Injury Frightens Rubley : Rams: Constant pain in his arm throws backup quarterback off course as he tries to make the team.

The pain is a constant reminder to quarterback T.J. Rubley that he no longer controls his future with the Rams.

The Rams said he had a sore arm, but their announcement some 10 days ago omitted the agonizing details.

Rubley’s throwing arm has been throbbing since March, and when he extends it, his elbow makes a stomach-turning pop. The nerves leading from elbow to hand make opening a door or shaking someone’s hand a challenge.

His right hand remains blotchy red and bloated--so swollen that he has trouble holding a football.

“The tips of my fingers feel like they are scarred,” Rubley said. “It’s like a pitcher trying to throw a curveball and he can’t feel the seams.”

Team physicians have talked about surgery, but for the present time have advised rest and medication to reduce inflammation. There has been little improvement the last 10 days, however.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Rubley said. “I’m very scared. I’m not scared of too many things, but the thought of being wheeled down that hall and undergoing surgery is tough for me.

“The good thing about this injury is that there isn’t anything mechanically wrong with me, but I’m scared that every time someone has elbow surgery there is this cloud that follows. People get their knees done all the time and they’re fine, but an elbow for a thrower is something else.”

Despite such fear, Rubley asked team doctors last week to operate on his arm so he could return to work. They suggested more rest, however, and so he waits.

“In my mind I think something is going to have to be corrected in my arm,” Rubley said. “They’ve talked about shaving this bone in my elbow to take the pressure off a nerve, and if they do that they said it would be eight weeks before I could begin throwing competitively again.

“The inflammation is down some, but the progress just isn’t there, and it still hurts. . . . I’m just trying to hold the ball without dropping it. . . . They ask me every day how it feels, and I want to lie and tell them it’s fine, but they’re going to see it as soon as I throw.”

Rubley kept his sore arm a secret for months, and as a result, almost played himself off the team. His performance in mini-camp was dreadful, and prompted Coach Chuck Knox to summon him to his office.

“He said I wasn’t throwing well to my left or throwing the ball as well as I was capable,” Rubley said. “I agreed.”

Rubley, who is known for spending more off-season workout time at Rams Park than any other player on the roster, did not tell Knox about his sore arm. Instead, he worked harder and his arm suffered.

“There was just something wrong with him, and yet he never said anything,” said Mike Martz, Ram quarterbacks coach. “T.J. is a guy who is going to try and suck it up. If his arm hurts, he’s going to think, ‘I just need to throw more balls.’

“He was trying to jump on throws with his body where he hadn’t done that before. I couldn’t figure out why, and so I thought he was pressing because of the competition for a job. Now it’s understandable why he was playing the way he was.”

Without knowing about Rubley’s sore arm at the time, the team began to focus its attention on Jamie Martin as a potential replacement on the final roster. Rubley wasn’t throwing the ball well and Martin was.

“I know it was just like brushing money off the table,” Rubley said, “but I figured my arm was hurting because I had widened my stance during the off-season. Then I began pressing because I was trying to get my body to throw the ball the way I had thrown it in the past.

“I knew I wasn’t getting the job done, but my arm felt very tired and very old. There’s a difference between being injured and hurt, and I didn’t want to cry wolf. I didn’t think I was injured; I just needed to work my way through it.”

He made it through the first week of training camp with gritted teeth, but this wasn’t the same T.J. Rubley who had played so well at season’s end as the Rams’ starting quarterback.

“I was making all kinds of adjustments,” he said. “I was twisting my shoulders, and then I was throwing the ball like a screwball to avoid the pain. There were times when my hand wouldn’t sweat, and that really kind of scared me. The ball felt like an ice cube.”

Rubley’s hand has begun to sweat again, but it remains puffy. His wrist is still tender, his arm sore and this year’s audition for steady employment with the Rams will soon be over.

“To stand there and be just a ballboy is awfully tough,” Rubley said. “I love the game, and this is something I just love to do, but I can’t do it now.”