Knox’s Choices Limited

In Chuck Knox’s world, running backs make the coach the way clothes make the man. Lawrence McCutcheon, Joe Cribbs, Curt Warner, John L. Williams--in his first two decades as an NFL head coach, Knox never went anywhere without making a fashion statement.

Now, nine days before the first season opener of his second shift with the Rams, Knox finds himself running a naked bootleg.

You might have noticed all the one-back sets Knox has deployed this summer. That’s because Knox isn’t convinced he has two. Knox has already muttered something about keeping only four running backs on the roster, so he can finagle six wide receivers onto next week’s flight to Buffalo.

Got to go with the best athletes available.

At the moment, Knox has a fullback, Robert Delpino, who wants to play tailback. Delpino blocks, catches passes, doesn’t fumble, takes a hit for the team--all the things a Knox fullback is supposed to do, and Knox has always been one to leave well enough alone.

But if not Delpino, who at tailback?

Cleveland Gary, whose hamstrung hamstrings limited him to 15 carries, 39 yards and a 2.6-yards-per-attempt average this preseason?

Marcus Dupree, who could gain 100 yards against the scrubs of the crosstown Raiders but apparently not one inch of Knox’s heart? Dupree sat out nearly three quarters of the Rams’ final exhibition game Thursday night, a 30-19 loss to San Diego, before being rationed three carries. With them, Dupree netted seven yards.

Knox didn’t earn the tag “Ground Chuck” because of a fondness for coffee. He wants to run, he needs to run, he was born to coach the run. Inside Jack Murphy Stadium Thursday, he was like a homeless drifter on Rodeo Drive.

An embarrassment of riches all around him--and none of it to call his own.

San Diego opened the game with Marion Butts at tailback. Butts has netted more than 2,000 yards the last two seasons.

Then, the Chargers replaced Butts with Rod Bernstine, who rushed for 766 yards in 1991.

Then, they replaced Bernstine with Ronnie Harmon, who averaged 6.1 yards per carry in 1991. Then, they replaced Harmon with Eric Bienemy, who was San Diego’s leading rusher through the first three exhibition games.

Four tailbacks, all of them Chargers, all of them capable of starting for Knox, right here, right now.

Making matters worse was the scoreboard, and not just the 30 points next to “San Diego.” During breaks in the action, usually when the Rams had the football, the scoreboard would hype the Chargers’ home opener against Kansas City--showing video clips of the Chiefs’ “explosive duo” of Christian Okoye and Barry Word, a couple of tailbacks who combined for 1,700 yards in 1991, or more than 400 yards than the entire Ram team in 1991.

For Knox, Jack Murphy had become a torture chamber. Either that or the place where America’s Grind-It-Out Coach would love to shop.

Sorry, but the Chargers aren’t selling, even if Flipper Anderson or Aaron Cox would look swell opposite Anthony Miller. Bobby Ross’ game plan for ’92 changed somewhat when quarterback John Friesz tore up his knee two weeks ago.

Now, the Chargers are looking at the season ahead 4.2 yards at a time. It’s going to be Butts and Bernstine and Harmon and Bienemy, over and over, until either the defensive line gives or the Chargers do.

Okoye and Word, meanwhile, had become buzzwords around Rams Park recently, along with Chicago’s Neal Anderson, New England’s John Stephens and Phoenix’s Johnny Johnson. Tailbacks for hire, with Knox stroking his chin and double-checking the catalogue prices.

Starting tailbacks usually come as cheaply in the NFL as two-time National League strikeout leaders do in the major leagues, until the Mets turned bonehead and turned the Blue Jays into Coneheads. Unfortunately for Knox, no one in his sport has gone similarly insane, so the standing offer has been a No. 1 draft choice and a starter--a cost the talent-thin and future-leaning Rams can hardly afford.

Okoye-to-the-Rams was a rumor that seemed to meet its official demise earlier Thursday with the passing of the supplemental draft. The rumor: The Rams draft Florida defensive end Darren Mickell, package him with a pick or a player and ship it all to Kansas City for tailback salvation. The crimp: Everyone passed on Mickell in the first round, enabling Kansas City to snatch him in the second, no middle man required.

All such speculation might have been moot from the beginning, judging from Knox’s recent remark that he had never consummated a major trade this close to the start of the regular season. After 19 seasons, he isn’t about to start now, since these Rams are a good deal more than one tailback away from NFC West title contention.

These Rams, it appears, will score the way they did Thursday--with lobs to Todd Kinchen, or the wide receiver of the moment, one of the six Knox and Jim Everett decide to dial.

And at the other end of the roster there sit two kickers, Tony Zendejas, who was 17 for 17 in field goals last season, and Steve Domingos, who is five for five in field goals, this summer.

Such is life with Knox and the Rams.

Too many kickers, not enough runners.