RAM NOTEBOOK : Misery Has Been Company for Giants,Too : Pro Football: New York, coming to Anaheim Stadium Sunday, has had more than its share of tough luck and devastating losses in past seasons.

When you’re knee-deep in a four-game losing streak, and reeling from devastating, unexplainable last-second losses in Buffalo and Minnesota, misery doesn’t just need company, it sends a limousine for it.

Luckily for the Rams, the New York Giants are coming to town this week, and while the Giants at 8-1 can’t empathize with the Rams’ plight this year, they know well how a few funny bounces can change a season.

The Giants went through similar trauma in 1988, when they finished 10-6 and didn’t make the playoffs.

In fact, when Giants coach Bill Parcells was asked on Wednesday if he could recall losing games in the manner the Rams have fashioned the past month, Parcells all but climbed through the phone lines during his conference call to area reporters.

“We lost one in the last 30 seconds in the last game of the year that cost us the division championship,” Parcells said. “That’s kind of vivid. We had one last year, where in overtime, we blocked a field goal against Philadelphia and they picked the damn thing up and ran it for a touchdown. After we blocked it. So we’ve had a couple of fluke things happen to us, too.”

See, Rams, the world’s not out to get just you. What goes around comes around, even in football. And even to the Giants.

The Giants recovered from last season’s devastations to become this year’s surprise team, and maybe they’ve even caught a few breaks along the way to 8-1.

But you should have been a Giants fan last Dec. 18, when the home team, in a span of seconds, lost the National Football Conference’s Eastern Division title, and hours later, were bounced out of the playoff picture altogether.

The New York Jets, remember, defeated the Giants, 27-21, on quarterback Ken O’Brien’s five-yard scoring pass to Al Toon with 37 seconds remaining, which cost the Giants the division title.

They still could have secured a wild-card spot had the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Rams at Candlestick later that afternoon. But the Rams, of course, upset the 49ers and grabbed the final wild-card spot for themselves, prompting quarterback Phil Simms’ now-famous quote about the 49ers “laying down like dogs.”

No, the Rams haven’t cornered the market on misery or tough luck. The Giants are still trying to figure out how they lost an overtime game to Philadelphia last Nov. 20.

In that game, Lawrence Taylor blocked an Eagles’ field goal attempt in overtime, but the ball bounced into the hands of Philadelphia’s Clyde Simmons, who returned it 15 yards for the winning score.

How does a coach and his team recover from such losses? Let’s just say a friend of John Robinson’s wants to know.

“As a coach, you don’t have any choice,” Parcells said. “You’ve got another game next week and you’ve got to try and put it behind you as quickly as possible.”

But can you really?

“That’s a good question,” Parcells said. “And if I knew the answer to it, and if John had the answer to that, you could put it in a bottle and use it when you needed it, and you might not have to coach for a living.”

At Wednesday’s practice, Fred Strickland and Larry Kelm practiced together for the first time since August, which is strange considering the two were supposed to open the season as starting inside linebackers.

It at least partially explains the problems the Rams are having on defense this season. Kelm injured a foot in the Aug. 21 exhibition game against Phoenix and hasn’t been heard from since. Kelm began practicing last week and will be activated for Sunday’s game.

Strickland underwent arthroscopic surgery on Aug. 8 and missed the opener, and then sprained his left ankle Oct. 16 against Buffalo and has been out since.

With Kelm and Strickland as opening-day starters, the Rams planned to add a few wrinkles to last year’s Eagle defense. Instead, they’ve spent the season patching holes. Strickland says the defense can return to the form of old.

“If we both stay healthy, yeah,” Strickland said, “we can do things we wanted to do at the beginning of the year, and put in some of the new defense they planned for us.”

Strickland said the latest ankle sprain was also a blessing of sorts, because it allowed time for his right knee to heal almost completely.

Union Vote: Ram players met Wednesday with National Football League Players Assn. representative Dave Meggyesy to discuss the sticky subject of decertification, the union’s latest attempt to win unrestricted free agency for its players.

Last week, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled that the NFL is protected from anti-trust challenges because the players collectively bargained away free agency in their last agreement, which expired in 1987. By decertifying, the union claims all players will be free agents and can file class-action suits as individuals against the league.

The Rams voted on the matter, and though ballot details weren’t revealed, the players are expected to approve the new plan, although some admitted they weren’t sure of the implications.

Rams’ cornerback Jerry Gray, the team’s player representative, said he will become an unrestricted free agent Feb. 1 under the plan. The legal wrangling, however, is far from over.

Ram Notes

The Rams have a difficult roster move coming up Friday, when they have to make room for linebacker Larry Kelm. . . . Coach John Robinson said if safety James Washington’s injured thigh doesn’t improve this week, the team may have to look for a backup defensive back. Former Rams’ safety Johnnie Johnson, recently released by the Seattle Seahawks after signing as a Plan B free agent in the off-season, is a possibility, should he be interested. . . . Gaston Green practiced Wednesday, although he is still bothered by the rib injury that put him on last week’s inactive list. “Something’s wrong,” Robinson said. “The ribs don’t seem to be getting any better. We’re not sure what it is.” . . . Rams cornerback LeRoy Irvin was held out of Wednesday’s practice with a bruised foot.