He’s No Longer Battling the Elements : Rams: The punting of former Packer Don Bracken has improved greatly in Southland weather.

Don Bracken--the guy who came in from the cold--stood in shorts and T-shirt, his arms folded across his chest and a bemused so-you-call-this- fall? look on his face.

He glanced at the gray clouds hanging over Rams Park and said, “Pretty foul weather, huh?”

Before winning the Rams’ punting job last summer, Bracken spent six seasons in Green Bay. Icy fields. Few swimming pools. No movie stars. Now, the only thing frozen on Bracken is a satisfied smirk, but it’s not just because he doesn’t have to shovel the walk this winter.

One game shy of the halfway point, he’s having a season of content.

He’s fifth in the conference in punting with a 42.8-yard average, which is almost five yards better than his last season with the Packers. He’s also first in the NFC with 12 punts inside the 20-yard line.

And when he’s punting in balmy Southern California, he’s a regular Ray Guy.

During the Rams’ first victory, he averaged 48 yards on seven punts, pinning New England inside its 20-yard line five times. He averaged 43 yards on five punts against the Jets, two of which were downed inside the 20. Against the Giants, he punted only twice--a 51-yarder and a 52-yarder.

“I feel good. I feel confident,” he said. “And once you get to this level, that’s 90% of it. I look forward to coming to work. I look forward to the games on Sunday. I just want to go out there, have fun and do well.”

Bracken’s last year in Green Bay was 1990 and it wasn’t fun. The fans booed and he shanked his share of punts. A year short of becoming the first Packer punter since World War II to hold onto the job for seven seasons, he was released late in the ’91 preseason.

With most teams already set on a punter, Bracken spent the year at home in Birmingham, Ala., unemployed. . . . which was almost as secure a feeling as working in Green Bay.

The Packers drafted, signed or tried out 29 punters during his tenure at Green Bay. Bracken, punting half the time in the not-so-great outdoors of Lambeau Field, traditionally finished low in the NFL rankings. After averaging 38 yards in 1990, he ended the season 26th.

He tried to point out that opponents only averaged 35 yards per punt against the Packers in ’90 and that he out-punted 11 of 16 opponents. But nobody, it seemed, was listening.

“You have to understand that it’s not just the bad weather in games,” Bracken said. “I think quality practice time has helped me more than anything here. It’s so much easier to practice when you don’t have to deal with the temperature being 30 degrees and the wind blowing 30 miles per hour.

“When you’re battling that every day, it’s easy to develop bad habits. You tell yourself you’re kicking into that kind of wind and you can’t hit it 40 yards and that the trouble you’re having with your drop is due to the wind, but it still plays with your confidence. And then you don’t go into a game as strong mentally as you should.

“Out here, it’s so much easier to work on things. You’re warm and loose, it’s easier on your body, too.”

The locale is easier on the mind as well. Bracken has found Orange County more hospitable than Green Bay, where he felt more than one kind of coldness.

“In a place like Green Bay, you can’t get away from football,” he said. “You can’t go out and forget about it because if you have a bad game, there’s always somebody there to tell you about it. Out here, you can get lost.”

Lost? Bracken would go unnoticed if he stood in front of the players’ entrance at Anaheim Stadium wearing a name tag. He says he has never been recognized outside of Wisconsin.

“And that’s nice because it takes some of the pressure off,” he said. “You can go out and enjoy yourself. Up there, once something bad happens, they keep building on it and building on it.”

For the first seven games of this season, however, Bracken has been laying a very positive foundation. Steven Domingos, a free agent who had played only semi-pro football, averaged 40 yards in five preseason punts and made an extended run at winning the job in training camp. But Coach Chuck Knox, not surprisingly, stayed the conservative course and kept Bracken.

“I always come into a training camp looking at it as though it is my job and I’m preparing myself for the season,” Bracken said. “I try not to spend too much time worrying about every kick and whether I’m going to be cut, but go out trying to get better every day and concentrate on my own kicking.”

Bracken’s connection with special teams coach Howard Tippett, who held the same position with the Packers for the past four years, didn’t hurt his chances. Tippett called the reaction of the Green Bay fans “unfair,” and noted that Bracken had only five punts blocked in six seasons with the Packers and his hang time kept long returns to a minimum.

“Your kicking game establishes your field position, and if we knew we could punt the ball 40 yards with no return every time, that would be better than taking chances,” Tippett said.

Clearly, the Rams got what they bargained for, and more.

“He has punted very well for us,” Knox said.

Hardly a glowing tribute but it suits Bracken, who only wants to help the team win and stay employed at a place wear you can wear shorts in October.

“I do like it here,” he says.

Bracken, who splits his off-season residence between his hometown of Thermopolis, Wyo., and Birmingham, Ala., might not be ready to call Orange County home just yet.

“It’s a little too expensive to buy here,” he said, “but it’s sure a great place to work.”