PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : CHARGERS : Better Days Are Ahead, Ross Says

Coach Bobby Ross told the Charger Backers at their weekly luncheon Friday that, “There are better days ahead. . . . We will win; that will come.”

After introductions, Ross said, “This was a tough one. I wasn’t looking forward to coming here, I have to be honest with you. Not from a standpoint of you as people, but from a standpoint that I know you are very disappointed in our squad. When you have that disappointment obviously you have to be first and foremost disappointed with me in what we have done and what we have accomplished so far.

“All I want you to know, OK, is that there are better things ahead for us in the time to come.”

Ross said General Manager Bobby Beathard has been kind despite the team’s 0-4 start.

“He’s constantly reminding me that in his first year with the Washington Redskins, Joe Gibbs started off 0-5. I think . . . there’s a lot of things that go on in the process of a football team coming together. I don’t think things are going to change around completely in a couple of football games.”

One fan stood and delivered a speech pledging the Charger Backers’ unwavering support, and another expressed their dismay with media coverage of the team.

“I would prefer not to comment on that,” Ross said. “To be very honest with you, I want to stay professional. OK? I want to stay professional, so I’m not going to make a comment on that.”

A fan expressed frustration with number of mistakes being made by Ross’ team and suggested no week-to-week improvement in correcting those same mistakes.

Ross replied, “Let me tell you this, they get corrected. OK?

“I can tell you this, if you want to question what we’re doing, if you get in that office with me at quarter-to-six in the morning, OK, and you stay and don’t leave until 12:30 at night. . . . I challenge you to come up there and sit with me.”

Ross issued the challenge to “Anybody in this room that wants to do that, including the media.”

For the first time in four weeks, Ross noticed that center Curtis Whitley was working on the service team that prepares the special teams for the opposition without a shirt and helmet.

Ross ordered the rookie to put both on and gathered the service team together for a pep talk. This same group had laughed and joked its way through special teams workouts in the past, but Ross had them primed for serious duty Friday.

John Dunn, the Chargers’ strength and conditioning coach, wore a Seahawks’ T-shirt to practice and then ripped it off in front of the team to fire up the troops.

RAMS

Young Expected to Be Activated

After watching him go through a week of practice without pain, the Rams almost certainly will activate defensive end Robert Young from the injured-reserve list today, Coach Chuck Knox said Friday.

The question was, whom to remove from the roster to make room for Young, who was penciled in as the left-side starter before his shoulder injury.

Counting Young, the Rams have eight active defensive linemen, which is one more than teams usually carry. That might not be good news for either Warren Powers, signed as a free agent when Young went on injured reserve, or Mike Piel, who has played as a backup.