Conlan Sees Hope for the Future : Pro football: Linebacker says Rams’ situation is similar to one he faced in Buffalo as a rookie in 1987.
Using Shane Conlan’s new math, the Ram linebacker’s seven-year NFL career has expanded by one.
“The playoffs,” he said. “That has almost been an extra season for me.”
At least until now.
In six seasons with the Buffalo Bills, Conlan played in 13 playoff games, including the last three Super Bowls. Nearly a season in itself.
But his helmet has horns on it now, the Rams are 3-8 and their playoff hopes have all but gone the way of Baltimore’s expansion bid.
“Right now, I don’t know if the playoffs are realistic,” said Conlan, who was signed by the Rams as a free agent during the off-season. “We’re trying to get better. It’s just frustrating not to be in the hunt. We’re just looking at it now as the best we can do is 8-8 and try to build for next year.”
Next year? At this point of the season, Conlan and his teammates were usually competing for home-field advantage. In Buffalo, there were still two months left in the season, not one.
Unless the Rams win their last five games, this will be the first losing team Conlan has played on since the Bills were 7-8 and failed to make the playoffs in 1987, his rookie season.
Conlan helped rebuild Buffalo’s team along with Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and Cornelius Bennett. The Bills were 2-14 and 4-12 in the two seasons before they plucked Conlan off Penn State’s national championship team with the eighth overall pick in the draft.
The Bills went 12-4 in Conlan’s second season and won the first of four consecutive AFC East titles. They had a 58-22 record during that span.
“The situations here and in Buffalo were very similar,” Conlan said. “But I think the Rams are better now than the Bills were when I got there. The Rams won six games last year. The two years before I got to the Bills, they won a combined six games.
“We’ve just had a rash of injuries defensively, and that has frustrated me, my teammates, the coaches, everybody.”
Conlan knew what he was getting into last April when he signed a three-year, $5.4-million contract, becoming the Rams’ second-highest-paid player, behind quarterback Jim Everett.
Pittsburgh and the Raiders showed interest when he tested the free-agent market last spring. Buffalo was interested in keeping him. But Conlan signed with a Ram team that was willing to open its wallet in its second year of rebuilding under Coach Chuck Knox.
“The bottom line is, I’m hired to do a job,” he said. “There’s some personal pride involved here. I don’t want to have to say, ‘These guys gave me all this money and I didn’t produce.’ I don’t think that’s the case, but I don’t want anybody thinking that. Not my teammates, not my coaches and not the front office.
“I just have to look at myself on film and ask myself, ‘Are you really playing the best you can? What can you do differently or better?’ That’s the way I have to go about work. Marv Levy used to say that a lot of good things can happen in your life, but only if you show up and work hard every day.”
Conlan has turned in a solid season, but isn’t having the Pro Bowl-type year he believes that fellow linebacker Roman Phifer is having. Conlan is third on the team in tackles with 65, 49 solo. Phifer leads with 82.
The defense ranks 25th in the league in yards given up per game, 344.9, but the rush defense, Conlan’s specialty, ranks ninth, giving up 3.7 yards a carry.
“I’ve been real happy with Shane,” defensive coordinator George Dyer said. “He runs real well, he’s a striker, gets in the hole and hits and has been good against the run. Hell, he’s been fine in the passing game. Part of it is that we play these passing teams and he isn’t in the lineup as much as he would like.
“I don’t know if it’s a Pro Bowl year, but it’s an awfully fine year.”
With the Rams struggling, how does Conlan stay motivated, especially when he’s out of the lineup?
“I’ve never had a problem with it,” he said. “I think a lot of guys feel the same way. You always want to play your best game the coming week. It was that way even when I was in Buffalo, in the playoffs and playing in the Super Bowl. How did I get motivated for those games? Because it’s the Super Bowl? No, that’s not the way I did it. I wanted to do it for myself, to be better than I was last week.”