Rams Reduce Their Holdout List by Two : Pro football: Wright, Faryniarz sign, but seven others remain out of training camp.
The Rams continued to chip away at their long slate of training camp no-shows, signing linebacker Brett Faryniarz and nose tackle Alvin Wright to contracts Thursday.
The terms were not immediately available, but Wright, the starting nose tackle who played for a base salary of $220,000 in 1989, signed a three-year deal for what is believed to be a substantial increase.
The signings left the Rams with four unsigned veterans--Kevin Greene, Damone Johnson, Doug Reed and Michael Stewart; two unsigned draft choices, first-round pick Bern Brostek and second-round selection Pat Terrell, and one unhappy player under contract but out of camp, Jackie Slater.
Slater, a 14-year veteran, is seeking to renegotiate his contract of $550,000 for 1990 and hadn’t arrived as of Thursday evening.
Though Slater is much beloved in Ram circles, Coach John Robinson said he considers his holdout no different than others in the past.
“It’s just business,” Robinson said. “It goes on all the time. It has nothing to do with Jackie.”
One player closely watching Greene’s ongoing contract negotiations is Pro Bowl cornerback-turned-safety Jerry Gray, who figures to use the linebacker’s deal to shape his next contract. In fact, both players have the same agent.
Gray signed a one-year contract for $500,000 for this season, not including some reachable incentives, and eagerly awaits the outcome of Greene’s ordeal.
“We’ve seen what the Rams do to guys that come out and bitch,” Gray said, rekindling memories of Eric Dickerson and Greg Bell. “Now we’ll see if they have another side to them.”
Greene and Gray are two of the team’s best-liked veterans. Both players made the Pro Bowl in 1989. Greene earned $225,000 in base salary for the season, Gray $250,000.
Instead of staging a holdout of his own this summer, Gray took the stepladder approach, accepting a one-year contract for 1990 as he builds momentum for his next negotiation.
“Even though it (would have been) fair to (raise) me from $250,000 to $900,000 or a million, I think it was too far of a jump,” Gray said. “It’s like being on the 10th floor and you want to get down. If you work your way down to the fifth floor, it doesn’t seem that far.”
In monetary terms, consider how far Greene and Gray are lagging behind the rest of the league: New York Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who had fewer sacks than Greene the last two years, is holding out of camp until the team renegotiates his $1.2-million deal for 1990.
Gray, in turn, rattled off a list of defensive backs who are in a higher tax bracket.
“Joey Browner (Minnesota), he averages out to $900,000,” Gray said. “You’ve got Ronnie Lott (San Francisco) at $825,000. Deron Cherry (Kansas City), all those guys are in at $800,000. Raymond Clayborn (Cleveland), he’s in the $900,000s. Deion (Sanders) averages $1.1 million. If you’re in that type of caliber, you want that type of money.”
Gray says Greene has long been a hard-working company man.
“Kevin’s a real nice guy,” Gray said. “He plays for the team. It’s not a selfish thing with him, and everyone knows it. That’s what’s going to be so hard for the Rams, to say, ‘We can do without him.’ Because he’s not the type they ever had to deal with.”
Until now.
Ram Notes
Guard Tom Newberry reported to camp Thursday. He was granted a one-day leave to remain with his pregnant wife in Miami. . . . Some more numbers for holdout Kevin Greene to consider: On Thursday, New Orleans signed veteran Pro Bowl linebacker Rickey Jackson to a two-year contract worth $825,000 a season, with a $50,000 reporting bonus each year.
The Rams are believed to be offering first-round choice Bern Brostek the same four-year, $1.8-million deal they gave Cleveland Gary last season. Gary was the 26th overall pick, Brostek the 23rd. . . . The Rams’ chief contract negotiator, Jay Zygmunt, was in Chicago, where his father suffered a heart attack.
