Ex-College Safety Makes Big Move : Jerry Gray: Cornerstone of the Rams

Your newest Ram trivia quiz, as administered by that widely known proctor, LeRoy Irvin.

Best passer?

“He can pass the ball as well as any of our quarterbacks,” Irvin says.

Fastest runner?

“He’s as fast as anyone on the team.”

Best jumper?

“Great leaping ability.”

And now, of course, the hints that hurt:

--Most likely to wake up in a cold sweat, mumbling, “Die, Iowa, die.”

--Former favorite pal of opposing quarterbacks everywhere.

--If asked, would have driven Gary Green to Lloyd’s of London office.

Still stuck? Then report directly to Jerry Gray, whose odyssey to a Ram starting cornerback position and six interceptions this season, still cause him to shake his head, as if he’s not quite sure how any of this happened.

Let’s see, Gray used to be an All-American safety at the University of Texas. Then Texas went to the Freedom Bowl to play Iowa . . . and then it all gets blurry.

Something about rain and muck and Gray slip-sliding about the Anaheim Stadium turf like Peggy Fleming. Iowa quarterback Chuck Long threw about 30 touchdown passes that day, many of them, it seemed, over Gray’s head.

Meanwhile, Ram scouts and Coach John Robinson sat in the press box, wondering if this was the same Jerry Gray they had intended to choose in the first round of the NFL draft. What were they going to write on this scouting report, “Falls well?”

So off the Rams went, and, despite that game, picked Gray. Shortly thereafter, they stuck him at cornerback, behind Irvin and Green, two All-Pro players. This didn’t entirely please Gray, who reasoned correctly that it would take the strangest of occurrences to displace Irvin or Green anytime soon. He was right.

About the strangeness, that is.

After a year’s internship of playing on the Ram nickel pass defense and special teams last season--and expecting more of the same this year--Gray reported to training camp and discovered no Green, and no safety-cornerback Eric Harris.

Green had a neck injury, serious enough for him to contemplate retirement as well as to inquire about his insurance policy. The Rams later issued a statement saying that Green most likely would be gone at least six months. A career is more like it. And Harris, who has nursed a bad back since last season, also isn’t expected to play again.

Before you could say Hook ‘em Horns, Gray was a starter. Trouble was, he had to play cornerback, a position that can age and scar a player without much effort at all. Look what it has done to Raider Lester Hayes. How many times has this guy seen “Star Wars?”

And what about Irvin? He went and bought a gas station.

This isn’t a position as much as it is a punishment. But somebody’s got to do it, and right now that somebody is Gray.

“It wasn’t a shock to me that I was going to be starting,” he said. “It was a shock to me that there was going to be a spot given to me. I knew I was going to have to work really hard to keep that spot. I know that on a team that has a chance to go to a Super Bowl, all the spots have to be solid.”

Just in case he forgot, there were Irvin and some other fellows--Joe Montana, Dan Fouts, John Elway--ready to remind him during the exhibition season.

Irvin has taken Gray under his wing, a sponsor of sorts. Irvin calls him Jerry (World) Gray. Gray calls Irvin one of his two favorite cornerbacks, the other being Mike Haynes of the Raiders. Together they discuss opposing quarterbacks and wide receivers.

Just last week, they tried to determine what pass routes the New England Patriot wide receivers would run and how. Who doesn’t mind going over the middle? Who uses an out-move to set you up for a post pattern?

Now, if they just could have figured out that alley-oop play at the end.

Irvin, too, was a safety in college and then switched to cornerback when he joined the Rams. He understands Gray’s plight as well as his opportunity. “I had to make the transition, and it’s very tough, especially in this league with all the fine wide receivers,” Irvin said. “Jerry has really picked it up real fast. In less than two years, he’s emerged as one of the finer corners.”

But how? One moment a safety, the next a cornerback with six interceptions, which tie him for fourth in the NFL. “Yeah, if you’re sitting up in the stands, you expect the guy to be the best,” Gray said. “But going from safety to cornerback is totally different. The margin of error . . . is very slim to none.”

Some theories:

--Gray is a bookworm.

Like Irvin, he watches more film than Siskel and Ebert. If he watches a game on television, he almost never notices the running backs. Instead, he looks to see if the quarterback looks away from a receiver before throwing, the better to confuse the defender.

Gray looks at routes and splits and how a receiver reacts if a cornerback plays bump and run, or allows him room to the inside or outside. That’s another thing Irvin taught Gray--play the pass first, the run second.

“The first thing is that you can’t be as aggressive,” Gray said. “When I was at UT, I loved to tackle. I led the team in tackles my junior year. But when I sit down and talk with LeRoy, he tells me we’re there to stop the pass, not the run.”

--Gray is a born cornerback.

“When we first put him out there, everybody said, ‘He’ll make some mistakes, but he’ll be OK,’ ” said Fritz Shurmur, the Ram defensive coordinator. “Well, he’s been OK ever since he started. He has matured as fast as anyone I’ve ever seen at cornerback.”

Shurmur said he remembers watching Gray in the Freedom Bowl. He didn’t know what to think. Gray was a gifted athlete, but what to do with him? The Rams chose cornerback.

“We did not draft him as a safety,” Shurmur said. “They saw him as a cornerback. I’ll tell you, I don’t know where we’d be without him right now.”

The effects of Gray’s success have made their way toward Irvin. At the beginning of the season, quarterbacks continually tested Gray, in essence, a rookie cornerback. Irvin was ignored.

“But I think that’s balancing up now and going back the other way,” Shurmur said. “Teams have paid the price, too. What’s LeRoy have now--four interceptions in two games? All of a sudden, they’re saying they’re not going to pick on the kid anymore. They’re going back to the vet.”

All of which is perfectly fine with Irvin. “He’s actually made it better for me,” Irvin said. “They’re saying, ‘Are we going after Gray or after Irvin?’ Some teams tend to go after me more than they go after Jerry. That enables me to make plays. I think from here on out, we’ll start being more dominating as a pair.”

So Gray is a cornerback now. It says so right on the depth chart and on your answer sheet. But if he had his druthers, would Gray be at free safety? This is where you find out if Gray majored in sociology, as it says in his team bio, or in political science.

“I guess right now, since I’m playing corner position, I tend, right now, to learn as much as I can,” he said. “I think that if I was at safety I wouldn’t have to learn as much as fast.”

Political science.

Like it or not, Gray is probably at cornerback to stay. Irvin would demand it. Shurmur would insist on it. And anyway, Gray makes the Ram scouting department look smart with those six interceptions.

So be it, Lester Hayes would say. Or as Irvin might add: “Unleaded, lady?”