Bailey Eager to Take On NFL Again : Rams: Cornerback lost the tip of his finger in an on-field accident last season, and now is looking forward to a full season.

Robert Bailey lost 13 games and the tip of his left ring finger last season. But that was nothing compared to losing the sense that he was part of the football team, no matter how poorly it was playing.

Now he wishes he could lose all his memories from 1991. For now, at least, Bailey has an important spot with the Rams that is his to lose.

Bailey came to the Rams last year as a quick, physical cornerback who was expected to fit in well with their bump-and-cover style of man-to-man coverage.

Bailey, who played at the University of Miami for four seasons, was a fourth-round draft pick eager to jump right in and participate in the rebuilding of the franchise.

It did not turn out that way, not by a long, long shot. The Rams’ 3-13 record last season was just the first of it.

“My memories of last year was I was a member of the IR committee--injured reserve,” Bailey said recently, grimacing at the recollection. “That’s what I remember about last year. I don’t even want to remember last year.

“It was bad last year, it was really bad last year.”

After an impressive early training camp performance that put him in the mix for a top backup spot, Bailey broke a bone in his right hand in the team’s first exhibition game and was put on IR for the first five weeks.

He was activated in October and managed to remain healthy for six weeks. But he saw so little action, he registered just one tackle.

Then, in the same Nov. 17 game that Detroit Lion offensive lineman Mike Utley suffered the injury that paralyzed him, Bailey caught his left hand in the shoulder pad of a Lion player. He didn’t realize he had lost the tip of his finger until he took off his glove on the sideline.

Bailey was taken to the same hospital room as Utley after the game, so the tip of his finger seemed a fairly irrelevant injury. Subsequently, Bailey underwent surgery to reattach most of his finger.

He spent the rest of the season on IR.

“That was the season for me,” Bailey said. “So, I guess I must’ve been active for probably about five or six games, and that was it, out of a 16-game season. And that’s nothing.”

For someone who has won national championships and covered the best receivers college football could offer, that was not nearly enough.

“I got a taste, but not as much as I wanted,” Bailey said. “You always have respect for the big ones, but I figure when the time comes, my name probably will be big--they’ll have respect for me.

“I want to cover these people. I fear nobody. I covered Michael Irvin and Randal Hill all my life (during Miami practices), and they weren’t any problem for me, so I figure it’s time to get out there and show everybody what I can do.”

Things seemed to have gotten worse with the departure of the coaching staff that drafted him, leaving Bailey with no real NFL experience to help him in front of Coach Chuck Knox’s assistants.

Also, with Knox moving to a more zone-oriented coverage scheme that tends to favor bigger, heavier cornerbacks, Bailey seemed to be filtering out of the picture.

But then why was Bailey the starting right cornerback for most of this past mini-camp, alongside Todd Lyght? Why is Bailey practically guaranteed a spot on this team’s roster for 1992?

For a lot of reasons, first and foremost the uncertain contract situation of last year’s starting right corner, Darryl Henley. Henley attended the mini-camp, but is unsigned, could stage a long summer holdout, and participated in only a handful of the week’s drills.

Also, during the Plan B period, Bailey was protected by the Rams, but three other cornerbacks--Jerry Gray, Sammy Lilly and Rodney Thomas--were unprotected and departed.

As far as signed veterans go, the Rams’ cornerbacks are Lyght and Bailey, both second-year players. That’s it.

“Every year I hope to be starting, regardless of whether Darryl’s here or not,” Bailey said. “Whoever’s here, I’m coming in to start. We hope Darryl doesn’t hold out long, we hope he comes in because we want to have as many corners playing as much as possible.

“But I hope I start.”

One development that did not boost Bailey’s starting potential was the drafting of Pittsburgh cornerback Steve Israel in the second round. Israel, 5 feet 10 and 186 pounds, is bigger and faster than Henley (5-8, 172) or Bailey (5-9, 176) and is the hand-picked selection of Knox’s staff.

Assuming Israel and Henley sign sometime early in training camp, there appears to be plenty of competition at that right-side spot.

“I think every year somebody’s going to be competing, so you might as well get used to it,” Bailey said. “I knew we were going to get a corner high (in the draft) because we only had three corners. And Darryl, he’s not even under contract, so we really only have two.

“I wanted them to draft a corner pretty high so we could get some athletes to help us out, get things going in the secondary.

“We’re young. I think we’re also very positive.

“We’re on a team that went 3-13 last year. we’re all hungry. We’re willing to listen, we’re willing to do whatever it takes. We can start a whole new tradition.”

Bailey went through mini-camp without a hitch, and says his finger incident is a thing of the past, best forgotten.

“It’s not even a factor, I don’t even think about it, it doesn’t even bother me,” Bailey said. “I lost a quarter of an inch off my finger, and it’s nothing. I don’t think about it.

“Every year somebody gets hurt. (Last year) Roman Phifer broke his ankle, and (tight end) Jim (Price) broke his ankle and I messed my finger up. Right now, I’m glad I messed my finger instead of breaking my ankle, because they’re still having problems running and stuff.

“It was a freak thing. It won’t hold me back at all.”