Newberry Helps Keep Tenuous Hold on Line

If Ram offensive lineman Tom Newberry was one of the regular, everyday working-stiffs, he probably would have been ready to quit by now.

Try working nine years for a company, then getting demoted in favor of some guy with a tattoo on his ankle, all the while worrying that you’re going to be laid off.

So was Newberry ready for a career change back in training camp? Not quite yet.

Newberry has kept his job, regained a starting position he lost in camp and tried to hold together a struggling, injury-riddled offensive line that includes rookie Wayne Gandy and second-year player Chuck Belin.

“That’s as young a group as I’ve played with since I’ve been here,” said Newberry, a second-round draft pick of the Rams in 1986.

“I’ve been in the league nine years, and there always has been some eight- or 10-year veterans, a couple five-year guys and a second-year guy. But now there’s a four-year guy, a three, a two and a rookie. “

That young offensive line, and the players trying to operate behind it, have taken some serious lumps this season.

Just ask Jerome Bettis, who was held to a career-low 13 yards in 10 carries, or quarterback Chris Chandler, twice carried off the field because of ankle injuries after getting buried by pass rushers.

Or ask quarterback Chris Miller, who was knocked out of the San Francisco game with sore ribs and a concussion against New Orleans, both a result of sacks.

It’s an awful situation up front--one that would be much worse if not for the consistent play of Newberry, a player the Rams were prepared to put out to pasture last summer.

Now, the Rams play Newberry not so much because they want to. They have to.

When Keith Loneker, who took Newberry’s starting left guard spot, went down with a fallen arch in the third game of the season, Newberry was there to replace him.

When center Bern Brostek broke a bone in his right leg in the third quarter of the Green Bay game, Newberry moved over to take his spot and groomed Belin as the starting left guard.

“His presence in the huddle has been the key,” Belin said. “Since Bern has been down, the whole offensive line has counted on Tom for getting to the right people on blocks. We have to know our individual assignments too, but Tom is there to help reassure us that we’re doing it right.”

When offensive line coach Jim Erkenbeck was knocked unconscious when a New Orleans player accidentally ran into him on the sideline, Newberry and 19-year veteran Jackie Slater helped with the coaching duties.

“Tom is the leader, the coach on the field, the hustler, and does everything that is required of him,” Erkenbeck said. “He’s the most pleasant surprise I’ve had in coaching for a long, long time.

But how much longer will Newberry play?

Newberry, 32, admits he’s no Slater, and he is mulling retirement after this three-year contract expires at the end of the season. Being an unrestricted free agent, would he try to extend his career another year or two?

“I’ll talk to Erkenbeck after the season’s over,” Newberry said. “That’s next year’s problem.”

But last summer, the Rams were ready to drum him out of football a year early. Newberry is 6 feet 2 and 287 pounds--small by offensive lineman standards.

Newberry was sweating it out until the final cuts, but found job security because of his guaranteed salary, a rarity among NFL players.

Because of the guaranteed money, the Rams figured it was best to pay him to play on Sundays rather than watch games with a remote control in one hand and a chilly one in the other.

The guaranteed money also would have counted under the team’s $34.6-million salary cap, so the Rams figured why not keep a veteran around for another season.

But as a backup.

Newberry was coming off a knee injury that sidelined him the final seven games of the 1993 season. It was the first injury of his pro career that forced him to miss more than one game.

“It was different for me,” Newberry said. “I was uncomfortable on the sidelines and not being able to go in and do something. I had a good off-season, and I came back this season feeling better than I had the year before.”

Still, the Rams demoted Newberry, a two-time Pro Bowl selection who once had a streak of 73 consecutive starts. Thanks, the coaches told him, but we are going with Loneker, a 6-3, 330-pound bowling ball with legs who had made the team as a rookie free agent the previous year.

“I didn’t worry about it,” Newberry said, shrugging. “All I could do was get ready for the season and come in and do the best I could. I don’t have any impact on those things, those are coaching decisions. I do my job.

Erkenbeck said Newberry handled the demotion “a lot better than I did.”

“I was really frustrated because I didn’t know how to go about making a change that I thought was necessary,” Erkenbeck said. “I was concerned that I might be making a mistake.

“Tom just settled in and said he would do whatever I asked him to.”

Nearly three months after training camp broke, Newberry is helping develop an offensive line with disaster-area potential. But Newberry’s calm, business-like approach gives the line some stability--on the field and off.

On the night before a game, Newberry rounds up the offensive line for a players-only meeting, offering the younger players a chance to ask questions and clear up any confusion about their assignments.

“I run off some extra front sheets and try to help them out if they have any problems,” Newberry said. “I tell them to call me, even at night. By the time we get to Sunday, we’ve watched enough film that everyone is really well-prepared.

“For some of the young guys, there’s nights where they sit there looking at (a diagram) and it doesn’t make any sense. Sometimes, things don’t make sense when you don’t have the experience.”