Backup Role Suits Kelm Fine : Football: After surprise release from Rams, linebacker is glad to be playing in the league, much less for the 49ers.

By mid-September, Larry Kelm had checked in his shoulder pads and was checking out library books.

Books on resume writing, interviewing and making contacts in the cut-throat job market.

Cut by the Rams at the end of training camp, Kelm was ready to put his career as a middle linebacker on hold--at least for the rest of this season.

It was time to put that civil engineering degree to work.

“It was looking grim two weeks into the season,” he said. “I wasn’t getting interest from any team in the league. Nothing.

“I still had intentions of coming into camp somewhere next year. I wasn’t going to sit down and not pursue anything in the off-season. But in the meantime, I figured I had better go looking for a job.”

He found one . . . in San Francisco.

Signed by the 49ers after the third week of the season, Kelm discovered he didn’t need those library books--yet.

He’s no longer a starter, which he was with the Rams the past four seasons. But Kelm doesn’t mind being a backup linebacker and special teams specialist.

Not when he’s playing for the 49ers, who meet the Dallas Cowboys today in the NFC championship game. And not when he’s one game from the Super Bowl.

Kelm has reached the playoffs for the first time since the Rams made the 1990 NFC championship game.

“This is great,” he said. “The way things had gone with the Rams the past few years just shows you how hard it is to get to the Super Bowl.

“It’s something you shouldn’t take lightly. I remember back to 1988 and ‘89, it was like, ‘Hey, we go to the playoffs all the time.’ I learned that it’s not that way. “

Kelm had missed the Rams’ first nine games in 1989 with an injured left foot, but started the final 10, including the playoffs. He had 11 tackles at New England in the regular-season finale and had 10 in the conference championship game against the 49ers.

The next season, he tore a posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the final exhibition game and started the regular season on injured reserve. He underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair the small tear, and started the final 10 games of the season.

“That spell of injuries really hurt me,” Kelm said. “Those were two years where I was supposed to be the guy. It’s been a struggle ever since.”

He started 15 games in 1991 and his 105 tackles were the most by any Ram in five seasons. But the Rams lost their final 10 games of the season, and finished 3-13.

In 1992, Kelm had only 70 tackles in 14 starts, and the Rams went 6-10 in Chuck Knox’s first year back as head coach.

After the season, a run-stopping linebacker was at the top of Knox’s free-agent shopping list.

And he found one in Buffalo.

The Rams signed free agent Shane Conlan to a multimillion dollar deal, leaving Kelm wondering about his future when training camp started in July.

“Getting cut caught me off-guard,” he said. “They (coaches, front office) never let on that I had much to worry about.

“I thought I was OK when camp started up. The coaches kept telling me, ‘We signed Shane but we still want you.’ ”

After a couple weeks of soul searching and job hunting around the league, Kelm figured he was finished for the season. Maybe it was time to enter the eight-to-five working world.

Then the phone rang.

It was the 49ers, who were searching for some depth at linebacker because of Keith DeLong’s foot injury. Jeff Fisher, the former Ram defensive coordinator and now the 49er secondary coach, put in a good word for Kelm.

“Fisher had a lot to do with it,” Kelm said. “He had a lot of nice things to say about me, and that helped get me up here.”

Kelm flew to San Francisco, where he was picked up at the airport by 49er linebacker Brett Faryniarz, a friend and former teammate.

Faryniarz drove Kelm to the team’s Santa Clara practice facility to sign his contract. Afterward, Faryniarz was going to move Kelm into his apartment.

But when they arrived at the 49ers’ practice facility, Faryniarz was told that he was being waived to make room for Kelm.

Such is life in the NFL--as Kelm learned two weeks later when the 49ers waived him.

DeLong had recovered from his foot injury, and the 49ers wanted to move a player up from the practice squad to protect him from being signed by another club.

“I was the most expendable guy,” Kelm said.

But DeLong reinjured his foot and was placed on injured reserve. The 49ers re-signed Kelm on Oct. 19, and he has been with the team since.

He started one game--Tampa Bay--but has otherwise been used in blowouts and on special teams coverage, where he will get most of his work in today’s game.

The game is a homecoming of sorts for Kelm, who grew up in Corpus Christi, Tex., and played at Texas A&M.; His parents are still in Corpus Christi and his wife Lynann’s family is in Houston.

“I’ve got a lot of people bugging me for tickets,” Kelm said. “It’s been a crazy week.”

It certainly started that way early Monday morning.

After the 49ers’ 44-3 victory over the New York Giants, Kelm and his wife returned to Southern California Sunday to spend his days off. They had barely settled into their Trabuco Canyon home early Monday morning when . . .

“Everything started shaking,” Kelm said. “Wouldn’t you know it, the earthquake hit. It knocked me right out of bed.”