RAMS : Delpino No Longer Waiting for a Break

Robert Delpino, an overnight sensation three seasons in the making, doesn’t know if he gets one week, two weeks or more to seize his particular moment in Ram tailback history.

All he knows is that it is here, right now.

After the long wait, the strange twists of football fate have delivered Delpino at least temporarily into the Rams’ starting lineup as quickly as Cleveland Gary could fumble it away last Sunday.

From now on, Delpino is assuming that the Rams tailback job is his to bobble.

“Three years, I’ve been waiting,” Delpino said this week. “And it’s finally gotten here. I’ll be the one that proves if it was a good switch or not. I’ve got to make that happen.”

After two solid seasons in 1988 and ‘89, Delpino was an oft-neglected backup fullback last season, caught in a vice not of his own making.

The Rams loved his pass-catching ability so much they almost forgot he could run the ball. The Rams also had major plans for Gary as a runner, and had Buford McGee locked in as the starting fullback, which crowded Delpino out of the picture.

That left Delpino as a third-down pass-catcher here, a kick-returner there, a spot runner there. He touched the ball just 28 times from scrimmage in 1990, a famine for any running back.

But after Gary’s 12 fumbles last season and his lost drop in the Rams’ loss to Phoenix last week, with backup tailback Marcus Dupree on the injured-reserve list with a sore left toe, and after Delpino’s 242-total-yard outing last Sunday, suddenly the running back the team forgot is the starter this Sunday against the New York Giants.

“I think once they see you do something, they want you to do something else and something else and something else,” Delpino said. “So it keeps rolling. And it’s rolling right now. Hopefully, it doesn’t stop. If it does, back to the drawing board, I guess.”

Delpino, who has bulked up 10 pounds from last year’s playing weight of 205 and believes this will prevent him from the end-of-the-year exhaustion that has hindered him in the past, says he can handle the burden without excess anxiety.

“That’s one thing I’m not going to let myself do,” Delpino said. “I’m maintaining my same routine. I have to. I can’t change anything. It’s got me to this point.

“I’m not going to put any extra pressure on myself; I didn’t do it last week so I don’t feel there’s any reason to do it now.”

Although Delpino said he thought he could run more after last week’s workhorse performance, the Rams are a little concerned about his ability to carry the ball over the long haul--especially against a physical Giant defense.

“We think he’s done a good job of running the ball for us,” offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese said. “Our concern with Bobby is the ability to sustain over a period of time, with a lot of carries every game.

“If he starts getting tired, we’ll get him out, put someone else in.”

Robinson took what could be viewed as a veiled poke at Gary, suggesting that maybe some of the running back’s fumbling woes have resulted from not working hard enough on the practice field. Gary missed portions of training camp this year with hamstring and rib injuries.

“That’s clearly what we’ve settled on in terms of what has gotten Cleveland off the track,” Robinson said. “He has not had many opportunities to practice. Now whether he has been diligent enough about overcoming the injury or not, I don’t have a comment on.

“But what we need to have him do, and we’ve told him, ‘You practice in that standard, then you’re going to play.’ He’ll play some (Sunday). He’s not in the doghouse unless he doesn’t practice well.”

Has Gary practiced well this week?

“Yes,” Robinson said. “Now he’s got to do it two days (in a row).”

Ray Handley, who replaced Bill Parcells, not only had the difficulty of trying to repeat last year’s Super Bowl championship, he also had a quarterback controversy to settle.

His first major decision was whether to name Phil Simms or Super Bowl hero Jeff Hostetler the quarterback. He picked the younger Hostetler, and, for better or worse, the decision is his first major imprint on the team.

“You know, I may look like I’ve made a dumb decision if I have to change quarterbacks down the road,” Handley said. “But I also feel like if I had to change the quarterbacks and had to go to Phil Simms, then I’m putting the ball into the hands of a pretty good quarterback.

“If I have to make the decision, I’ll do it. It’s no different than the fact that I had to make a decision in the first place. Now if I have to make a decision to change it, I’ll have to face up to it and do it.”

Another way Handley’s influence is showing on the Giants is his desire to get running back Dave Meggett into the offensive game plan far more than Parcells allowed the scatback.

Meggett, who used to haunt the Philadelphia Eagle defenses of new Ram defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher, is the player the Giants go to on third downs.

“As we got into the playoffs last year, we used Meggett quite a bit more,” Handley said. “We have some definite plans for the use of David, in the passing game and in the running. He has the rare talents of quickness and the ability to catch the ball.”

This week, with Ottis Anderson missing practice time with a sore shoulder, Meggett and Rodney Hampton could be the Giants’ main producers.