it mean to be a champion? Robinson, entered the press room after the game and couldn’t find a chair to sit in.

“Champions are supposed to have a chair,” he said.

Wide receiver, Ron Brown, on his full bow to the crowd after he scores a touchdown: “I’ve had it since college. I’ve always liked it because it’s a way to thank the crowd. It’s a class move, more than spiking.”