Cleveland Is Back on the Map : Rams: Running back once again showing just how good he can be when he holds onto the football.

Cleveland Gary is one of those athletes who has a tendency to speak of himself in the third person. He’ll say, “It’s going pretty good, but I’m not quite Cleveland yet.” And it’s hard to keep from asking, “So, Toledo maybe?”

He might be a bit short of his destination, but Gary has solidified his spot in the Rams’ geography. His position on the depth chart hasn’t been this secure since 1990, when he led the team in rushing with 808 yards. And it wasn’t all that secure then, remember? He fumbled 12 times.

Gary uses the third-person approach when describing his performance on the field--as if it somehow detaches him and makes him more objective. He’s not very objective, though, and it’s a good thing for him.

Even when the fans wanted to run him out of town and the coaching staff gradually lost faith in him, even when he lost the ball on his second carry last season and lost his starting job as a result, he never stopped believing in Cleveland.

“No matter what happens one week, one year, no one player should ever get so down on himself that he takes himself out of the race,” Gary said. “I’ve seen players in this league, very good players, some who have been moved around a lot and eventually do very well elsewhere.

“You just can’t question yourself. Things just don’t click for you sometimes, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t play in the National Football League. If you’re content with yourself, you’ll accept that and keep doing the very best you can and things will work out.

“So I’ve never gotten so down on myself that I’ve taken myself out of the race. I never stopped believing I could be a 1,000-yard rusher or the back here. I never have and never will until I’m so old my body tells me it’s just not for me anymore.”

Of course the question was not whether Gary believed he could do it but whether he would ever get another chance to prove it. Last year, Robert Delpino took over the tailback duties and rushed for 688 yards and nine touchdowns. Then, during the preseason, Marcus Dupree stole the spotlight.

But Chuck Knox liked Gary’s ability to catch passes and break tackles, so Gary has clung to the starting job--and the football, for the most part, fumbling just once this season.

Given the chance, he ran with it. Gary has gained 355 yards in 82 attempts, a pace that projects to a 1,136-yard season.

Sunday against the 49ers, he rushed for 110 yards in 18 carries. He has gained 71 or more yards in every game since the opener, when the Rams fell two touchdowns behind the Bills before the television guys could get the lineup graphics on the air.

“We’re pleased with Cleveland Gary’s performance,” Knox said. “He ran well, and he ran hard (Sunday), and there were some good holes in there. The whole picture was better. We blocked better, and we ran better.”

Jim Everett, who had his best day passing in a long time, was a bit more effusive regarding Gary’s contributions to the offense’s success.

“When you’ve got a defensive line worrying about Cleveland Gary coming smoking up through there, they don’t have their ears pinned back all the time,” he said. “That not only helps me, it helps our offensive line have an edge, too.”

Gary had four runs of eight or more yards in San Francisco, including a 35-yard dash at the end of the third quarter.

“When you pop a long run, all of a sudden it makes the defense think, and when you’re thinking too much you can get lost in the shuffle,” Gary said. “That’s a big key. And it jacks you up personally. It depends on how big of a play it is and what you need, though. When it’s third and three, it’s a big high to get that three yards.”

With Delpino sidelined for the next couple of weeks with a knee injury, Gary figures to get his hands on the football more often. The Rams depend on Delpino’s pass-catching skills, so Gary, who already has 12 receptions, will likely have an increased role in the passing game.

It’s all good news to Gary, who says he gets stronger as a game goes on and more effective as a season wears on. After five games in 1990, he had only 186 yards rushing.

“When you have all these questions--Who’s going to do this? Who’s going to do that? What’s the team going to look like?--it creates a negative atmosphere,” he said. “But as the season progresses and you start proving yourself, individually and as a team, then you start to relax and things begin to happen.

“You’re playing with the same personnel every day, and you start seeing things in games that you didn’t see in the beginning of the season. Then, you start playing smooth and everything is in sync. In your mind, there’s nothing you can’t do. Things just start to flow. That’s the beauty of it.”

He won’t, however, try to forget uglier times when his career was stuck in limbo, because the hard times helped mold him into the player he is today.

“You never forget, but you do put it behind you,” he said. “The trials are part of what you’ve become. You learn from your mistakes and you get better for it. It’s a growing process.”

Gary, 26, had high hopes coming out of the University of Miami when the Rams picked him in the first round in 1989. It turned out to be a year of great expectations, for Gary and the Rams. Both have hit bottom since, but Gary believes both have rebounded.

“Hopefully, if the good Lord keeps me healthy, I can expand my game and add a lot to this offense,” he said. “We have a great quarterback, a growing team, a new environment and we have an opportunity to do exciting things if we keep working hard and get a little luck.

“And you know the most wonderful thing about it?”

We know.

“Cleveland is a part of it.”

Gary on an 1,100-Yard Pace

First Five Games

Year TCB Yards TDs 1990 44 186 3 1991 23 91 0 1992 82 355 2

For the Season*

Year TCB Yards TDs 1990 204 808 14 1991 68 245 1 1992 262 1,136 6

*--Projected for 1992