Rams’ Buford McGee a Jack of All Trades : Fullback Has Mastered the Art of Being Able to Do Whatever’s Needed

Buford McGee, your friendly neighborhood running-blocking-receiving-option back, is a man of simple needs, the foremost of which is employment.

After six years in the National Football League, three with the San Diego Chargers and three now with the Rams, he has asked for little except a steady paycheck and a chance to fill in the gaps.

Forget the action doll molded in his likeness and the autograph show--cash only, please--and forget kids fighting over who gets to be him during pickup games. Others can aim for the stars; he prefers peace of mind and direct deposit.

Year after year, he has seen backs with bigger ambitions and bodies, more speed and flash, come into training camp and then make their exits. Year after year he has carried out tasks ranging from mundane (blocking) to exotic (lateraling on option plays) in order to stay in uniform.

“You come to a point in your career when you focus on the certain things that are needed on a team,” McGee said. “Then you go out and fill that need, because that’s the way you’re going to pay the mortgage.”

He reached that point rather early. The day he first walked onto a professional football practice field, he saw Chuck Muncie, Earnest Jackson and Lionel James and quickly realized that an 11th-round draft pick who had rushed for only 580 yards as a senior at Mississippi was not likely to make a big impression as a ballcarrier.

“I think I was about 10th on the depth chart,” he said.

So McGee blocked as if his life depended on it. His livelihood certainly did. He also caught passes, ran when necessary and used skills he had learned as a high school option quarterback.

“I knew I couldn’t do anything great, but I knew I could do a lot of things , “ he said.

It didn’t take long before all of this soon caught the eye of Ernie Zampese, then the Chargers’ offensive coordinator.

“Here was a guy who could do everything,” Zampese said. “He saw right away he wasn’t going to be the great back but that he could be the guy who could contribute in a lot of different ways.”

Although he was the Chargers’ second-leading rusher as a rookie--he gained 226 yards in 67 carries--it was soon apparent that McGee’s main contribution to the team lay in his skill of effectively hitting people much larger than he.

Buford, all 6 feet and 200 pounds of him, became a blocking back.

“In San Diego, people were put into what they did best and then that’s all they did,” McGee said. “I’d run and catch passes and do some option, but mainly I was a blocker and mostly all I did was block. I didn’t complain or gripe about it. If I wanted to play football it was that way or no way.”

When Zampese took the job of offensive coordinator with the Rams in 1987, McGee wasn’t far behind, coming over in a trade for running back Barry Redden and two draft choices in June of that year.

He missed the last 13 games of that season with a torn Achilles tendon. Knee and hamstring injuries had also caused him to miss the last seven games of 1986 and four games of the 1985 season.

But McGee stayed unhurt for the 1988 season, though a quick look at his statistics would seem to suggest otherwise. He rushed for 69 yards in just 22 carries, which works out to not even 1 1/2 carries a game.

That kind of math is just fine, though, with McGee. He carried a whopping seven times in last week’s exhibition game against Minnesota and reported to Ram camp Monday, “as sore as I’ve been in a long time.

“Taking punishment instead of dishing it out is a lot tougher on your body,” he said. “When you run the ball, all 11 (defensive) guys think they should get a part of you. That’s one reason I like blocking. I have one guy to focus on. When you run, 11 guys are focusing on you.

“I don’t want to run 10 or 15 times a game. It’s great to see people like Eric Dickerson run with the ball, but I’d be fooling myself to think I’m a tailback. If they want to give me the ball six or seven time in a game I guess that’s OK, but it’s not on my agenda.”

With the regular season a little more than week away, a lot of attention has been focused on who the Rams will use at starting tailback. Gaston Green? Robert Delpino? Greg Bell?

One thing is sure, whoever it is, Buford McGee will be blocking ahead of him. Once again, despite a lot of big names with big contracts running around him, McGee has managed to nail down a job.

“He’s been great,” Coach John Robinson said. “He’s a great blocker, very efficient. He gets to the right target and really does an effective job on rather large men.”

Particularly memorable was a block last season on Rickey Jackson, the New Orleans Saints’ all-pro linebacker who weighs 245 pounds. McGee folded him like an omelet.

“I know it’s not a position you’re going to get rich in, or famous, but while other guys get a thrill out of running for a 30-yard gain, I get a thrill of knocking some of these big guys down,” McGee said.

Like any professional, McGee appreciates the work of his peers, especially Tom Rathman of the San Francisco 49ers and the Houston Oilers’ Alonzo Highsmith. And like any professional, he would like to be recognized by his peers, half joking that the position of blocking back should become a Pro Bowl position.

Not a bad idea.

“Those roles (running and blocking back) have become more clearly defined in the I-formation,” Robinson said. “We ask the second back to block, catch a few passes and occasionally run, and he’s done a really magnificent job.”

Suffice it to say, that when McGee does his job few people not wearing Ram uniforms notice it.

Asked if his family has become sophisticated in the method of observing what a blocking back does, McGee said, “I don’t think the camera stays on me long enough for anyone to see what I do. I guess as long as my uniform number gets on the screen every now and then, that’s enough for me.”

Ram Notes

Bryon Darby, released Tuesday by the Rams, was signed by Detroit and will play against his former teammates Saturday. The Rams had been using Darby as a nose tackle-linebacker in their Eagle scheme. The Lions will move Darby to defensive end. . . . Tight end Damone Johnson ended his holdout Thursday and reported to practice. He is expected to play a little Saturday, as will tailback Greg Bell, who agreed to terms Monday. “Bell looked good yesterday,” Coach John Robinson said. “He and Gaston Green will share the tailback job probably the first three quarters.” . . . The team released cornerback Clarence Nunn of San Diego State.