A Tough Start : Lyght Got a Quick NFL Baptism in ’91 and Expects It to Pay Off This Season

A stone’s throw from Graceland, on a Memphis football field a few days after the Rams had transformed him from a monthlong holdout into a wealthy NFL rookie, Todd Lyght made his professional debut at cornerback.

He was all shook up.

It was a year ago, in an exhibition game at the Liberty Bowl against the Houston Oilers, and Lyght concedes that he was in a bit of a daze. Moonstruck, you might say.

“I hadn’t had a single practice,” Lyght recalled recently. “I remember I went to a meeting, and then we had a walk-through. And the next thing I know, I’m looking up and there’s Warren Moon standing across the line of scrimmage.

“And I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m not ready for this.’ ”

Who would be?

Lyght had prepared for this moment by patiently waiting for his contract to be ironed out, exploring Los Angeles from his base at former Notre Dame teammate Pat Terrell’s house and doing, in Lyght’s own words: “Absolutely nothing.”

Although Lyght handled himself reasonably well in Memphis that night, the experience woke him up to what his life would be like during the next 16 weeks.

Even with all the experience against big-time receivers Lyght had at Notre Dame, jumping straight into an NFL schedule dizzied him.

He was playing catch-up throughout the 1991 season, and it didn’t matter what Ram fans expected of him. It was going to take time for him to learn, no matter how much he had been ballyhooed.

“It was hard to fit in,” Lyght said. “Last year was a very humbling experience. You look up to these guys all your life, and you finally get to play against them. You go into a game against the San Francisco 49ers, and you go, ‘Oh, man, that’s the 49ers.’ ”

It did not help that Lyght strained a hamstring early on, erasing any hope that he could be an immediate starter. As he sat, Darryl Henley, whose job Lyght was supposed to seize, established himself as the team’s most solid defensive back.

So Lyght sat some more, seeing spot time as a cornerback in five-back coverages. The fifth pick overall in the 1991 draft, he was signed at an average salary of $1.1 million and was the highest-paid Ram defensive player until this year’s No. 1 choice, Sean Gilbert.

Lyght remained silent.

Then, in the eighth game of the season, Jerry Gray was pulled out of the lineup in the middle of a torching by the Atlanta Falcons, and Lyght went in for good at left cornerback. He started the last eight games, finally flashing the sort of coverage he was drafted to supply.

But replacing Gray, the leader of the secondary, was another hurdle.

“That was tough because he was the team captain,” Lyght said. “No one made me feel uncomfortable, but I did feel a sense of leadership lost when I replaced him. It was tough.

“I really don’t think one individual can carry a football team. There’s too many people on the field at one time. There are some great individual players in the league, but no one person can just take the team and put them on his shoulders and run with it.

“I don’t know if they were expecting too much of me. But they did expect me to make an impact. And I think I did pretty well. I started the last eight games, and I did pretty well.”

Lyght had hoped to bring that momentum over into this season, with a new defensive staff that preferred the zone style he played most of the time at Notre Dame. And in the early days of camp, he dominated the pass drills. At 6 feet, he’s taller than many receivers; he can jump higher and he has just as much speed.

“He’s perfect for anybody’s scheme,” Ram cornerbacks coach Rod Perry said. “He has that ideal size for a corner. He can run, he can do those things you like in a corner.”

With this year’s spotlight on Gilbert, Lyght appeared poised to make his own claim to be a pillar of the Ram defense.

“Just being around all the other players, just having one year of experience, makes me a more confident player,” Lyght said, “because I know what I can do in this league, and I know what the receivers and the quarterbacks are capable of doing.”

Then injury--a hamstring--struck again. Suddenly, Lyght was facing the prospect of another training camp sit-down. He missed three weeks, including the team’s scrimmage with the San Diego Chargers and exhibition games against the Seattle Seahawks and the Raiders.

It was an uncomfortable reminder of his troubles in 1991.

“Yeah, I did flash back to last year,” Lyght said. “And I was upset. When I first did it, I didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was.

“It was frustrating because I knew it was going to hinder my play a little bit. I expected to make a lot of big plays this year and I know missing camp is going to take away from that early on.”

Lyght returned to practice this week and should be able to play Saturday night against the Green Bay Packers at Anaheim Stadium, even though he says he isn’t “even 90%” on his right leg yet.

Asked if he feels pressure to return quickly because of last year’s problems, Lyght mentioned Gilbert’s battle to come back from a sprained ankle while under intense scrutiny because of his multimillion-dollar contract.

“Oh yeah, it’s tough,” Lyght said. “This is the National Football League, and you’re going to get hurt. It’s a tough sport, one of the toughest professions I know. This is just part of the game, getting hurt and coming back as soon as possible. It’s very demanding on your body.

“When you get a sprained ankle or something, it’s not really the will. It’s just a matter of time. If your ankle is bothering you and it’s hard to walk, you can’t ask yourself to run.”