RAMS : Newberry Agrees to Four-Year Contract

A few days after Coach John Robinson stressed that the team needed him in camp as soon as possible, center Tom Newberry reached agreement Thursday on a four-year, $2.95-million contract with the Rams.

Newberry, who missed 23 days of training camp, is scheduled to arrive from his home in Miami, sign the contract, then report to Irvine for practice today.

“We need him in there,” Ram Coach John Robinson said Thursday. “It’s important. (But) the first thing that runs through your mind is you hope you don’t have a setback now and have him take a slight injury of some kind.”

Newberry will make a base salary of $675,000 this season and will average about $740,000 a season through 1994, making him one of the three or four highest-paid centers in the league. Only tackle Jackie Slater ($800,000-a-year) makes more among the Rams’ offensive linemen. None of Newberry’s salary will be deferred.

Robinson this week underlined the need for Newberry and linebacker Fred Strickland to be in camp because both were switching to new positions, and a prolonged absence could diminish their chances of starting. Strickland’s agent, Bruce Allen, had not spoken with the Rams as of Thursday afternoon.

Robinson cautioned that Newberry, who is being moved to center after five years at guard, won’t be handed the starting job over 13-year veteran Doug Smith.

Smith, a starter through last season, has been brought along slowly after injuring his left ankle early in training camp and did not play in the team’s exhibition opener.

“Truthfully now, we’ve got to make that position competitive,” Robinson said. “I think Doug’s got a right (for a chance to beat out Newberry).

“Tom has to acquire the skills necessary to play the center position. We anticipate that he will do that, but until he does, that position isn’t clear yet.”

Robinson said he hasn’t decided if Newberry will be ready to play Monday night in the team’s second exhibition game against the San Diego Chargers at Anaheim Stadium.

Newberry’s agent, Greg Campbell, who held New Orleans Saint quarterback Bobby Hebert out of the entire 1990 season in a contract dispute, began talking with Ram Vice President Jay Zygmunt in February and continued communication until an agreement was reached.

“It was a long negotiation with Jay, but it was handled the way these things should be,” Campbell said.

Interestingly, Campbell hadn’t heard back from the Rams when Robinson announced the agreement Thursday afternoon and was startled when a reporter called and told him the deal was done.

Campbell immediately called Zygmunt, who told him the team had agreed to his last proposal, and then the deal was done.

The Rams’ list of holdouts is now down to four: No. 1 pick Todd Lyght, fullback Buford McGee, tackle Irv Pankey and Strickland.

Todd Lyght, heading into the 24th day of his holdout with the regular season three weeks away, said he was doing footwork drills, running and lifting weights to keep in shape.

But he said even in the unlikely event he signs in the next week or so, he wasn’t sure if he could be ready for the Sept. 1 season opener.

“After about a week of practice, then I’ll be able to make that assessment,” Lyght said recently. “I might catch on really quick.

“But there’s only so much you can do sitting down and looking at a playbook. Until you’re out there actually running the defense and in competition, it’s just not the same.”

Lyght, who is following the process of his and other first-round negotiations closely, didn’t sound displeased that Denver appears close to signing linebacker Mike Croel, taken one pick ahead of Lyght and also represented by Bob Woolf, to a $1.35 million-a-season deal.

“Yeah, that’s good,” Lyght said. “That’s very good.

The Rams and Woolf are about $500,000 per season apart and probably will not resume talks until next week.