Buddy System Effective Tool for Rams Too

The first question that must be asked of the Philadelphia Eagles regards their coach, Buddy Ryan.

Why do they call him Buddy?

Would you like to have a buddy like him?

Mike Ditka spent years on the same coaching staff as Buddy, even won a Super Bowl with Buddy, and now look at him. Ditka has a bumper sticker that reads, Tomorrow Is The Worst Day of the Rest of Your Life.

Buddy has lots of friends in Dallas, where he reportedly put a bounty on the person of former Eagle kicker Luis Zendejas this year. That’s real big of Buddy. The Cowboys have the worst team in football and Zendejas, at 5-9 and 170 pounds, is the scrawniest player the Cowboys have.

We’d suggest Buddy try picking on someone his own size, but as everyone in the National Football League already knows, there’s nobody as small as Buddy Ryan.

The Rams are goin’ back to Philly, to engage the Eagles in an NFC wild-card game this Sunday, but they hardly seem at all anxious about their Trip to Bounty-ful. Quarterback Jim Everett, among the most vulnerable of Rams when he stands alone in the pocket, merely shrugs when the topic is broached.

“That was a situation with one of their big rivals, with some players who played with them before,” Everett says. “I don’t worry about bounties. I don’t think that’s a factor with us.”

Probably not, considering that Everett has a couple of body guards named Jackie Slater and Irv Pankey looking after him. You think Kevin Greene is just going to sit there if something happens to his playoff meal ticket?

No, the Rams have other concerns this weekend.

Randall Cunningham, for one.

A scrambler and a big-play gambler, Cunningham is the exact type of quarterback the Rams historically dread most. Through the years, passers who can run traditionally have been no fun for the Rams. Remember Archie Manning in the early ‘70s? Fran Tarkenton in the mid-70s? Roger Staubach in the late ‘70s? Troy Aikman in ‘89?

The last time the Rams played Philadelphia, in November 1988, Cunningham drove them nuts by passing for 323 yards and scrambling for 53 more. He also drove the Eagles to 30 points and a 30-24 victory.

“We’re worried about Cunningham,” Coach John Robinson says. “We’re worried about him running, passing, going out for passes . . . “

After the Rams’ playoff-clinching victory in New England last Sunday, someone asked Everett about his impeding confrontation with Cunningham, describing it as a matchup between “the quarterbacks of the ‘90s.”

Everett thanked the writer for the compliment but refused to buy into it.

“I don’t play against Randall Cunningham, “ Everett said, “I play against his defense. Maybe next season, we can play one-on-one basketball or something, but my only matchup is with their defense.”

Therein lies Problem No. 2 for the Rams. Philadelphia has a couple of defensive linemen named White and Brown and when they’re together, they do more than paint the town beige.

Reggie White may be the premier defensive end in the league. Tackle Jerome Brown is among the best at his position. Put them in Ryan’s blitzing defensive scheme and Everett knows he’ll have more to think about in Veterans Stadium than the snow.

As Everett puts it, getting to face White and Brown “wouldn’t be high on my Christmas list.”

The Eagles led the NFL in takeaways this season with 55--29 interceptions and 26 fumbles. With Philadelphia’s offense turning the ball over a total of 28 times, that’s a takeaway/giveaway differential of 27--which also led the NFL.

Not bad for a group that has been described as the best five-man team in the league. That’s the consensus line on the Eagles: a handful of great players--Cunningham, White, Brown, tight end Keith Jackson, wide receiver Cris Carter--and a roster complement of working stiffs. The overachievers of the NFC East.

Philadelphia’s 1989 regular-season log tends to support this belief. When whipped into a Buddy-system frenzy, the Eagles are capable of beating division champions (Minnesota, Denver and the New York Giants). Yet, when the emotions subside, they’ve proven to be just as capable of losing to the middling (Chicago, New Orleans) and the midgets (San Diego) of pro football.

Kind of sounds like a team close to home.

So, what can possibly be expected when the manic depressive Rams and the schizoid Eagles meet on Sunday afternoon?

Will the Eagles out-Eagle the Rams’ Eagle?

Will there be a mutiny on the bounty?

Will the game go down to the last minute?

That last one, we can answer. With the Rams, is there any other way?

Hey, Buddy, I can tell you stories.