Gary Finds There’s No Place to Hide : Pro football: Scoring or fumbling, the spotlight is always on him, but he’s learning to accept his responsibility to the team.

Cleveland Gary, whose knack for turning moments of high drama into low comedy almost matches his considerable ball-carrying talent, apparently was not brought into this world to be predictable.

Most of what he has done in his career has been done with flair--or folly. Whenever he touches the ball, he stands a good chance of tucking it under his arm and ramming it into the end zone. But then, he sometimes forgets to tuck it under his arm.

When Gary is on stage, nobody, not even Gary, knows what will happen next. All he knows, a couple of days away from the end of the fourth season in his NFL career as a tailback, is that the spotlight never leaves him.

“Maybe it’s my name,” Gary says, shaking his head, “Maybe it’s . . . I don’t know.

“No matter what I do, it’s like I’m always the person who’s going to be pointed the finger at. My life has been that way. I can’t just sit in the back. . . . I don’t know what it is. Maybe people see something. . . .

“I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for any of this. A lot of stuff I didn’t ask for, but it’s just sort of been thrown on my shoulders.

“Sometimes I want to be the guy to hide behind the curtain. But I realize I have a sense of responsibility.”

The Rams, under two coaches and in three seasons, have turned to Gary because at 226 pounds, he is strong, elusive, and can carry an offense--when he is not dropping the football.

Two coaches in three seasons, however, have had to change plans when Gary eventually stopped producing.

This year, after an interesting training camp, during which Coach Chuck Knox ultimately handed Gary the feature-back job despite Gary’s dull summer performance and Marcus Dupree’s scintillating outings, Gary grew in stature as a Pro Bowl candidate and offensive workhorse.

Through 10 weeks of the season, Gary was the NFL’s third-leading rusher with 828 yards and had fumbled only three times in 231 carries. Apparently, the fumbling problems that had plagued him were past.

But Gary suffered an ankle injury in mid-November, at the end of his 110-yard game in the Rams’ upset of the Dallas Cowboys, and in the five games since, he has fumbled four times and gained only 201 yards.

Two years ago, rumbling through what was then thought to be his breakthrough second-year season, Gary went through his first fumbling spree--dropping the ball 12 times, losing eight of those fumbles and ending the season on the bench after having gained 808 yards.

There is a pattern here, and Gary recognized it: Get a chance, put up great numbers, fall into fumbleitis; get a chance, put up great numbers. . . .

“I’ve experienced dramatic highs in life,” Gary says. “And shortly after, I’ve experienced great lows. . . . So that’s why I never get too high, and I never get too low on myself. I always know I can come back.

“When I’m at the highest plateau, I always realize anything can happen.”

Gary this season has rushed for 1,029 yards, which makes him the Rams’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Greg Bell in 1989. He also is the Rams’ leading receiver with 50 catches. But he has fallen far behind the league rushing leaders, seems to have lost the confidence of his early-season running, and is raising all the same questions again.

“I think he’s had a good season,” Knox said. “Any time you get over 1,000 yards--and also his pass-receiving, some of the catches he’s made. . . .

“The only negative thing has been the lost fumbles.”

The five-game slump, together with Gary’s history of late-season problems and the arrival of explosive fullback David Lang as an impact player, has Knox talking about getting Lang into the tailback mix next season.

Gary, however, says he learned a lot about dealing with pressure this season, and at 26 thinks he still has time to establish himself among the elite backs--Thurman Thomas, Barry Foster and Barry Sanders.

If only he could get there at his own pace, he says, and not have to hear the public criticism that causes him a lot of consternation.

“I have gone home thinking about the media because of the things they say,” Gary says. “Sometimes they say great things, sometimes they say bad things. They have made me question myself and question them.

“But it’s something I’ve learned how to do deal with. They’re powerful and they can be an advantage as far as your future is. You’ve got to know how to deal with it. . . . It’s not easy, but you have to.

“This year has given me the chance to rise to the occasion. It sort of motivates me. I use it as a motivating tool. Hopefully, I can build on all the experience I’ve had this season and have a better year.

“I’d like to give them something to write about, in the sense I can do better. I want to compete for 16 games--and not just 10 and the decline I had this year.”

Gary admits that he has a lot of improving to do if he wants to get to the same level as Thomas and Sanders. But he says that as he has matured, he has begun to understand the commitment it takes to be an elite runner.

As someone the offense revolves around, Gary says he knows he has to be stable and consistent--not unpredictable and moody.

“I have learned this year, for the first time in my career, that I have a great responsibility to this team,” Gary says. “I have never been a talkative person, and maybe that has caused me some problems, because I think sometimes people don’t know what I’m feeling, and sometimes people think something’s wrong . . . but that’s just my nature.

“I feel a strong sense of responsibility. . . . If Cleveland’s right, there’s no telling what we can do. So I have a whole lot to work on in terms of being better. And I can be a much smarter player.

“I’ve just learned a whole lot. It’s just a matter of getting my opportunity again. It’s sort of frustrating, but you say to yourself, given the opportunity to do it again, because this season is just about over, you just aim a little higher.

“Hopefully, Lord willing, I’m going to do something with this experience and the talent have.”