RAM NOTEBOOK / T.J. SIMERS and MIKE REILLEY : Coach Adds His Wit to Baltimore Rumor

Joe Vitt, Ram assistant head coach, had a plate of food--covered with aluminum foil--in his hand.

Baltimore crab cakes?

“Born and raised on them and they’re delicious,” Vitt said, “but no, this is tuna fish, onions and tomatoes.”

Will Vitt & Co., however, be dining on crab cakes in Baltimore a year or two from now?

“God only knows,” Vitt said. “The one thing I do know is we’re playing the Phoenix Cardinals this Sunday and we’re coming off a tough loss, and we better button up our chin straps and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, or none of us are going to be here.

“Listen, if your last nine articles were just terrible and nobody read them and they were going to move the L.A. Times to Chicago and make it the Chicago Tribune, and somebody asked your opinion about it, you better not be commenting about the city of Chicago. You better be learning how to write better.

“We got to win football games--period. They’re not going to ask my opinion on whether we should go. They’re not going to ask me what the restaurants are like there. They’re going to say why aren’t we intercepting more passes? Why are we giving up so much yardage per pass? If we start talking about going to Baltimore, we’re going to walk out there in Phoenix and get our butts kicked.”

Vitt, a three-year letterman at linebacker for Towson State in Maryland, was an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts.

“They have great fans back there,” he said. “I remember getting off the plane in 1982 back there, a year after I had gone on to Seattle to coach, and the place was chaotic. I said, ‘What the hell is going on?’ They said the Colts had just left town.

“It was like the Pope had died. The mayor was crying and the fans were crying. A good friend of mine was in charge of the (Colts’ booster club) and he died a few years later. On his tombstone, he had them put: ‘They buried me on March 8, 1985, but I died the day the Colts left town.’ ”

Irv Eatman, Ram offensive tackle, also spent time in Baltimore. In his final year in the United States Football League, he played for the Baltimore Stars. Would these same fans embrace the 3-8 Rams?

“They have some of the most hard-core, traditional fans you will find anywhere,” Eatman said. “If it was a situation that a team was there I think they’d look at it as a new beginning and it wouldn’t really be relevant to them what they had done previously.

“I know this, whatever happens, I’m not going to get a vote on how it goes. If they say move tomorrow, I won’t miss the plane.”

Tony Zendejas, owner of a pair of Zendejas Mexican Restaurants locally, has never eaten crab cakes, but he’s lived through the rumored move of an NFL team before.

“I saw this same scenario back in Houston,” he said. “We had the bags all packed up and the trucks ready to go to Jacksonville and all of a sudden we hear the next morning that the city, the Astrodome and the Oilers have worked out a deal.

“Personally, I don’t think we’re moving. Until something is finalized, I won’t believe it.”

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Win or else: A 19-17 loss to the New York Giants last week ended any hopes for a winning season for Phoenix (3-8), which plays the Rams on Sunday. And Phoenix Coach Joe Bugel could be on his way out after failing to deliver on owner Bill Bidwill’s preseason ultimatum--finish with a winning record or you’re gone.

Bugel said Wednesday that he’s confident he’ll be back next season.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Once your owner is on the scene every day, he can see what’s going on. I think that game against the Giants helped our program. Millions of people saw two good teams match up out there. We gained a lot of respect throughout the country.”

Did he think the ultimatum is fair?

“Bill has always been fair with me,” Bugel said. “He may have made some kind of statement before the season, but he has let me coach. He’s a hands-on owner, but he hasn’t interfered with the way I coach. He has given me great support. He’s not running in the locker room and raising all kind of Cain or doing all kinds of foolish things. He showed a lot of class. This team is really trying to rally just to show the people in this city that we’re a class act.”

Bugel can argue two factors for the Cardinals’ dismal record--injuries and close losses. Three of the team’s top five draft picks are out with knee injuries, including tailback Garrison Hearst.

But the Cardinals have been close in every game. Their eight losses have come by a total of 45 points, and their worst defeat was 28-14 to San Francisco, which has beaten the Rams by 23 and 25 points this season.

Still, this season can’t be much fun for Bugel with the injuries and knowing this season could be his last. He disagrees, though.

“It’s a tremendous amount of fun,” he said. “I love coaching in the NFL. We’ve rounded up a bunch of snot-blowing players, too. We don’t have a lot of prima donnas or pains in the neck. We have a bunch of tough guys and they make it enjoyable to come to work.”

As for the future, Bugel said he hasn’t discussed it with Bidwill--yet.

“Bill just got back from the owner’s meeting in Chicago,” Bugel said. “The last time I saw him was the day of the Giants game. We went to church together and took Communion together. I haven’t seen him since.”

Battering Ram: Bugel wasn’t shy in his praise for Ram tailback Jerome Bettis, taken 10th overall in last spring’s draft, seven picks after Phoenix selected Hearst.

“We had Jerome rated right up there with Garrison,” Bugel said. “We had him in here for a visit, and I love the kid. He’s a for-real NFL player. With what Chuck Knox is doing right now--feeding him the football--they’re going to win a lot of games. You have to be able to run the ball in the NFL and they have found out he’s a legitimate runner.”