PRO FOOTBALL REPORT / WEEKDAY UPDATE : RAMS : Gary Is Still Trying to Get a Grip

Tailback Cleveland Gary, who has fumbled nine times already this season and who was held out of most of last week’s game after fumbling early, says it is time to halt the fumbling.

“I’m not going to be a fumbler,” Gary said. “I grip it so well, but it’s just that when I get into the traffic area sometimes, I’m not really thinking. It’s more or less, ‘Make that play,’ and they go for the ball.

“In the future, I think I can turn a negative into a positive because if they start going for the ball--with my size, strength and speed--they’re just going to give me a lot more yards. When they go for the ball--it’s already hard for them to tackle me anyway one on one--it’ll just give me that extra room to slip a tackle.”

The last time the Rams played New Orleans, the opponent Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, Flipper Anderson caught 15 passes for 336 yards, an NFL single-game record, in the Rams’ 20-17 overtime victory in the Superdome last Nov. 26.

Could he possibly duplicate that feat Sunday, against the same defense?

“I do hope so, but it’s probably unlikely that I will,” Anderson said. “It would be nice if I could get anywhere within 200 yards of it.”

Since the Rams had 7,205 tickets left unsold by 1 p.m. Thursday, Sunday’s game will not be televised locally.