And Then There Is Lyght : Pro football: Rams may be struggling, but cornerback has been performing admirably on and off field.

He has dropped out of sight, although he has been here for every Ram practice, every Ram game.

The Rams are 2-6, and the list of contributors to such a blundering start runs long, but from top to bottom there is no mention of cornerback Todd Lyght.

“The best thing you hear about Todd Lyght is that you don’t hear about Todd Lyght,” said Joe Vitt, Ram assistant head coach. “You don’t hear his name mentioned on TV, on radio, and you don’t see it in the newspapers.

“It’s like he’s nonexistent around here, and that’s because he has been doing his job. You can see it each Sunday--they aren’t throwing the ball to Todd’s side of the field. They are staying away from him because he’s playing so well.”

While the headline writers have been obliged to dwell on the Rams’ darker side, Lyght has continued to sparkle without fanfare.

For the past year, he has been playing big brother to a 6-year-old youngster in Los Angeles, whose father died. At the same time, he has been both motivational speaker and celebrity basketball coach for the Kedren Foundation in Watts.

He has established a $100,000 endowed scholarship at the University of Notre Dame, a $20,000 endowed scholarship at Luke M. Powers Catholic High, a $5,000 endowed scholarship at St. Mary’s Elementary School in Flint, Mich., and has pledged $20,000 to the construction of a new wing of the North General Hospital in New York.

“It’s important to give back,” Lyght said. “People invested a lot of time in me when I was younger, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if they hadn’t done that for me.

“I went to private schools all my life, and I know it was rough financially on my parents, but I was fortunate. There are a lot of gifted kids out there that don’t have the financial backing to go to these good schools, so I’ve tried to provide an opportunity.”

In another city, playing for a different team, Lyght--the player, the community man--might be busting out as a rising star. The Rams have floundered, however, and try and convince someone that anyone is playing well for them or worthy of special mention.

“It’s very frustrating,” Lyght said. “I talk to my dad after every game, and I remember after the first game with Atlanta I thought I had played well. I had been covering Michael Haynes, and he’s one of the better receivers in the league, and I had held him to like two catches for 15 yards.

“But we lost. And I thought, even with me doing my best, sometimes it still doesn’t matter. That bothered me, but my dad told me to keep going, because he doesn’t think I’ve reached my full potential yet, and I’ve got nothing to say until I get to that next level.”

The Lyght legacy, however, will demand a step to the next level, and, upon accomplishment, the next level beyond that before moving up again. His father, William, who is Deputy Police Chief of Savannah, Ga., and his grandfather, Eugene Webb, who is a New York-based chairman for a large real estate firm, have insisted upon production.

“They didn’t leave a lot of room for failure, that’s for sure,” Lyght said. “That was good for me, because I had my rebellious moments, and they straightened me out.”

After a highly acclaimed career at Notre Dame, the Rams used the fifth pick in the 1991 draft to select Lyght. At the same time, the Rams were shifting to Jeff Fisher’s 4-6 defense, which looked so good on paper.

“You’d look at it all drawn up and everything, and it would be fine,” Lyght said. “Then you’d get on the field, and the corners were all by themselves, getting no help from the safeties, and touchdowns were being scored.”

The Ram corners were burned badly, and while first impressions of Lyght were not favorable, he did not allow himself to become permanently scarred by that first year in professional football.

A new coaching staff presented new assignments for Lyght, and now in his second year with the same system and the same coaching staff, he has become one of the team’s steadiest performers.

“I couldn’t be happier with the guy,” said George Dyer, Ram defensive coordinator. “He’s a hang-loose guy who enjoys life, but, when he gets on that grass, he works his tail off, and you can see it in the way he’s been playing.”

Lyght, however, reports to work each day looking as if he doesn’t have a bill to pay. He wears his baseball cap backward, his clothes baggy, and, when boredom sets in during morning walk-though exercises, he is liable to start dancing.

Lyght has been known to walk into the middle of a defensive coaches meeting, grab a cup of coffee and be gone before anyone has a chance to scold him for such an interruption.

“He’d like you to think he’s carefree and not concerned by anything,” Vitt said, “but deep down this is a fiery competitor who is very concerned by what happens here.

“And the only thing separating him now from the elite corners in the game is interceptions. He’s right there. He knows he can cover anybody in the league, and I think during the second half of the season you are going to see a real playmaker.”