Rams’ Erkenbeck Coming In Loud and Clear

Jim Erkenbeck would yell, and people would wonder why he was whispering.

“It was a chore to speak,” he said. “I had to bring it up from the stomach.”

The chemotherapy medication hangs in a bag at Erkenbeck’s side, and with the assistance of a tube that runs up his left arm, it is being delivered into his system intravenously to treat a “pre-cancer throat condition.”

Obviously the medication is working, because Erkenbeck was yelling at the Ram offensive linemen Saturday, and for the first time in eight months, they knew it.

“It’s a very exciting thing,” Erkenbeck said after returning to work as offensive line coach. “I can talk, I can communicate. There are probably a lot of people that don’t like it, but I like it.”

Erkenbeck began losing his voice this past November, and while he first attributed it to his regular cigar smoking, it did not come back.

“I used to always get laryngitis, but it would go away in about 10 days,” he said. “But it didn’t go away.”

After a pair of biopsies proved inconclusive, a third--eight weeks ago--revealed a problem.

“It was a slightly malignant cancer--slightly--whatever that means,” Erkenbeck said. “It was underneath the left vocal cord, and it’s been reduced now to where I’m able to talk.

“The prognosis is excellent. I feel great. By and large it’s a very minor part of the football operation and I don’t see any reason (to make a big deal of this).”

Without question Erkenbeck is still very much the football coach. His concern Saturday was for the Rams. Don’t distract the troops from preparing for the football season.

“The focus should be on the team,” he said. “My problems are solvable.”

Erkenbeck began treatment on his throat at the John Wayne Cancer Center in Santa Monica last month. He spent three days there and continued treatment for three more days at home.

After two weeks off, he returned to the hospital for a second treatment earlier this week. His second treatment officially ends today at 2 p.m. when the intravenous tube is removed from his arm.

He will return to the hospital for a third and final chemotherapy treatment in two weeks. He said additional radiation care might also be necessary.

“Years ago this might have been a pretty serious thing,” Erkenbeck said. “It is a serious thing, but it’s not something that will not resolve itself successfully.”

Erkenbeck’s news was all good Saturday. He was back at work, encouraging his offensive linemen and sharing stories with several visiting college coaches.

Not being able to talk had been “very, very frustrating,” he said.

“Communication is a pretty important facet of our life.”

After his voice failed to return in November he stopped smoking. He will not start again, he said.

“I learned something,” he said. “I wish I had done more things in moderation. I don’t know how that’s going to sound . . . “

But he was stumped when asked to place it all in perspective.

“I mean football is important, everything is important,” he said, “but this is just a thing. I was so confident that they would be able to treat this. I mean listen to me--you can hear me now.”

* SURGERY FOR LANG: Running back David Lang will have arthroscopic surgery for a right knee injury today. C4