Rams’ Veteran Receiver Looking for Direction : Football: Ellard wondering what course his career and the team will make after this season.

Henry Ellard delivered the foam-rubber football in a perfect spiral, one that his 9-year-old son, Henry Jr., turned into a textbook catch, just like his father has done hundreds of times with the Rams.

This was how the Ellards killed time after a recent Ram practice, a father, a son, and a football.

“He likes basketball more than football,” Ellard said, watching his son chase after the ball, “but he’s thinking about playing Pop Warner football next year.”

But the question is . . . where?

What NFL city the Ellards play in next season depends on what the Ram front office does with the veteran wide receiver.

Ellard, 32, becomes an unrestricted free agent after Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears, and he isn’t sure if he will be back for his 12th season with the Rams.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “And I won’t know for sure until it’s time to negotiate. Being with the Rams for 11 years, it would be nice to finish my career here.

“But they (front office) haven’t made a move yet, so I have to sit back and wait and see what happens, what other teams that might come in and talk to us.”

Coming off a disappointing season in which he caught only 47 passes for 727 yards, Ellard rejuvenated his career with an off-season training program and leads Ram receivers this season with 60 catches for 921 yards.

But even the best of seasons might not help Ellard in a free-agent market limited by the salary cap, which will probably discourage teams from signing players older than 30. It will certainly become a buyer’s market, something that Ellard has been made aware of this season.

“My actions speak for me,” he said. “People see what I’ve done this year. When I was called on this year, I answered it. That’s the main thing. I’m not a person who likes to stand here and brag about what I’ve done.”

The Rams (4-11) will be playing for little more than pride and draft position Sunday. It’s also an opportunity for the team’s 13 unrestricted free agents, including Ellard, to showcase their talents.

“I wouldn’t necessarily look at it as showcasing myself,” Ellard said, “but I try to lock on to the fact that I have 921 yards and I can try to get 1,000. That’s something that could be good, considering how things went this year. That gives me something to focus on, to keep myself going.”

After Ellard’s 1992 season, the Rams sought a free-agent wide receiver to replace him. They failed to find one, and Ellard’s off-season improvement made it a moot point anyway.

Ellard has heard more whispers this season about replacing him. Two of the Rams’ biggest needs are a quarterback and a speedy wide receiver, preferably a young one. Two potential draft selections are UCLA’s J.J. Stokes, should he decide to declare himself eligible for the draft, and USC’s Johnnie Morton.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, the way they’ve talked about this and that,” Ellard said of drafting a receiver. “But anything can happen in a draft. Whatever happens, I’m ready for any challenge that comes about, that’s for sure.”

Ellard figures it couldn’t be any more difficult than what he has endured in the past year. Bothered by hamstring pulls and other leg injuries in 1992, he stumbled to his worst season in six years.

After the 1992 season, Ellard came to a conclusion: At his age, he needed to be stronger and faster if he was going to have a future in the league.

“People were saying Henry was getting a little old and he was at the end of his career,” said Milt Jackson, the Rams’ receivers coach. “He wanted to rejuvenate his career. I had mentioned to him before that I had coached guys who had played for 11 years or more who were in as good a shape as first- or second-year guys.

“Hey, Stanley Morgan played 15 years and he could run all day. He took care of himself in the off-season; Drew Hill did that, too. Henry and I talked about that, that the older you get the more you have to take care of yourself and prepare in the off-season. The younger guys can get away without having to do some of that stuff.”

Ellard enlisted the help of track and field coach Randy Huntington, who has worked with world-record long jumper Mike Powell since 1987. Three times a day, Ellard ran sprints and lifted weights in Fresno, his hometown, under Huntington’s supervision.

“I owe a lot to Randy because he was the one who committed me to doing this,” Ellard said. “He put me through the test, that’s for sure. It was a different type of workout, but the one I needed to wake my body up all over again.

“I was a man on a mission and I let Randy know that from the start. I’m looking forward to doing the same thing this off-season, and I’ll be even stronger next season.”

While other players on the offense have complained about playing time and their roles, Ellard has quietly done whatever has been asked of him.

Blocking for rookie tailback Jerome Bettis? No problem. Ellard did plenty of blocking for Eric Dickerson early in his career. Need a punt returner to replace the injured Todd Kinchen? No problem.

“Henry has had a good year in a season where we haven’t really thrown the ball very well,” Jackson said. “The great thing about Henry is that he’s a real disciplined player and will do whatever is necessary to win. He won’t (complain) about not getting a lot of balls thrown his way.

“If (the game plan) requires him to block, and he does a nice job of it. He’s a good team player, and there’s a place in the league for guys like that until physically they can’t do it anymore.”

Keeping Up

Henry Ellard, an 11-year pro who will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, leads the Rams in several receiving categories, and games of eight catches against Cleveland and nine against Pittsburgh this season rank among the top four of his career.

1993

Game Rec. Yards TDs Green Bay 2 28 0 Pittsburgh 9 127 0 N.Y. Giants 2 26 0 Houston 6 132 1 New Orleans 2 32 0 Atlanta 6 62 0 Detroit 4 32 0 San Francisco 3 42 0 Atlanta 3 53 0 Washington 3 32 0 San Francisco 5 90 1 Phoenix 3 83 0 New Orleans 0 0 0 Cincinnati 4 68 0 Cleveland 8 114 0 Totals 60 921 2

CAREER

Year Rec. Yds. Avg. TDs 1993 60 921 15.3 2 1992 47 727 15.5 3 1991 64 1,052 16.4 3 1990 76 1,294 17.0 4 1989 70 1,382 19.7 8 1988 86 1,414 16.4 10 1987 51 799 15.7 3 1986 34 447 13.1 4 1985 54 811 5.0 5 1984 34 622 8.3 6 1983 16 268 16.8 0 Totals 592 9,737 16.4 48

Source: Rams