OUT OF LINE : Despite Solid Performance, Pankey Is Left Out of Pro Bowl Again

Irv Pankey has played 75 consecutive games at tackle for the Rams’ world-famous offensive chorus line. He has helped open bright new avenues for Eric Dickerson, Charles White and Greg Bell.

And when you talk tough assignments, there’s nothing hanky about Pankey.

When the Washington Redskins come to town, he’s asked to block Dexter Manley. When it’s the New York Giants, he gets Lawrence Taylor. Chicago Bears? Richard Dent.

When quarterback Jim Everett is sacked from the back, it’s always Pankey’s fault. Yet, it rarely happens. Pankey has allowed only 4 sacks all season.

Pankey is one of the league’s most respected linemen until Pro Bowl ballots are handed out. Then, he disappears. Pankey, finishing his ninth year in the National Football League, was snubbed again Wednesday. That makes it 0 for a 9-year career.

“I have a pretty good streak going,” Pankey said after hearing the bad news again Wednesday.

It’s one thing playing left tackle for Tampa Bay and not making the Pro Bowl. But Pankey plays on one of the most celebrated lines of the decade, and plays the line’s most precarious position--protecting the quarterback’s blind side.

In fact, every other position in the Rams’ line has made it to the Pro Bowl. Right tackle Jackie Slater was named for the fifth time Wednesday. Right guard Dennis Harrah was named six times in his career. Center Doug Smith is going for the fifth time. Left guard Tom Newberry, a third-year player, was named for the first time.

But one left tackle has always been left out. You could say Pankey is just a weak link in a great chain. You could say it, but it wouldn’t be true. Would you believe this was perhaps Pankey’s best season?

“I really thought Irv would make it this year,” said Newberry, Pankey’s blocking partner at left guard. “He’s really played well. One of the reasons I made it was because he’s playing so well. Irv and I are playing well together. That’s one of the reasons I’m disappointed that he didn’t make it.”

Every time Pankey doesn’t make it, he spends the off-season trying to figure out why. Last year, he played about 20 pounds heavier, thinking it would help his run blocking. Charles White won the NFL rushing title, but Pankey didn’t make the Pro Bowl.

Must have been the extra weight. So the 6-foot-5 Pankey slimmed down to 267 pounds. He thought this was his year.

“Deep down I did, to be honest with you,” he said. “This is the best I’ve felt playing the whole season since 1985 or 86. . . . It’s a mystery to me, I’ll be honest with you. It’s a mystery and the only way I can control it is trying to play the best I can.”

There are two pretty good theories on why Pankey has been left behind.

The first is the Jackie Slater theory. As long as Slater is around at right tackle, Pankey doesn’t have a chance. Slater is a 13-year veteran with considerable talent and name recognition. And the chances of two tackles from the same team making the Pro Bowl are slim.

Pankey might have to wait until Slater retires.

“I hope it doesn’t take that long,” Pankey said.

The second theory: There are more good tackles in the league than guards or centers, especially since most teams have switched from 4-3 alignments to 3-4 defenses. Tackles now have to be stars, able to fend off powerful defensive ends and acrobatic outside linebackers.

“You get in there and start voting for guards and centers and there aren’t a lot of names,” Coach John Robinson said. “At tackle, there are guys that get famous. It really helps because you play at the end of the line of scrimmage, and when you’re watching from the sideline, you can see the tackle. A lot of times you don’t see the guards.”

But Robinson said the snubbing of Pankey is a mystery to him, too.

“I think Irv Pankey played at a very high level, at a Pro Bowl level this year,” he said. “I don’t think there is any question. Whether it’s fair or not, I don’t want to deal with that. I don’t have that kind of wisdom.”

Some have suggested that Pankey come up with a gimmick to enhance his image. Maybe a credit card commercial. You know, “Hi, you don’t know me, but I helped Eric Dickerson gain 2,105 yards in 1984 . . . “

About the only thing Pankey does to raise eyebrows is in training camp, when he shows up in a Mohawk haircut.

But making headlines isn’t Pankey’s style.

“If I have to do that to get there, then I’m not getting there for my play, I’m getting there because of a gimmick,” Pankey said. “I want to go for me, on my ability as a football player. I think I’ve had one of my better seasons, but I guess it wasn’t good enough right now. So I’ll try to have a better one next year. All I have to relate to is next year. It kind of gets redundant.”

Still, January will be a lonely month as Pankey watches his three linemates pack their bags and head for Hawaii, to the game in which every player dreams of playing.

“I’ll keep trying until I get there,” he said. “Or when I retire, maybe I’ll fly myself over there.”

At least Pankey hasn’t lost his sense of humor.

“It’s not in my control,” he said of the voting by players and coaches. “If I used it as a negative, I’ll start playing for the wrong reasons. It makes you do things you wouldn’t normally do. And that’s out of my character. So I use it as a focus during the off-season when I’m working out and use it in a positive direction.”

And maybe, just maybe, Jackie Slater will retire some day.

Ram Notes

Robert Delpino (turf toe) didn’t practice Thursday and is questionable for Sunday’s game against San Francisco. Gaston Green suffered a hip pointer in Wednesday’s practice and took the day off. Tailback Greg Bell spent Wednesday at home with the flu but practiced in full uniform Thursday in a downpour. Speaking of Bell: Eric Dickerson, who called Bell a “little dwarf” earlier this season on national television, ran into the dwarf’s father on a flight to Los Angeles earlier this week. Dickerson was in town to film a segment on ESPN’s “Sportslook.” Bell said his father, a minister, introduced himself to Dickerson. “My dad said he just went up to him and told him who he was, and watched his eyes get real big,” Bell said.