Phifer’s Career Now on the Right Track : Rams: Linebacker puts ‘mistake’ at UCLA behind him and gains confidence with a sack against Giants.
It seems so long ago, now that he is days away from his first NFL start and is establishing himself as a mover and future shaker on the Rams’ young defensive squad.
It seems so far away, now that Roman Phifer can talk quietly but calmly about his lost junior season at UCLA in the past tense and can say he was not permanently scarred by the experience.
But the dark days after his altercation with a campus security officer just before the 1989 college season, the subsequent conviction on misdemeanor assault charges and a yearlong suspension from the Bruin team are not so long ago and so far away that Phifer can forget them.
It just makes the present and future seem all the more satisfying. It makes sharing a field with his hero, Lawrence Taylor, as he did last Sunday, something beyond the normal rookie wonderment.
“The first thing I really thought was, ‘My career is over, I’ll never have a chance to play in the NFL,’ ” Phifer said the incident.
His career was not over, but it was interrupted. When UCLA Coach Terry Donahue suspended him for the season, Phifer was told he would be allowed back on the team for his senior year if he could stay out of trouble.
Phifer served his 24-month probation, completed 45 days of community service and was a starter on the 1990 team after having previously been mainly a special-teams player.
He bloomed even more in four postseason all-star games, and the Rams used the 31st choice overall to draft him in the second round.
“I just tried to come out with a vengeance,” Phifer said of his senior season. “It was now or never.”
Phifer remembers his troubles as a learning experience.
“Yeah, I grew up kind of overnight,” he said. “That just kind of slapped me in the face and told me, ‘Hey, this is your shot, don’t blow it! “
His junior-year troubles followed him all the way through the draft, as NFL teams that otherwise loved his 6-foot-2, 230-pound frame and obvious agility grilled him about his character.
“I’m sure they wanted to see what kind of guy they were looking at,” Phifer said. “Basically, I just told them what happened. It was a mistake on my part. I was out with some friends, partying, things got out of hand. That’s the bottom line, just out of hand.
“I’m really not that type of guy, but things happen when you’re hanging out. . . . People have certain opinions of you from incidents like that. They don’t really know you, but you still have a label.”
Linebackers coach Ronnie Jones was assigned to sit down with Phifer when the Rams zeroed in on him as a future star.
“He was very honest with me about the situation,” Jones said. “ . . . He admitted he made a mistake and he had to pay for the mistake. We put that all behind him.
“But I knew by talking to him and talking to his coaches at UCLA that he was a very, very class young man.”
There were other teams after Phifer at the top of that second round, but the Rams, switching to an attacking defense and in need of linebackers who could run, got him.
“It doesn’t take a genius to see a talent,” Jones said. “He fit our system. We look for speed, we look for attitude, we look for aggressiveness, and Roman showed us that in all the films we saw and the postseason games.”
The Rams immediately began working him into their plans, seeing him as a pass-coverage specialist who could add 10 or 15 pounds and become a dominant outside linebacker by his second season.
Phifer played only on passing downs in the Rams’ 24-14 season-opening loss to the run-oriented Phoenix Cardinals but was pushed into full-time action against the New York Giants last Sunday when Fred Strickland hurt his left knee and right-side starter Brett Faryniarz had to move over to Strickland’s spot on the left.
Phifer ignited the Ram defense by forcing a fumble on a sack of Jeff Hostetler. And although the Giants ran right at him, he held his own throughout the 19-13 victory.
“He just ran in there and played,” Coach John Robinson said. “Got a sack, and he was grinning. He couldn’t stop grinning after the game.”
Phifer was still grinning three days before his NFL starting debut Sunday night against the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome.
“You always dream of having a sack in a game like that, (against) the Giants, coming off winning the Super Bowl,” Phifer said.
“Obviously, it was a boost of confidence for me. This is possible. I can make a difference in a game. If I work hard, this is something I can look forward to, making plays like this in the future.”
Phifer’s starting role is a temporary assignment until Strickland’s knee has healed enough to get him back into the lineup. When that happens, Phifer and Faryniarz will be back battling for the other starting spot. Phifer said he understands and welcomes that.
“I would like to know when I play that I’ve earned the right to play,” Phifer said. “So I didn’t feel like I wanted to be just thrown in right away. I’m happy things are working out the way they are, that I’m fighting for a position.”