Bettis’ Number Is Up for Rams : Pro football: With Everett gone, the second-year running back becomes key part of new offense.

A year ago, the woman standing behind the ropes watching the Rams at play was wearing a white, blue and gold jersey with No. 11 emblazoned front and back.

“It’s in the closet,” said Heather Hansen, still a Ram fan, but wearing No. 36 Friday for the opening of training camp at UC Irvine. “Jerome Bettis: He’s the man now.”

Quarterback Jim Everett has gone to New Orleans, leaving behind Bettis as the main hope for a team looking to finish with more victories than losses for the first time since 1989.

“I had to get my own ride from the airport when I got here, so it’s not to the point where Coach (Chuck) Knox is picking me up yet,” Bettis said. “But let’s see what happens after this year.”

Bettis started his rookie season slowly, played despite a separated shoulder that he kept secret from reporters until Friday and gained 1,429 yards in 294 carries, finishing as runner-up to Dallas’ Emmitt Smith for the NFL rushing title. Smith gained 1,486 yards in 283 attempts.

Bettis, the consensus NFL rookie of the year, has already been featured on 80 playing collectors’ cards, a record of sorts according to the team’s public relations staff, and will soon will be seen on a shoe commercial.

“Watch it,” Bettis said, smiling. “At the end--listen to me, you’re going to love this--at the end I ask, ‘You’re showing this commercial in Dallas, right?’

“My goal is 2,000 yards this year, and if Emmitt is setting his goal anything short of that, then he’s going to be a little short when it comes time for someone to win the rushing title. If someone can get 2,100 yards, they are going to lead the league, but if they don’t get 2,000, they are going to be behind me, I’ll tell you that.

“If I can average 20 to 22 carries a game, I think I can easily do that.”

Why not give the ball to Bettis on every play?

“If that was the case I don’t think they would have spent the money they did to get quarterback Chris Miller,” Bettis said. “We can’t be a one-dimensional football team. We showed that last year and got beat up.”

The Ram offense, which once belonged to passing expert Ernie Zampese, will now be guided by former running back coach Chick Harris.

“Everybody in the NFL knows Jerome Bettis is going to get the ball,” Harris said. “What we have to do is implement a passing game and find other personnel to complement him.”

Harris’ attack will have Miller handing the ball to Bettis or faking the handoff to Bettis and throwing high-percentage passes to tight ends or running backs. On occasion, Miller will look long to Flipper Anderson.

“It’s the offense that San Francisco and Dallas run,” Miller said. “It’s a high-completion offense. If linebackers are dropping back, boom, then just get on your backs and let them run. That’s what Moose (Daryl Johnston) and Emmitt Smith and Marc Logan and Tom Rathman did . . . they just killed people.

“It’s an offense with a lot of play action and when you have a back like Jerome, it’s going to hold a lot of linemen and linebackers and result in more zone coverages downfield.”

The team worked on the new attack the last two weeks in voluntary workouts at Rams Park, but there was one obvious no-show: Bettis.

“There was a little miscommunication there,” Bettis said. “I had arranged my training schedule around that time with my personal trainer in Denver, and I knew (the voluntary drills) were not going to get me in shape.

“My focus was on training camp, and I worked out twice a day for the past three weeks.”

Bettis was angry after being chastised by coaches for reporting to an April mini-camp at 250 pounds. On his first day of training camp he weighed 239.

“I wasn’t overweight . . . that’s my natural weight,” Bettis said. “I’ve been a fullback all my life and they asked me to be a tailback last year and I lost the weight to play there. I came in at the same weight I came in last year for mini-camp, and now I’m overweight.

“It made me a little bit upset with the coaches’ perception that I was going to eat my way out of a job and become a Craig Heyward. I’m a player and I know my responsibility and I’m not going to come here at 248.

“I’m an intricate part of this team and I wouldn’t do that to the team. I wasn’t overweight, I was getting to the weight.”

Bettis was everything the Ram coaches have been counting on in his first workouts--quick, sharp and full of energy.

“It’s funny and scary to be considered the (main threat),” Bettis said. “It’s funny, because for me it’s not a problem. But it’s scary because you know when that gun goes off, you have to be ready. You can’t say, ‘I’m not having a great day.’ There’s none of that.

“I see people wearing my jersey number . . . that pushes me. When I was a rookie I was thinking they should be wearing my jersey. Now that they are, I have to give them a reason to wear it. There’s always something there to make you take it to a different level. Now I just have to keep people from putting my number on the shelf.”