Cromwell Epitomizes Work Ethic : Hall of Fame: Former Ram All-Pro safety spends time alternating between being in the right place at the right time and just the opposite.

Nolan Cromwell picked at the grime under his fingernails and flashed the grin of a man who truly enjoys physical labor. A day without sweat is a day wasted, you know. But it wasn’t the rich earth of a Kansas cornfield soiling his fingers, as was always the case in his dreams. It was dirt off the brake shoes of somebody’s Oldsmobile.

The former Ram safety already had bought the farm--250 acres outside of Lawrence, Kan.--seven years ago when he told a reporter “when I’m done, unless there’s some big opportunity, I’ll probably be somewhere besides Southern California.”

Now, instead of driving a tractor in the fields of Kansas, Cromwell is driving the freeways, commuting from his Mission Viejo home to his two tire stores in Cypress and Upland. He lost a lot of money when he sold the farm, but the emotional investment was at least as great as the financial one.

“With land prices and everything collapsing for farmers back in the Midwest, I had to bail out,” said Cromwell, who will be inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame Thursday. “It turned out to be the worst investment I ever made, but, more than that, I really feel for the farmers back there. And I was lucky. I was fortunate not to have everything strapped into one thing.”

So Cromwell sells tires, gets his hands dirty whenever possible and tries to carve out a slice of the California promise. The plight of the American farmer has dropped him down in this land of Oz, and like Dorothy, he’s just trying to get by, wondering if he’ll ever get home to Kansas.

An odd turn of fate, maybe, but then this is a man who has spent a lot of time alternating between being in the right place at the right time and just the opposite, both on and off the football field.

WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME

“It’s shocking. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the end of an era.”

--Former Ram teammate Johnnie Johnson on learning of Cromwell’s release in 1988.

During the early 1980s, Cromwell was the yardstick by which all other free safeties were measured.

Cromwell led the NFL in interceptions with eight and was named NFC Defensive Player of the Year in 1980. He made four consecutive Pro Bowl appearances to kick off the new decade.

The Rams, however, were not garnering much recognition and very little respect. They staggered to a 2-7 record in the strike-shortened 1982 season, after which Coach Ray Malavasi was fired.

The John Robinson Era opened in 1983, and while it may have marked the birth of a new esteem for the team, it was the beginning of the end for Cromwell.

Gone was former defensive coordinator Bud Carson’s take-the-initiative-and-take-a-chance scheme, replaced by Robinson’s and Fritz Shurmur’s conservative bend-but-hope-not-to-break approach.

“Before, he was in a defense where it was easy for him to jump out and be the guy,” Shurmur said. “He had to lose his identity in the group, like a lot of people.”

A free safety in the prior man-to-man defense, Cromwell was switched to strong safety and soon thereafter lost in the twilight zone.

“When they changed the style of defense in 1983, I guess there’s no question it had an adverse effect on my career,” he said. “Bud Carson’s defense was very aggressive, an attacking-type defense that made things happen. He doesn’t sit back and wait for you to come to him, he comes at you. Not a lot of people scored many points on us and the defense won games for the Rams back then.

“When John was hired, the defense was very, very conservative, very predictable. At first, it was simple and it worked pretty well, but they stuck with that theory for the last five years of my career. We were so simple and predictable, it took a lot of the incentive out of it, for myself, anyway. The game plan stayed exactly the same and it became almost boring.”

Cromwell had been a starter for eight consecutive seasons (1979-86). In 1987, he shared the starting role with Johnson. But when he showed up for training camp in 1988, he knew he would have to battle to earn a spot and that his role, at best, would be as a reserve.

“I wanted to play one more year and thought if I went to camp and played hard, that I could compete for the starting position,” he said. “But when they told me that they wouldn’t even consider me as a starter, no matter how well I played, that kind of took it out of me. I went ahead to camp, anyway, for a couple days.

“Sitting on the sideline wasn’t what I wanted to do, though, so it was time to move on.”

After a short stay at camp, Cromwell asked for and received his release from the Rams.

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

“I don’t know how you’d compare one great athlete to another in pro football, so maybe we can agree on this: I don’t know a better one than Nolan.”

--Former Atlanta Falcon Coach Leeman Bennett, in 1981.

Nolan Neil Cromwell was born in Smith Center, Kan., and went to high school in Ransom, Kan. That, he says, is largely responsible for all the talk about his great “natural ability.”

“I didn’t ever specialize in one sport in high school,” he said. “In a small town like that, no one did. I played football and basketball and ran track and then played baseball all summer.

“All the different games I played in high school taught me the control and techniques that allowed me to become a more all-around athlete. The key is all that solid fundamental training. I was blessed with some ability and it was brought along by not specializing in one sport.”

In any case, the end result was a sometimes stunning display of athleticism. In the 1980 Superteams competition in Hawaii, he carried the Rams to victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Orioles. While running anchor in the relay race, he gained ground on the Steelers’ Lynn Swann during the final leg.

If anyone ever doubted Cromwell’s versatility, the notion evaporated during Kansas’ third game in 1976. He had started his first two years at free safety, but when new coach Bud Moore installed a wishbone offense, Cromwell was asked to make a little position switch . . . to quarterback.

“Coach Moore said, ‘We know you can play safety, but if you can be the starting quarterback, that’s what we’d like you to do.’ So, if I was able to do it, to learn the system and earn the starting job, then I would.”

Moore turned out to be a fair judge of talent. Cromwell made his debut as a starter against Oregon State with a 294-yard rushing performance. The next time out, Wisconsin had game films and was ready for the junior safety-turned-yardage-gobbler and held him to a mere 184 yards rushing.

“Sure, those games were a lot of fun,” Cromwell said, “but I just enjoyed playing, safety or quarterback. As a freshman and sophomore, I didn’t really get into a leadership role with the team because I was an underclassman and there were a number of other leaders. But as a quarterback, you’re a leader instantly, whether you’re a freshman or a senior, and I very much enjoyed that role.”

Cromwell didn’t exactly parlay his new fame into a social whirlwind, however. He went fishing after most games. “I was pretty reserved in college,” he says. “I wasn’t into the party scene. Too bad, now that I look back at it.”

If he was quiet then, he was downright speechless after the Rams drafted him on the second round in 1977.

WRONG PLACE, RIGHT PEOPLE

“Here I was, in the lime and light of Hollywood, the whole nine yards, and I was right in the middle of a bunch of country boys.”

--Nolan Cromwell, on his rookie season with the Rams.

Cromwell didn’t figure he’d feel much at home with the Rams. And when he arrived, one glance around the locker room and he was convinced he had figured right. Tom Mack. Jack Youngblood. Fred Dryer. Jack Reynolds. Heck, even Joe Namath.

“I was in awe,” he said. “We were in camp for eight weeks and I probably said a dozen words total to any of those guys. In fact, I was talking more to Joe Namath than anyone because I was coming off of knee surgery and we both had to ice our knees after practice. But I didn’t say more than a handful of words to him.

“I didn’t feel I even had the right to talk to those caliber of players. These were All-Pro players, the best in the NFL, and I was this little country bumpkin trying to make the team. I didn’t say anything. All I did was go out and play. I did what I was told and didn’t ask any questions.”

That was enough for the Ram coaching staff, so Cromwell made the final roster cut. He still didn’t feel much like part of the team, but at least he had his own uniform. Then, before the first home game, Cromwell was invited to join a group of veterans in their traditional preseason skeet and trap shooting outing.

“When they asked me to go, I was still in awe,” Cromwell said, “but when we got there, I knew I could shoot as well as any of them. I knew I could compete, side by side. It was the first time I felt comfortable, you know, part of the group, one of the boys.

“But back at practice, I was still the rookie and they were the veterans who ran the show.”

It wasn’t long before Cromwell was a full-fledged member of the Rams’ closely knit good-ol’-boy contingent that included Jack Youngblood, Jim Youngblood, Jack Reynolds, Mike Fanning and Dennis Harrah. And he’s convinced that friendship helped him dive headlong into NFL stardom after just three years in the league.

“It really became a comfortable situation,” he said. “Anything I needed, anything I wanted, I just had to ask. They took me under their wings. It definitely helped me to adjust to the NFL.”

RIGHT PLACE, BAD HANDS

“Take away the two passes to (John) Stallworth and give us back the interception I dropped, and we win it.”

--Nolan Cromwell, on Super Bowl XIV.

Cromwell was a key player for the Rams when the team made its only Super Bowl appearance on Jan. 20, 1980, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The Rams were leading Pittsburgh, 19-17, midway through the third quarter when Terry Bradshaw threw a pass in the direction of Lynn Swann, and Cromwell got his hands on the ball.

He didn’t hold onto it for long enough, though. And the Rams couldn’t hang onto their lead, either.

Then, early in the fourth quarter, Bradshaw connected with Stallworth for a 73-yard touchdown pass and the Steelers led, 24-19. Later, they hooked up again for a 45-yard gain on third and seven, setting up Franco Harris’ game-clinching one-yard touchdown run in Pittsburgh’s 31-19 victory.

Neither of those completions could be blamed on Cromwell. Yet, on the other hand, questions lingered. What if he had guessed right? What if he had taken the right risk? What if . . . ?

“Everybody wants to get there (the Super Bowl),” Cromwell says, “and the hype and the excitement is unbelievable. We were really, you know, (he clenches his fists and grits his teeth) . . . but the Steelers were so loose. A bunch of them brought video cameras to Press Day. They had their families out there. They were really relaxed.”

He doesn’t think the Rams were too uptight to win, however. After all, it was just a matter of a couple of passes, a couple of times when Cromwell didn’t pop up in the right place at the right time.

Saturday: Paul Cleary

NOLAN CROMWELL

Football player

Age: 35.

Hometown: Mission Viejo.

High School: Ransom High School, Ransom, Kan.

College: University of Kansas.

Accomplishments:

Led the NFL in interceptions with eight in 1980 and was selected NFC Defensive Player of the Year.

Was named to four consecutive Pro Bowls (1980-83) and received the Daniel F. Reeves Memorial Award (team MVP) in 1981.

Is the Rams’ all-time leader in career interception yardage (671) and is second in career interceptions (37).

Started four years at Kansas, two at free safety and two as a wishbone quarterback.

Was named Big Eight Player of the Year in 1976.

Rushed for 294 yards in his debut as a college quarterback.

Once scored 6,086 points in an NCAA decathlon competition.

Will be inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday at Disneyland Hotel.