Waived by Patriots, Ramsey Waits : Former UCLA Star Is Disappointed, Still Wants to Play

Tom Ramsey, the quarterback who 7 years ago led the first of the 1980s bowl teams at UCLA, remains puzzled and disappointed that he was cut by the New England Patriots in the middle of his fourth season in the National Football League.

“I never criticized Doug Flutie,” Ramsey said in a recent interview. “I never said anything derogatory about (the club). I never asked to be traded.

“All I said was that when (Tony Eason and Steve Grogan) were hurt, I felt I was the best quarterback the Patriots had. I felt I should be playing.”

Patriot Coach Raymond Berry disagreed, putting Flutie in the lineup and Ramsey on waivers.

If there’s more to it than that, neither Berry nor Ramsey will discuss it.

Some Patriot officials have said privately that there was a coach-player personality conflict. But the club’s director of player development, Dick Steinberg, said: “I saw no evidence of that.

“One strange thing is that no other club has picked Tom up yet,” Steinberg added. “I’m flabbergasted, because he’s better than a whole lot of quarterbacks in this league.”

This month, with his future in doubt, Ramsey is taking a few days off at the home he bought in Palos Verdes several years ago.

It’s a rare November vacation for the 27-year-old quarterback who led UCLA past Michigan in the 1983 Rose Bowl; who as a senior led the nation in passing; whose 4-year record as a UCLA starter was 26-8-2, and who joined the now-defunct Los Angeles Express and Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League and then, in 1984, the Patriots.

Bright and companionable, Ramsey, the son of a Granada Hills businessman and brother of a L.A. firefighter, still dates his Kennedy High School girlfriend, Coleen Kirnan.

The Patriots were paying him $300,000 a year until recently.

“After 3 or 4 years, nothing much surprises an NFL player,” Ramsey said. “But I’ll admit that (Berry) surprised me on one thing. Apparently, he didn’t want to hear that I wanted to play, instead of sitting. If I were a coach, that’s the only kind of player I’d want.”

Question: Did Berry interpret this to mean that you were knocking Flutie?

Ramsey: I don’t know, because he didn’t say. All he told me was that he’d tried to trade me, that I’d done some good things for the organization, and that he’d decided to release me.

Q: Didn’t he say why?

A: Not a word about that--and I still don’t know why. It couldn’t have been because I criticized (Flutie, Berry or the Patriots). I never criticize teams or coaches or other players, and I’ve never had a problem with any coach. I did say publicly that the timing of my (release) was obscure.

Q: Meaning what?

A: The health of (Grogan and Eason). Neither was 100% when I (was cut). And I had been playing well. When (Berry) pulled me in my last game (Oct. 2), we were in a 7-7 tie with Indianapolis. He pulled me after three quarters. That was the first time I’d ever been taken out of a tie game.

Q: As of that week, you and Flutie were the club’s only healthy quarterbacks?

A: Yes. Grogan was suiting up, but said he could only play in a real emergency.

Q: Eason makes about a million a year. Do you suspect that the club was trying to get a return on its investment?

A: All I know is that when I was released, Tony was immediately activated. At a press conference, they asked me if Eason was ready. I said that if he were ready, he’d be starting, period. He’s our quarterback. But he’s had the shoulder problem, and what’s worse now, the nerve damage in his thumb.

Q: Do you think you had a fair shot with the Patriots?

A: Yes, I’m not bitter at all. I played in 4 or 5 games in 1986, and 9 or 10 in 1987, and I had fun doing it until the last 15 minutes of the Indianapolis game this year. I’d like to correct one thing that’s been in the Los Angeles Times.

Q: Go ahead.

A: A (Boston) writer said I went into (General Manager) Pat Sullivan’s office and demanded to be traded. It was picked up by other papers, but there wasn’t a word of truth in it. I was never in Pat’s office when this was going on, and I never demanded to be traded. That isn’t my way, and people who know me know it.

Q: So what are you doing now?

A: I have an active real estate license, and I also have an interest in radio and TV work, the production end. I’ve been testing the water.

Q: Do you think you’ll be in something like that next year, or will you be back in the NFL?

A: I’m a player. I’d like to be playing football--this year.

Q: How much value do you put on the fact that since your release, you haven’t yet been signed by another club?

A: Not much. We’ve been in touch with a few other teams, but at this time of the season, everyone’s program is in full swing. It doesn’t make much sense for any team to bring in a fourth quarterback now. The Jay Schroeder acquisition showed the Raiders and everyone else how tough it is to pick up a system with the season under way. If you haven’t been to training camp with the team you’re on, it’s hard to make a contribution.

Q: It’s hard to contribute as a backup quarterback, too, and yet you’ve been a successful backup for several years.

A: I don’t know any satisfied backup quarterbacks--and the main reason is that you can’t make a contribution. I want to play--not sit around. I want to feel like I’m contributing to the team. That’s why it was so hard to accept stepping down again after four backup seasons getting ready to step in. I was ready to compete, and there I was on the bench again.

Q: From a team standpoint, you know, backups are essential.

A: I recognize that, but quarterback is the oddest position in team sports. It’s the only position where one guy is out there and two others are sitting and waiting their turn.

Q: There’s more pressure, of course, on the starter.

A: Well, as the backup, you’re expected to come in and play as well or better than the guy you’re replacing. Maybe it shouldn’t be expected of you, but it is. That’s pressure.

Q: What can be done about it?

A: I prepared for every game as if I were the starter. Every year of my life, I’ve done everything I could think of to win. I feel that what I have going for me as a quarterback is that I can go in and win ballgames. I have a knack for winning; I know how to win. That’s why I’m not content to be a backup. I’ve been in winning programs ever since I’ve been in football.

Q: Except at Oakland, when you were in the USFL.

A: Oakland was 0-8 when I got there, then won 7 games in a row and just missed the playoffs.

Q: As a graduate of a championship program at UCLA, what comes to mind when you think back to those days?

A: First, I was lucky to play for a winner, Terry Donahue. Second, as a quarterback, I came under Homer Smith, who is the best coach I’ve ever had in football--college, pro or high school. What an impact Homer Smith had on those teams. I also find it interesting, and personally rewarding, that I started for three years at UCLA. I think that Troy Aikman last year was the first junior to start at quarterback since me.

Q: Now that you’re at possibly the midpoint of your pro career, what NFL quarterbacks do you admire?

A: I don’t rate quarterbacks. They’re mostly all friends of mine. I like to watch Phil Simms, Joe Montana, Ken O’Brien. At New Orleans, Bobby Hebert is having a big year. Wade Wilson is a hell of a quarterback. Randall Cunningham is a great athlete, the way he can throw and run. The system you’re in has a lot to do with it. At Washington, Doug Williams gets hurt, and Mark Rypien leads the league in passing.

Q: Are you concerned by the injuries to so many quarterbacks this year, and is the league doing enough to protect you?

A: I think you have to look at it this way: Injuries are part of football. But, sure, I’m concerned. There’s only one thing (the NFL) could do, but I wouldn’t know how to do it. I wish there were a way to make the (defense) aware of when the passer has released the ball. They come in head down and charging and don’t always know when the ball is off. I think this causes most of the late hits.

Q: Are you concerned by pro football’s drug problem?

A: It’s a national problem, not an NFL problem. It’s certainly not a New England Patriots problem and never was, though we’ve had some cases. The thing that bothers me is that professional athletes, who live in the public eye, would ever have anything to do with drugs, knowing that the result can be suspensions, fines and an end to their career.

Q: Is the NFL doing enough to fight drugs?

A: I think the NFL is headed in the right direction. It’s going to take a creative, combative national effort to get a handle on this.

Q: What was it like playing football in Boston?

A: It was cold, very cold. I did enjoy the city of Boston, which is a small big city. It has a big-city subway system, but you can walk around it in a day. It was fun living downtown, as I did for two years, even though it’s unhealthy to be outside, there or anywhere, in zero weather.

Q: Do the Patriots still practice football in that weather?

A: Sure. They just plow the snow off the AstroTurf and blow the whistle. What the Boston people need is a domed stadium. As a quarterback, I’d like to play every game in a dome that had a natural grass field. You’d have fewer injuries. And no wind to affect the flight of the ball.

Q: One more thing. Would you ever go back to New England to back up Doug Flutie?

A: Who?