Rams Deal Pankey to Colts : Trade: Long contract dispute, arrival of Perry make veteran tackle expendable.

Holdout left tackle Irv Pankey, removed from the Rams’ plans long ago, finally was traded Wednesday.

Pankey, 33, an 11-year veteran who missed all of summer camp and the first regular-season game because of a contract dispute, was sent to the Indianapolis Colts for the Colts’ third- and 11th-round picks in next year’s draft. The trade hinges on Pankey’s passing the Colts’ physical today.

Pankey’s agent, Peter Funsten, negotiated a three-year deal with the Colts worth about $2.2 million--or an average of $733,333 a season--that Pankey is to sign today. The Rams’ last offer to Pankey was worth less than $500,000 a season, and their last serious offer was $1.1 million over two seasons.

“I’m glad to be gone,” Pankey said. “I served my 11 years. I made some great friends and played some good ball here, and it’s time to step up and try to put another page in my annals before I get out of this sport.”

The Rams have played Robert Jenkins and Gerald Perry at left tackle all summer, rotated them last Sunday, and plan to continue until one of them takes the job Pankey has held for the last five seasons. The Rams traded a fourth-round pick and running back Gaston Green for Perry last spring, and immediately began thinking about getting along without Pankey.

In the next three weeks, Jenkins and Perry will have to face the NFL’s three dominant blind-side pass rushers--the Giants’ Lawrence Taylor, the Saints’ Pat Swilling and the 49ers’ Charles Haley--one after the other.

“We’ll see how they do the next three weeks,” Pankey said of the Rams’ unsettled situation at left tackle.

In Indianapolis, Pankey will rejoin running back Eric Dickerson, who lobbied hard for the Colts to make the trade. It’s unclear whether Pankey will play left tackle or left guard for the Colts, but he said that as long as he was free of the Rams’ contract hassles, he was happy.

“A lot of bitterness is what builds up in you,” Pankey said. “I was in limbo. They wouldn’t trade me . . . (and) I don’t think they were offering me fair value.”

According to Pankey, the Rams refused to negotiate seriously before trading him and he called that simply another example of the way they have treated players throughout the years.

“It could happen to you when you’re here two years or 15 years,” he said. “When they’re ready to do it, they’re going to do it.”

The Colts moved newly acquired Bubba Paris to left guard from left tackle in practice Wednesday, and may start Pankey at left tackle Sunday against the Dolphins at Miami.

“I played with him for a long time, and he can play,” Dickerson told reporters in Indianapolis. “Irv was a very, very solid player. We don’t have much depth at the offensive line and he’s a great player.”

Ram Coach John Robinson said the decision to trade Pankey came down to a simple disagreement over money and the direction the Rams had decided to take with their offensive line.

“I think it was an honest difference in perception of his value,” Robinson said Wednesday. “The Rams have one perception of what he should be earning and he had another.

“I think it’s one of the things that does happen. I think Irv’s been a good Ram and has been a good player for us. He’s a good guy.”

Robinson emphasized, though, that the Rams had to get younger players to build a line to last deep into the ‘90s.

Last season they started three offensive linemen past 32, Pankey, Doug Smith, 34, at center and Jackie Slater, 37, at right guard.

With Jenkins, 27, and Perry, 26, at tackle; Bern Brostek, 24, Duval Love, 28, and Joe Milinchik, 28, at guard, and Tom Newberry, 28, at center, Robinson said the Rams are set for a while.

“I think we certainly are far different, age-wise,” Robinson said. “We had to make some moves, something had to happen. Rob and Gerald both play at tackle and maybe at some point that’s a segue to Jackie’s ultimate retirement.”

The Rams concede that their offensive line is in transition and the trade of Pankey was part of the reconstruction.

“What the hell, why not make it all at once so we can all have the chance to play together for a long time,” quarterback Jim Everett said. “Those guys . . . are young guys that, hopefully throughout my career, I’ll play a long time with.”