Rams : Brock’s Back Hasn’t Healed, but His Pride Has

Dieter Brock’s back is sore, but the pain in his neck is better.

“Time has a way of healing things,” he said at the Rams’ training camp at Cal State Fullerton Friday. “I thought I played pretty well during the (1985) season and did some good things, but all I kept hearing about was the bad things.”

Ram history is replete with maligned quarterbacks, but few have been vilified the way Brock has. The criticism peaked after the 24-0 loss to the Chicago Bears in the NFC title game.

“It was kind of hard to hide,” Brock said. “Where I’ve gone, nobody’s ever said anything bad to me. They always say, ‘We’re behind you . . . we’re pulling for you.’ But every time you’d turn around there was something in the paper.”

For a while Brock brooded about his future . . . like, did he have one?

“Everybody gets those thoughts in their head after a bad game. But once I got back into mini-camp, I started getting the feeling that, hell, I ain’t as bad as everybody says.”

Brock attributes his improved attitude to a change in reading habits.

“I’ve read one or two papers in the last couple of months,” he said. “I don’t even know what the hell’s going on.”

But he might have the idea the Rams were contemplating yet another quarterback change when this tall, blond, bright-eyed fellow showed up in the spring: Steve Bartkowski.

“I’m not worried about the so-called quarterback race here,” Brock said. “I’ll just continue to do the best I can and let him (Coach John Robinson) make his decision.”

But when pressed, Brock will admit that he doesn’t think he got a fair trial last season when Robinson promised him fireworks but neglected to give him a match.

“I don’t think we tried very many deep balls last year,” Brock said.

Late in the season, after the Rams’ NFC West title hopes were jolted after a 29-3 loss to New Orleans, and the 49ers were next up on a Monday night at San Francisco, Brock went to Robinson to ask him if he had misplaced all those dazzling plays they’d rehearsed in the spring and summer. Robinson said he’d look around.

“I think it had an effect--for the next couple of games,” Brock said. “We went into those games we had to win the loosest we felt all year. We opened it up. Threw the ball on first down.”

But later came the Bears.

“We went in with a basic idea of hoping we could run the ball a little bit and maybe make a big play in the passing game,” Brock said. “We didn’t make any plays anywhere, really.”

Worse, Brock was sacked 55 times last season, including the playoffs. Some critics said he was too immobile and held the ball too long.

Brock’s opinion?

“You’re putting me in a tough position,” he said. “I can’t win talking about it. Everybody has to deal with it.

“I’d like to see all the sacks on film in one bunch and evaluate ‘em--see which ones were my fault. I’m sure I had my share, but if one person breaks down, there’s going to be a sack. If a receiver gets jammed and can’t get off, or our guys are covered real good, that’s a sack.”

At Chicago, in particular, the problem wasn’t the wind, the cold or biorhythms.

“It was the Chicago Bears,” Brock said. “And once they got ahead, I don’t think we had the offense to play catch-up.”

Now Robinson is saying the Rams will pass more in ’86. Honest.

“I wish he’d put that in writing,” Brock said, laughing.

To hear a recent report from Canada, where Brock played 11 years, his back is so bad that his career is all but over.

Well, the back doesn’t seem to be that bad, but it isn’t good, either.

Brock, 35, does daily stretching exercises and sleeps with plywood under his mattress, attempting to ease the pain. He has given up running, which pounds the joints, and now does his cardiovascular exercise on a stationary bicycle.

The problem, Ram doctors say, is a squeezed disc pressing on a nerve, the result of too many seasons of dropping back and planting his right foot hard before throwing.

Brock, who is seeking outside opinions, has been told, “It’s just a degenerated disc . . . kind of worn down.”

The Rams have tried several injections of cortisone, an anti-inflammatory drug.

“I’m not keen on it at all,” Brock said of that particular treatment, “because it hasn’t helped. I think I’ve had enough of those. Most of (the treatment) now is exercises to strengthen the muscles around it to ease some of the pain.

“I’ve talked to several doctors, a lot of people. I’ve gone to a chiropractor. Everybody’s pretty much the same. The problem is there and it’s not going to go away. You can relieve it some, but it’s something you’ve got to live with. I don’t think there’s a cure for it.”

Brock suspects that his right leg is a half-inch shorter than his left--again, the result of dropping back and planting so many times over the years.

“It just compacts in this (rear hip) area,” Brock said, rubbing his back. “The pain and tightness is all in the right side, where the disc is hitting the nerve.”

The Rams prescribed heel lifts for his street and football shoes. No help.

But they are most concerned that Brock will hurt something else while trying to play with the pain in his back.

Trainer Jim Anderson said: “We don’t want him to overcompensate for the pain in throwing the ball and use his arm too much. That could lead to a shoulder problem.”

Pain killers aren’t the solution, either.

“If you’re masking pain, you’re masking the fact that there’s a problem there and could do some really serious damage,” Anderson said.

Brock first experienced the back problem while playing for Hamilton three years ago. The Tiger-Cats were in the playoffs and the boosters threw a pep rally for the players on a cold, rainy night.

“The next day in the hotel room I bent over to pick up my playbook to go to practice, and all of a sudden I felt a twinge,” Brock said. “I rode to practice and couldn’t even get out of the car.”

Since then, he said: “I have a back spasm maybe once a year. Ram Notes The veterans are required to report by 9 a.m. today unless previously excused. Unsigned no-shows could include wide receiver Henry Ellard, linebackers Mel Owens and Jim Collins, nose tackles Charles DeJurnett and Shawn Miller and defensive end Doug Reed, along with offensive tackle Mike Schad, the first-round draft choice from Queen’s University. At last report, Schad was on a fishing trip in Quebec. Fullback Barry Redden, who failed to report to mini-camp in the spring, said he would arrive today, according to Coach John Robinson. . . . There will be no practice until Monday, but the first practice game against the Oilers is only 10 days away. Robinson said: “We’re going to work very hard next week. It’ll be the hardest week we’ve had since I’ve been here.” . . . Six players were waived Friday: running back Todd Spencer (USC); wide receivers Darryl Richard (Azusa Pacific), Paul Richardson (San Diego State) and Keith McDonald (San Jose State); placekicker Massood Sadeghi (Cal State Los Angeles), and punter Scott Leet (San Francisco State). . . . Robinson had his 51st birthday Friday. . . . Linebacker Kevin Greene and tight end Damone Johnson were outstanding in Friday’s practice, which was conducted in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts. “If there had been live tackling, Kevin would have sacked the quarterback about four times,” Robinson said. Johnson, a sixth-round draft choice from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in ‘85, had several good catches. “Damone’s become a man,” Robinson said. . . . Nose tackle Alvin Wright, who had drawn raves earlier, will be out for one to two weeks with a sprained knee sustained in the scrimmage against the Chargers at La Jolla Thursday.