PRO FOOTBALL : Brown’s Big Night Cut Short : Dislocated Shoulder Sidelines Him After Catches Net 100 yards

It figures. Here’s Ram receiver Ron Brown, having himself an evening finally worth remembering, and the bottom drops out, to say nothing of his newly dislocated left shoulder.

He had told himself that Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys would be different. The wrist cast was gone; he had discarded that clumsy reminder of his early season injury last Monday. The wrist still was broken, of course, but the thinking was this: out of sight, out of mind.

Brown also had a score to settle with local critics--real or imagined. He had been slighted “by negative publicity,” he said, and it was time to show that the starting position was his because of merit, not simply tenure. “I guess I had to go out and prove to myself that I had the potential to play,” he said. “It was just time for me to have a good game.”

And guess what? It worked.

For two quarters, there was no better receiver than Brown. He juked and slipped by defenders as if they were wearing high heels. Late in the first period, Brown found himself behind Cowboy cornerback Everson Walls, considered one of the better one-on-one defenders. Moments later, Brown collected a Jim Everett pass for 41 yards.

The second quarter was no different. Brown would take his place on the line of scrimmage and often see two Cowboy defensive backs assigned to Henry Ellard, the other Ram wide receiver. That left Brown with a single escort.

With less than a minute remaining in the half, Everett scrambled and then spotted Brown, who had broken free. Ta-da, a 20-yard gain. Oh, Brown was looking good, all right.

“He was playing well,” said Kevin House, the same guy who has been pressuring Brown for his starting position. “He was probably the hot receiver.”

The Rams noticed, too. With Ellard constantly attracting the attention of a cornerback and safety, Everett looked again and again for Brown. Brown happily obliged.

Then came his third reception, the one that would put him at the 100-yard mark. He had begun the evening with a 23-yard average--that’s yards per game, not yards per catch. Now he was outgaining the entire Cowboy pass offense. This was fun. This is what he had been waiting for.

The pattern wasn’t anything complicated. He left cornerback Rod Fellows slipping and sliding on the Anaheim Stadium turf and then prepared for Everett’s pass near the sideline. There were about 30 seconds left as he caught the ball.

Safety Bill Bates grabbed hold of Brown moments after the reception. The two fell hard against the ground, with Brown trying to shield his injured wrist as they collided. Bates returned to the Cowboy huddle. Brown reached for his shoulder.

“I knew it was something because it was extremely painful,” Brown said. “I was hoping it was a bad bruise.”

Brown was taken to the Ram locker room where team physicians quickly diagnosed the injury as a dislocated shoulder.

“We were out of bounds,” Brown said. “Yeah, it was clean. It wasn’t intentional.”

Shortly after the second half began, Brown was back on the sideline. This time he was wearing street clothes and a snappy ensemble of Ace bandages. He would join such injured notables as Tony Hunter, Dieter Brock, Chuck Scott and Mike Guman.

When the game ended, Fellows and Brown met near midfield. “We’re friends,” Brown said. “He hated it to happen. I hated it to happen, too. It just came at a bad time.

“But it could have been worse--I could have fractured it.”

Said Ram Coach John Robinson: “It’s too bad he got nailed, because he was having a big night.”

Brown, the optimist, said he will miss only the final two regular season games. “I look at everything as a blessing,” he said. “It’s a chance to rest the wrist a little more.”

And remember two quarters.