Stokes Will Get Paid, Though He Was at Birth

Defensive end Fred Stokes’ wife, Regina, delivered Sunday night--a 7-pound 5-ounce boy, Landon Foster Stokes.

And the Rams delivered on Monday, announcing they would pay Stokes even though he skipped most of Sunday’s 40-17 loss to San Francisco at Candlestick Park to be with his pregnant wife at an Orange County hospital.

The team said that Stokes would be paid because of the “special and unique circumstances involved.”

The Rams will pay Stokes about $38,800, one-eighteenth of the $700,000 he will earn this season. In March, Stokes signed a three-year, $3.75-million contract that included a $1.5-million signing bonus.

Stokes’ situation follows on the heels of a stern but unpopular move by the Houston Oilers, who docked offensive lineman David Williams a week’s pay (about $110,000) for skipping a game Oct. 17 to be with his wife for the birth of their child.

“I’m thankful, very thankful,” Stokes said.