Ram Fans Expected to Get Longer Look at Warner
In an exhibition that otherwise offers little, tailback Curt Warner will make his first start as a Ram tonight. The San Diego Chargers will provide the opposition in the 46th annual Times/Rams Charity Game at Anaheim Stadium.
Warner, 29, has rushed for 6,705 yards and 55 touchdowns in the NFL. Still, there is much anticipation to see whether he remains the runner he was for the Seattle Seahawks, who obviously didn’t think so when they made him an unprotected Plan B free agent last spring.
So far this summer, the Rams have guarded Warner’s workload, careful not to expose him to excess scrutiny. Last week in West Berlin, Warner made only a token appearance, rushing for 12 yards in five carries, leaving the foreign spotlight to Gaston Green.
But tonight, Warner will line up with the first-team offense--at least what is left of it--and perhaps carry with him a glimpse of the team’s future.
While Coach John Robinson maintains that Warner will never again carry the ball 300 times in a season, as he has in previous years, he believes the former Penn State star can be an effective runner and leader on a young team with its sights set on the Super Bowl.
In that sense, Warner begins a new chapter in his career tonight, although Robinson said he has nothing to prove.
“In games, no,” Robinson said. “He just has to show me that he’s ready to do what he can do, and he shows that on the practice field--he still has the zest for playing. He has demonstrated that the last couple of weeks.”
Warner showed it again in Thursday’s practice when he popped linebacker Fred Strickland in the face mask after being tackled during a heated goal-line rushing drill.
Warner has also been pushed somewhat by the emerging Green, who rushed for 115 yards last Saturday against the Kansas City Chiefs. With Cleveland Gary still sidelined because of a lower back strain, Green will attempt to further improve his stock in relief of Warner tonight.
“Warner will kind of have the lead role, with Gaston playing a lot,” Robinson said.
The rest of the game will be typical of most exhibitions. Quarterback Jim Everett, who played a quarter last week, will play no more than the first two offensive series against the Chargers. Chuck Long, resigned to mop-up duty with the reserves last week, will get a shot with the first unit, which will not include injured starting receivers Flipper Anderson and Henry Ellard.
Robinson said he might alternate both backup quarterbacks, Long and Mark Herrmann, throughout the game so that they can be evaluated against the same competition.
Both the Rams and the Chargers are teams trying to survive another summer of contract disputes. The Rams have five veteran holdouts: Jackie Slater, Kevin Greene, Damone Johnson, Doug Reed and Michael Stewart.
The Chargers still haven’t signed two key players on defense--outside linebacker Leslie O’Neal and first-round choice Junior Seau.
Coach Dan Henning said there’s little he can do but wait.
“In this day and age, I don’t know how you can get concerned,” he said of his two holdouts. “I don’t know how you compute the numbers. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason on the numbers; that people can be so far apart and then, eventually, it gets done. When you start out a million (dollars) apart, I can’t get concerned with that. I don’t even want to think about it.”
Henning has turned his attention instead to quarterback, where he must choose between second-year player Billy Joe Tolliver and Mark Vlasic, who missed all of 1989 recovering from knee surgery.
Henning said he will play his starters for about a half against the Rams. “We’ll give Tolliver the lion’s share of the work,” he said. “Where we’ll give it to him in the game, I’m not sure at this point. Then the next priority is to get Vlasic a good deal of work.”
As for the season opener, Henning said: “Right now, the plan is to play with Tolliver.”
Ram Notes
George Menefee, who is in his 36th season as Ram trainer, will be honored at halftime tonight. He has been with the team since 1955, having been hired by Sid Gillman. Menefee will turn 75 in October. . . . Former Ram linebacker Richard Brown is trying to catch on in San Diego and reportedly is doing well. “Richard’s had a good camp,” Coach Dan Henning said. “He’s worked real hard and he has a shot.”
The Rams might be catching the Packers at the right time when they open the regular season in Green Bay, Wis., Sept. 9. The Packers, who have yet to sign quarterback Don Majkowski, lost running back Brent Fullwood Friday. He underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove cartilage in his right knee. The team is saying he could miss the opener. . . . NFL teams must trim rosters to 60 players by Aug. 28, then to 47 by Sept. 3.
