Kelm Is Playing It Smart at Linebacker : Rams: Veteran who calls the defensive signals uses his brain before employing his brawn.

He has been called a thinking man’s linebacker or, as John Robinson once put it, “a master of managing the defense.”

In a sport in which violence and mayhem reign and adjectives such as “ferocious” and “vicious” are used in praise, Larry Kelm knows those descriptions can be construed as a left-handed slap in the face.

Is your middle linebacker big, bad and mean?

No, but he sure is smart.

“Larry Kelm is a good, steady player,” Ram Coach Chuck Knox said. “He prepares and studies and makes sure the calls are right.”

Indeed, Kelm has kept his job as the starter by using his head . . . and not in the fashion that gets you on the Sunday night highlight shows. You don’t often see him knocking out a quarterback or stuffing a fullback in a helmet-to-helmet confrontation.

Kelm, a six-year veteran, understands his limitations and knows he’s no Dick Butkus, but it’s not like he’s wearing a lab coat and looking at a computer screen. He uses his brain and then slams his body into some very large people.

“It does get to me a little sometimes,” Kelm said. “Is that the only good quality about me as a linebacker? That I’m smart? You wonder about that sometimes. Or are they just saying that it’s the best thing about you. You don’t know.

“I think I can call the plays and I think I can make the plays, too.”

Considering the complex nature of defensive football these days, calling the plays on defense can be just as critical as making audibles on offense. But that doesn’t mean the scouts are considering IQ up there with 40-yard dash times and pounds bench-pressed.

“Larry is physical enough,” said Dick Selcer, Ram linebacker coach, “and he’s playing well against the run. He’s made some mistakes, but not in his play-calling. There’s very little margin of error for him on that. He’s such a smart kid and he assimilates things so well.

“The thinking part is no problem and the compliment there is maybe there’s not a whole lot of other guys who can call the plays. Being articulate doesn’t make you a bad guy. There are a few things he’s done wrong, but overall, he’s had a pretty good season.”

Kelm, a fourth-round pick from Texas A & M in 1987, says he has heard coaches rave about his intelligence--and leave out any references to his awesome talent--since college.

“It’s been like that my whole career, both in college and here,” he says, “so nothing has changed.”

Actually, a great deal has changed. The Ram defense, for instance, has changed three times in the last three seasons. Kelm has helped guide his teammates through a season of Fritz Shurmur’s bend-but-don’t-break zone, Jeff Fisher’s attacking 4-3 defense and now George Dyer’s zone-oriented approach.

After suffering major injuries in 1989 and ‘90, Kelm stayed healthy last year and led the team in tackles with 105, the most by a Ram since inside linebacker Jim Collins racked up 140 in 1986.

Kelm led the team in tackles in seven games last season. He has only 46 thus far--tied with Roman Phifer for third on the team--but his role has evolved once again.

“It’s just two different schemes,” Kelm said. “Last year, we played a lot of eight-man fronts and I was a free guy a lot of the time and making a lot of tackles.

“This year, we’re playing more seven-man fronts and usually there’s a blocker to fend off. It’s more defense as a unit now. But it’s a different defense, a different season, different games, so it’s really hard to compare.”

The defensive set is sent in from the sideline and Kelm calls it in the huddle. When the opponents come to the line of scrimmage and show their formation, he usually has to adjust the defense. After making the correct call, he still has to make the correct play.

“You make the adjustment and then you have to settle down and make the play if it comes your way,” Kelm said. “If you haven’t prepared yourself for every situation, having the added pressure of play-calling can take away from your game.

“And things happen so fast, you don’t want to be patting yourself on the back for making the right call or somebody will hit you from behind and break your arm.”

Listening to Selcer and then watching Kelm hobble across Rams Park, you wonder what hurts more on Monday, a middle linebacker’s body or his brain?

“Larry’s job is complicated,” Selcer said. “He plays off a lot of different movements in the defensive line. It’s just seeing the keys, the reads, and improving your reactions. There are guys coming at him from a lot of different directions.

“He’s in a different defense and his responsibilities have changed. It basically just takes time, but he’s made the adjustments faster than a lot of guys because he spends so much time at it. Overall, he’s been efficient and effective.”

The scheme has changed and so have the people playing it out. This season, Kelm has been looking over the backs of two 300-pound rookie tackles, Sean Gilbert and Marc Boutte. Knox and Selcer say Kelm has helped them improve, but Kelm isn’t taking any credit.

“It’s been fun to watch them grow and learn as players,” he said. “They’re really doing a great job. Maybe I’ve put them in the right place some of the time, but those guys are well-coached and they have learned well from their coaches.”

The Ram coaches would like to see their rookie tackles achieve a level of consistency similar to Kelm’s.

“Oh yeah,” Selcer said. “If everyone was that steady, we’d be in good shape.”

Is your middle linebacker big, bad and mean?

No, but he sure is steady.

That, Kelm is sure, is a compliment.

“The best thing I can do is make good plays all the time and and maybe some great ones will fall in there,” Kelm said, smiling. “All your goal can be is to consistently be as good as you can at what you do.”