Ram Rise Comes After Giants Fall

John Robinson gave it his very best shot all week, trying to sell his Rams on the pride and dignity factor.

If they were to go into Sunday’s game against the 49ers with no chance of making the playoffs, it would make no difference to the Rams, Robinson insisted. His fellas would be just as hungry.

The purity of sport, and all that.

But let’s get serious.

The Rams are grown men, college educated. As they were checking out of their hotel and boarding team buses and taxis for the trip to Candlestick Park, the Jets were in the process of losing to the Giants. Then beating the Giants. And the Rams were paying attention.

Jim Everett was in his hotel room, trying to repair the remote control channel changer so he could see the end of the Jets’ game. The changer got busted when Saints kicker Morten Andersen kicked a field goal to beat the Falcons and Everett’s roommate Tom Newberry threw the changer against the wall in anger.

Everett found the right channel in time to see the Jets put the Rams into playoff contention.

“The whole (hotel) floor was ecstatic,” Everett said after leading the Rams to a most impressive 38-16 victory over the 49ers. “We were on Cloud 9.”

Then Everett remembered the party line, that the Jets’ victory made no difference to the Rams.

“We were going to come out here ready to play, no matter what,” Everett added.

Right. No doubt. Pride.

Still, when Andersen kicked that field goal, Gary Jeter switched off his television in disgust.

“I said, ‘Man, this is ridiculous,’ ” Jeter said. “I went down and got on the bus. Jackie (Slater) was already on the bus, but he got off to go back and get some toast and bacon. When he came back, he said, ‘Hey, the Jets won the game.’ I said, ‘OK, we got a shot.’ ”

Football is a tough and dirty game, folks. These players do some serious damage to one another. Along with injured pride, there are internal organs that get nicked up.

Pride is a great motivator, but it never hurts to throw in a playoff chance, and some cash. By qualifying for the playoffs, the Rams earned an extra $6,000 or so per man.

It’s not that the Rams are going to adopt the Randy Newman song, “It’s Money That Matters,” as their fight song. But every little bit of motivation helps.

“That six grand is in the bank right now,” said defensive end Doug Reed, with enthusiasm. “That just bought a couple tanks of gas for my motor home. I just paid for my vacation.”

Reed watched the Jets win in his hotel room. When they put it away.

“I was out the door. I ran down to get my cab. I was goin’ to Candlestick!”

Reed and LeRoy Irvin arrived at the ballpark early.

“We went right out and checked out the grass,” Reed said, “checked out the conditions. You don’t normally see defensive linemen checking out the field.”

The conditions turned out to be excellent for Ram defensive linemen. They sacked 49er quarterback Joe Montana seven times in the first half. Montana normally carves up the Rams like a Christmas turkey.

When Joe is voted into the Hall of Fame, surely his first and most sincere thank-you note will be to the Rams’ defense, against whom he has been merciless.

But Sunday night they stomped Joe something terrible. They crunched Roger Craig, who is having a Jim Brown-type season. They handled Jerry Rice, who will one day join Montana in the Big Hall.

They did it on pride and professionalism. With a dash of cash and a trip to the playoffs thrown in for good measure.

John Robinson did exactly what he had to do all week. He had to get his team ready to play well in a game that might have been nothing more than an exhibition.

Fortunately for the Rams, they never had to find out how effective Robinson’s salesmanship had been.

Damone Johnson, the Rams tight end, watched the Jets’ game in his hotel room.

“I was overjoyed,” he said.

So what did he do? Johnson went out and caught three touchdown passes from Everett, who told Johnson during the week, and again just before the game, to be ready for the football.

Of course, this was nothing new for Damone. He’s caught 3 touchdown passes before--when he was at Santa Monica High School, in 1979.

In the locker room Sunday night, the Rams were a portrait of a team feeling very good about itself, in a quiet kind of way. Nobody was screaming or whooping, but these guys actually believe they could become the Dodgers of the National Football League. The gutty little overachievers, beating the odds, all the cliches.

They do seem to be playing well at the right time.

“We went through our slump in midseason,” Johnnie Johnson said. “Every team has a slump, and we really wanted to get hot about this time of year.”

Better now than, say, last November, when the Rams were playing so poorly they couldn’t find their pride with a microscope. When the top of John Robinson’s head was threatening to turn the same color as his sideburns.

Right now, the Rams are crazy. Henry Ellard caught a touchdown pass Sunday by wrapping his arms around his defender and stealing the ball. Henry might have wound up with Tim McKyer’s wrist watch, too.

On another scramble play, Damone Johnson just sort of drifted away from his defender, Ronnie Lott, into about an acre of undefended end zone.

It was almost like Everett and his receivers had ESPN, or whatever you call that mystical stuff.

That, and motivation.

“Tell me a cat don’t have nine lives,” Doug Reed said. “I feel just like a cat. As soon as we heard (Jets receiver) Al Toon caught that (winning) pass, we all got up and headed for the bus. Everyone was racing to get cabs.”

As Gary Jeter said, “We got a last-minute reprieve from the governor.”

Not that it made any difference or anything.