Jeter Has Come On With a Rush, but . . . : . . . Ram Sack Specialist Finds That Recognition Comes Harder Than a Title

Gary Jeter will miss the Pro Bowl this season. Again.

That makes nine in a row now, and he’s beginning to suspect, like Harold Stassen, that it just wasn’t meant to be. Worse, it may have less to do with his ability than his past personality.

“It’s been one of my better years,” said Jeter, who has sacked 10 quarterbacks for the Rams. “In 1980, I was the defensive player of the year with the Giants . . . led the team in tackles, sacks. I was an alternate for the Pro Bowl. I felt I should have gone to the Pro Bowl.”

But the players are selected by their peers. “I’m sure I wasn’t the best-liked guy,” Jeter said. “I was a little arrogant, pretty cocky. That was my style then. I was leading cheers and playing on a team that was going nowhere. It was like I was trying to get personal recognition.”

Now, his chances for recognition may be reduced because he is not a full-time player but a specialist--a pass rusher.

“He’s the designated hit man,” said Marv Goux, the defensive line coach.

Jeter said: “I like my role. It’s not the minutes, it’s the quality of the minutes. When a guy’s in there, is he filling the space or is he making plays?”

When the Rams think the opponent is going to run, Reggie Doss plays right end. When the guess is pass, Jeter goes in.

Jeter said: “Reggie’s doing a good job. But that’s not saying I can’t play the run.”

Jeter sacked St. Louis quarterback Neil Lomax twice Sunday, but two other times--when the Cardinals tried to cross up the Rams and run--he tackled Stump Mitchell for losses.

Goux, who also coached Jeter at USC, recalled some other plays.

“At New Orleans, he takes the tackle, knocks him back, knocks the fullback down and makes the tackle,” Goux said. “It’s not that he can’t play against the run. Reggie plays against the run and does an excellent job. Jeter comes in fresh and rushes the passer.

“In the 49er game, they ran that reverse, and he’s the guy that caught (Jerry Rice). Gary has great speed.”

Against St. Louis, he helped Shawn Miller sack Lomax on an attempted flea-flicker pass play by taking two blockers to the inside as Miller circled around outside unimpeded.

It was a strong, all-round performance, and Jeter seemed slightly surprised that anyone had noticed.

He believes that neither the players nor sportswriters should elect the Pro Bowl teams.

“A lot of the players haven’t seen most of the players, even the ones in their conference,” Jeter said. “You’re only looking at certain positions. I’m on defense, so I’m seeing all offenses. I never see the other team’s defense.

“I think it should be put in the hands of, I don’t know, maybe the league office or the coaches, because with the players, it becomes a joke.

“I can’t put it in the fans’ hands because they don’t really watch the interior lines, (and) I don’t think all the writers are watching the game, from some of the things they write.”

One election Jeter could win is for the Rams’ comeback player of the year. Last season, a herniated disk had him on injured reserved from the first day of training camp until the last five games. He was in bed for two months, considering his future.

“Go to the bathroom, shower, get in the paper, that was it,” he said.

After hurting his back in a light, routine drill, Jeter lay around his room at camp for a couple of days, hoping it would get better. Then when free safety Johnnie Johnson broke an ankle and was taken to the hospital, Jeter went along to have his back checked.

“I wheeled Johnnie into the hospital, and when Johnnie was leaving, I was still there,” Jeter said. “That’s when I knew it was serious.

“I had retired mentally. There was no way I was gonna go out there and have my back hurt like that again. No way.

“Normally, when you hurt a knee or an ankle or break a finger, you can go to somebody and say, ‘How long did it take you to heal?’ But with this injury, it was like everybody I knew had never come back. Guys on other teams had retired. I said, ‘Man, this don’t look good.’

“So I started calling up favors on people. ‘Remember me? Remember you said that if I ever needed a job to give you a call?’ Some people were responsive and some people weren’t.”

Jeter returned late in the season, about 20 pounds overweight at 285 because he hadn’t been able to work out. After the season, he entered a rehabilitation program supervised by Garrett Giemont, the Rams’ strength trainer.

Giemont said: “When someone has an injury, their career flashes in front of their eyes. The first thought is, ‘Will I ever play again?’ Knees are common. I call it a union job, we’ve rehabbed so many throughout the years.”

Backs are becoming more routine, with some exceptions. Jack Youngblood, for example, retired after 14 seasons with a back injury.

“Jete’s was a current injury, while Jack’s was over a period of time,” Giemont said, and that apparently made a difference. “Jack decided what would be best for everybody. If it was at year 10, you’d see him back out here playing. He is stronger now than when he was playing.”

Jeter, 30, said that Giemont was very patient. “I was an ass most of the time because I was used to working out on my own,” Jeter said. “But I knew I couldn’t be selfish anymore. I had to be a team player. And it worked. When I came to training camp this year, I was ready.”

That’s when Goux told him the Rams planned to platoon their defensive linemen this season.

“We just told Gary, ‘You’re gonna be our designated pass rusher,’ ” Goux said.

For Jeter, it was a promotion. He had been a full-time player with the Giants but a part-timer with the Rams, who used him inside at tackle, where he had never played, in their four-man-line pass defense scheme. Now, he was back outside, and with a title.

“I’m more comfortable outside because you have more room to work,” Jeter said. “You have to be tremendously strong to run ‘em straight back.

“I go into the game thinking I’m going to make plays, and I make plays. My attitude is not cocky, it’s confident.”

But he does study his opponents.

“Oh, definitely,” he said. “I’m a student of football. The way we used to do it in New York was to critique every man, and (defensive line) Coach Lamar Leachman had us write up something on each guy--how he set, what his strengths were, what his weaknesses were and how we would combat this particular player.

“I pretty much brought that approach over here. I write it down and study and watch.”

When Jeter sacked Joe Montana at San Francisco two weeks ago, it killed the 49ers’ last hope of a comeback. He beat 300-pound Bubba Paris, the 49ers’ second-round draft choice in ’82.

“I’d been beating him all game, but Montana was throwing the ball (too soon),” Jeter said. “(Paris) doesn’t set up very quick, and my whole thing was to get off the ball.”

But that time, Montana had to wait because his receivers were covered. “I came around the outside,” Jeter said. “I just did one of my old moves that I’ve been doing ever since I’ve been playing football. I got in closer and gave him a little more head motion than normal.”

Jeter explained that the better pass rushers choreograph their rushes, almost like a series of karate moves. They can even describe them, like wrestling holds.

“Oh, sure,” Jeter said. “That was head fake, inside slap and run around.”

“Everything I do is planned. It’s something that you feel. If the guy sets short, you have to go to something quick. I have a move and I have a countermove. Every move has a countermove.

“We’ve got guys that are sack artists: Richard Dent in Chicago or Leonard Marshall in New York. (The Jets’ Mark) Gastineau is more speed. He just runs around guys. I don’t see him do much. But you watch guys like Lee Roy Selmon (of Tampa Bay), Howie Long (of the Raiders), it’s a lot of technique. I see Howie Long all the time step one way and rip the other way.”

Jeter has two uncles, Tony and Bob Jeter, who played in the NFL.

“They had tremendous influence, but I never thought I was going to play football,” he said. “I was a basketball player, a baseball player. I didn’t think I was tough enough.”

In the ninth grade at Cleveland’s Cathedral Latin High School, Jeter said he was terrible. “They put me on the line, and I didn’t like that. I wanted to be a tight end like my Uncle Tony--some other position than blocking somebody. I wanted to get my name in the paper.

“So, I got beat around and told the coach, ‘I’m not gonna play anymore if I have to go through this. What can I do?’

“He said, ‘You should start lifting weights.’

“And that’s what happened. I started lifting weights and I started getting big.”

He started as a sophomore, won All-City and All-State honors as a junior, was swamped with scholarship offers as a senior, and selected USC.

“The last time I won a championship of any kind was at Southern Cal,” Jeter said this week, reflecting on the Rams’ NFC West title. “You look at (former USC coaches) Hudson Houck, Marv Goux, John Robinson, Bruce Snyder, Gil Haskell--these guys are winners.”