He’s Front and Center of Rams’ Offense Now : Football: Bern Brostek keeps an even keel while enjoying his return to a position he can call home after having to play guard.

Bern Brostek, a hulking, happy-go-lucky player in an angry man’s league, laughs when he is asked about his game against Bruce Smith three weeks ago.

Brostek says he had fun matching up with the Buffalo Bills’ All-Pro defensive lineman, which is not a statement many make.

Of course, for Brostek--a young, massive lineman on a team that desperately needs young, massive linemen--even smashing against Bruce Smith is worth a smile.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Bern not having fun,” said Doug Smith, one of Brostek’s predecessors at center and now an intern coach for the Rams. “He enjoys just about everything he does.”

Interestingly, it might have been Brostek’s hang-loose attitude that kept former Ram offensive line coach Hudson Houck from playing the 295-pound lineman at center.

Houck preferred to use Brostek at guard last year even though Brostek was an All-American center at Washington before the Rams took him with their No. 1 pick in 1990.

Does Brostek think that perhaps his lightheartedness confuses coaches sometimes?

“A little bit,” he said. “But it’s hang loose off the field. Once you get on the field, you get the job done, play hard.”

Said current Ram offensive line coach Jim Erkenbeck: “Well, it doesn’t confuse me because on the field he’s a perfect player. I mean, he’s intense, does exactly what he’s supposed to do.”

On a Ram offensive line that has been fraying at the seams for several years and needs 300-pound building blocks for Chuck Knox’s three- or four-year plan, Brostek, still only 26, is a huge part of the future.

One of Knox’s first moves was to establish Brostek as his center.

The Rams tried Pro Bowl guard Tom Newberry at center last season, with Brostek at Newberry’s old left guard spot, but things never jelled.

Although Brostek won’t exactly say, he suggests that he wondered what he was doing at guard.

“I was hoping. Hoping. Last year was kind of a rough year,” Brostek said. “I finally got used to playing guard toward the end of the season, but I feel kind of at home now.”

Knox and Erkenbeck saw Brostek’s quick feet and raw strength, knew that he had always been a center and envisioned him wrestling success fully against the new breed of interior NFL defensive linemen.

They got that matchup at Buffalo, when 285-pound Bruce Smith moved from his outside spot to play right on top of Brostek for more than half of the snaps.

Brostek can physically overmatch many defensive linemen, but not Smith. And the Rams wanted to see how Brostek handled it.

Smith had an awesome game, and Brostek was called for three holding penalties, but the Rams remain impressed.

“It was great,” Erkenbeck said. “He and Bruce Smith got after it pretty good. Just a great way to start. Bern’s got the kind of attitude and confidence, that doesn’t bother him.

“By and large Bern’s done a great job and will continue to do better. He’s really done very well. He’s a cut above most of the centers in the league.

“No. 1, he’s got youth, size, he’s very quick and very strong. And he handles things very well.”

In one of the signs of their demise, the Rams’ streak of having one of their offensive linemen make the Pro Bowl every year since 1966 ended last season.

According to Erkenbeck, Brostek might be the one who starts it again.

“I knew him from college,” Erkenbeck said. “Wherever I was, he would’ve been my center. I really was excited when he was on the roster and I came to the Rams.

“He’s very tough mentally, and he’s a pure football player. He’s the prototype. He’s very, very strong. He can handle light, quick nose guys. He can handle very heavy-set, strong people. He can handle them singly and still snap the ball--that’s a real skill.

“I do think he’s going to be a winning center for a long time.”

Doug Smith, a five-time Pro Bowl selection who was the Rams’ center from 1982 until losing his starting job last season, is impressed, and not only by Brostek’s speed and strength.

“He doesn’t get easily frustrated, and in this game, you need that,” Smith said. “He’s the kind of guy who can say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go get him this next play and forget what happened.’

“And he doesn’t get too carried away with himself if he does it right, which he does very often.”