Former Ram Takes His Versatility to Charger Camp : NFL: Richard Brown’s main role with his former team was on special teams. He hopes the experience will help him catch on with San Diego.

Richard Brown, the former San Diego State and Ram linebacker, was in a hurry Tuesday afternoon, with little time to eat lunch, less to talk.

He had some routine but important business to take care of on the fifth day of his first Charger training camp.

“I’ve got to go to a meeting,” he said, hurrying to conclude a brief post-lunch interview at UC San Diego. “I need a job.”

He needs it now more than ever. Brown and his wife, Heather, recently became the parents of their first child. Bianca is now 3 1/2 months.

Her birth came seven weeks before Brown signed a free-agent contract with the Chargers.

“My wife needs the money; my baby needs the money,” Brown said. “I really need this job.”

His chances, like those of any free agent, might be slight. But Brown is showing that he is willing to do anything--play linebacker, be a hit man on special teams, even try long snapping. His eagerness and willingness were evident Tuesday afternoon, when he was about the last player off the practice field.

“He certainly has the temperament to play special teams,” said Larry Pasquale, the Chargers’ new special teams coach. “He has the intensity and the enthusiasm. He realizes how special teams can help a team.”

That was his main role in parts of three seasons with the Rams, where he had a here-today, gone-tomorrow, back-the-next-day, gone-again kind of career.

Signed as a free agent after his senior season at SDSU, where he helped lead the Aztecs to their only Western Athletic Conference championship and the 1986 Holiday Bowl, Brown started the season on injured reserve with a hamstring problem. But he returned to play the final eight games on special teams.

The next season, an off-season leg injury slowed his conditioning. He was released by the Rams in the final training camp roster cut and spent the year working in the service department of his father-in-law’s scale business.

He re-signed with the Rams last season and, when injuries left the team short at linebacker, Brown started two games early in the season. But again Brown found himself out of a job, when he was waived before the final three games.

Brown, 6 feet 3 and 240 pounds, said he was considering signing with the Rams again in mid-May when the Chargers called and offered him a contract. Rather than return to a team that already had cut him twice, Brown opted for the change.

“That was the whole reason I wanted to leave,” Brown said. “I didn’t know where I was going to be the next day. My relationship was real blurry. I didn’t know what they wanted me to do.”

His role with the Chargers is a little clearer.

With first-round draft choice Junior Seau a camp holdout, Brown is being tried at inside linebacker, although he said the team signed him to play the outside position. But playing linebacker is probably secondary to the team’s real need--help on special teams.

And when he was healthy, Brown was one of the Rams’ best. He led them with 13 special teams tackles last season.

“I guess you could say I’m a role-player,” Brown said. “That’s basically what I’m here for. They don’t have any plans for me as a starter, just as a backup. But if anything happens, I can start.”

Brown is glad to be with the Chargers, but is quick to say he believes the Rams gave up on him too quickly.

“I’m thankful they gave me a chance to play the last three years,” he said, “but if they would have paid more attention to me, they could have polished up the diamond that they had.”