Rams : Latest Unhappy Ram Is Cornerback Irvin, Who Suggests He Be Traded
There has been growing suspicion that the hamstring injury plaguing cornerback LeRoy Irvin all this week might be traced to an earlier injury much higher on the leg, near his wallet.
Irvin has not practiced since returning to the Rams last Saturday after staging a six-day holdout to protest his contract situation.
So will he ever practice again with the Rams?
Irvin said Wednesday he truly injured his hamstring two weeks ago during an overenthusiastic workout after reading a rumor that he might be traded to the Denver Broncos for wide receiver Vance Johnson.
The rumor was bad, though, and so now is Irvin’s disposition. He has officially joined the Rams’ growing Trade Me Club, chartered earlier this week by Eric Dickerson.
“This is not about money,” he said. “This is about being traded. Period.”
Irvin signed a two-year extension last March, but his gripe now is that the Rams wouldn’t renegotiate the last year of his existing contract, which ends this season and will pay him $250,000.
It has been the Rams’ policy not to renegotiate player contracts.
Irvin, a starting cornerback in this year’s Pro Bowl, can’t pinpoint the logic.
“I must not be that good, because 45 guys make more than me,” he said, referring to a recent NFL salary survey in which Irvin was not listed among the top-45-paid defensive backs. “They expect you to be All-Pro and then pay you like a backup. They want you to win one for the Gipper and then they throw you peanut shells, like some elephant.”
His is a recurring theme among Ram players.
Irvin is not in London because he wants to be but rather because he is under contract and has to be here.
After seven seasons with the Rams, he wants to pick up his career and move. His feelings run as deeply as any receiver has run against him.
“It ain’t the deal,” Irvin said of his extension. “I can live with the deal. But I don’t want to live by it here.”
A lot of Irvin’s feelings reflect Dickerson’s recent complaints that he is underpaid. The star running back said earlier this week that if the Rams don’t increase his yearly salary of $683,000, he would eventually like to be traded.
Irvin said the financial problems with the Rams are all related.
“If Dickerson was happy I’d be happy,” Irvin said. “How could I expect to make as much as Dickerson? He sets the standard for this team. If he was happy making $683,000, I’d be happy making $250,000. I respect him. I idolize him. He’s the best, and I tell him that before every game.”
Irvin said he doesn’t expect fans to understand his problems.
“No one’s going to give me any sympathy,” he said. “I could care less what people think of me. I’ve got my 2-year-old girl and I love her to death. That’s all I care about.”
Irvin and Denver cornerback Mark Haynes chatted during a scrimmage between the Rams and Broncos Wednesday. The teams are preparing for an exhibition game Sunday at Wembley Stadium.
Irvin and Haynes weren’t comparing strategies, though. They were talking money.
“They’re all laughing at me,” Irvin said of his richer contemporaries. “Lester (Hayes of the Raiders), Everson) Walls (of the Cowboys). All my buddies are laughing at me. Mark (Haynes) was laughing at me because I got a crappy deal and because I wasn’t practicing.”
But Irvin, like Dickerson, knows his options are limited. Unless Irvin becomes a real disruptive force, the Rams aren’t likely to trade him, especially with good cornerbacks at such a premium.
Yes, the Rams can keep Irvin.
“But then what do you have?” he asked.
Then he quickly backed off.
“I’ll just do my part,” he added. “I’ll help the team the best way I can. They can think what they want. I’ll work out to get strong and try to get back to All-Pro level.”
Like Henry Ellard before him, Irvin said he has nothing personal against the Rams’ front office. His problem is not with whom but where this team draws its bottom line.
The man with the pen, of course, is Vice President John Shaw.
“He’s got a job to do, and I respect that,” Irvin said of Shaw. “It’s no one’s fault. It’s just the way it is around here.”
One way or another, Irvin hopes it isn’t for much longer.
After Wednesday’s practice, an English radio announcer, obviously not familiar with the game, quizzed the Broncos’ John Elway as if the quarterback had just landed from the planet Zontar.
Question: So that’s kind of like a motorcycle helmet then?
Answer: Kind of.
Q: So you feel safe in it?
A: Yes.
Q: And what are those?
A: These are my shoulder pads, these are my hip pads and these are my knee pads.
What better place than England for a modern-day “Pygmalion” story?
The bet this week is whether Donald Evans, the Rams’ wide-eyed rookie who only recently made his first plane flight, will ever venture from the hotel lobby onto the streets of London.
“I haven’t been anywhere,” the defensive end from Winston-Salem State said. “They drive on the other side of the street. They talk English here, but they have a funny little accent.”
Veteran end Gary Jeter has been playing the role of Prof. Higgins.
“He’s been helping me out a whole lot,” Evans said. “I’m just going to bug the heck out of him. He’s like a coach on the field.”
Evans got in a lot of work during Wednesday’s scrimmage, but some of it wasn’t so good.
“It was the first time I’ve been thrown on my back since my freshman year in college,” he said.
Ram Notes
The Rams and the Broncos scrimmaged, and the contact was intense, with rolling-around-in-the-mud-awards going to Ram defensive end Shawn Miller and Denver tackle Jim Juriga. The fight didn’t last long. Miller later wandered over to Piccadilly Circus for a look at the area’s punk rockers. . . . Ram Coach John Robinson figured that the scrimmage was worth three or four days of regular practice. “It was more intense,” he said, “which makes it more fun.” . . . Tight end Damone Johnson and back Buford McGee, both out with hamstring injuries, don’t figure to play Sunday. . . . Safety Johnnie Johnson, an avid tennis player, is trying to arrange a match on the grass courts at Wimbledon this week. . . . Veteran Bronco cornerback Mark Haynes heckled Johnson from the sideline Wednesday, as if Johnson needed to be reminded that for a time he lost his starting free safety spot last season. “Hey Johnnie, I heard you retired last year,” Haynes said. Johnson shot back: “I heard the same about you.” Haynes, a former All-Pro, spent the first five weeks of last season on injured reserve with a thigh injury and the rest of the season backing up Mike Harden.
