NFL DRAFT / THE DAY AFTER : Rams : Bain Ready to Take On New Kids
If the Rams were sending Bill Bain a message by spending their first two draft choices on offensive linemen this week, he had an emphatic reply.
“I’m fired up to play,” Bain said Wednesday. “I’m not going to retire. I’m more worried about the nuclear fallout than the guys they drafted.”
Bain, an All-Pro at left tackle in 1984 but a non-starter in ‘85, will be 34 and the oldest Ram lineman when the season starts. He has not been among the players working out voluntarily at Rams Park this off-season, raising speculation about his future.
But Bain said he has been on a vigorous conditioning program since February. On the phone from his home, Bain was huffing and puffing on his exercise bike as he talked.
“I’ve been down here in Dana Point every day, playing golf and riding my Lifecycle,” Bain said. “I go to a gym in San Clemente for the weights. (Rams Park) is just too far to go . . . 35 miles, 50 minutes each way. This way I can spend more time with my girls.”
Next week, Bain said, he plans to attend the Rams’ offensive mini-camp, where he will meet first-round choice Mike Schad from Queen’s University in Canada and second-rounder Tom Newberry from Wisconsin LaCrosse.
“I told the scouts back in November, ‘You guys better go get some linemen,’ ” Bain said. “We’re all getting older. They drafted right. But I’ve seen only one guy come in and start right away--(Atlanta’s Bill) Fralic--and that’s because he came from a program (the University of Pittsburgh) that teaches good technique.”
The Rams did lose some depth in the line when reserve Russ Bolinger retired this week, and there also has been some doubt about the future of center Doug Smith.
Smith, 29, a Pro Bowl selection the past two seasons, missed the final three games and the playoffs last season because of mysterious dizziness and numbness. But Smith, too, said he will be back.
“I haven’t had (symptoms) for a couple of months now,” he said. “I’m expecting to have a good year. I plan to play.”
Roger Harring, Newberry’s coach at LaCrosse, said the Division III guard can play in the NFL.
Harring conceded that Newberry was a bit short at 6-1 3/4 but added: “He’s actually got the wingspan of a 6-6 kid--about 80 inches.”
Ram Coach John Robinson mentioned the possibility of using Newberry at nose tackle.
Said Harring: “He could play almost anything. He was a fullback in high school, and we thought of playing him at running back or middle linebacker. He runs well and traps well, can long-snap--and he can two-hand stuff a basketball.”
Newberry will graduate with a degree in geography next month. He is already a legend in LaCrosse.
He was the Division III shotput champion, and last year in a local Tough Man contest he knocked out four opponents in three minutes.
“He looked like a battleship when he went across the ring,” Harring said.
Schad, who arrived at Rams Park Wednesday, said he believes the Raiders would have drafted him on the 24th turn of the first round if the Rams hadn’t taken him 23rd.
“I talked to (Raider offensive line coach) Sam Boghosian and was led to that impression,” Schad said.
Schad figures to graduate from Queen’s, with two degrees, in “about the middle third” of his class.
Canadian schools don’t give athletic scholarships, so he is about $10,000 in debt to the government.
“I was taking about 30 hours of classes a week and had six finals,” he said. “Going to the school I did and playing football don’t go hand in hand. Canadian football players, they graduate.”
Schad said being the first Canadian drafted in the first round by the NFL makes him a pioneer.
“This doesn’t happen every day in Canada,” he said. “The next biggest thing would be a Canadian on the (space) shuttle.”
Robinson said of the Rams’ selection of former Oklahoma running back Marcus Dupree on the last round: “It’s a flyer, just in case something happens.”
Dupree has been advised by doctors not to play anymore because of a knee injury and stands to collect on a $4-million policy with Lloyd’s of London if he doesn’t.