THE NFL / BILL PLASCHKE : They Go Forward While Backing Up

He has traveled, it seems, from greatness to ghost.

Through the veil of streamers and confetti heaped upon the St. Louis Rams these days, you spot this stoic figure on the sideline and you think, “Is that really . . . ?”

Mark Rypien?

“Sometimes I wonder that myself,” said Rypien, Super Bowl most valuable player for the Washington Redskins only four seasons ago. “Earlier this year, I was warming up in Green Bay when Chris Miller went down, and some fans near the bench shouted, ‘Fat chance!’ ”

But is Rypien any less important than when he threw 28 touchdown passes for the Redskins in 1991? Fat chance.

The irony of this NFL season is that as younger players are hogging more of the spotlight, older players are carrying more of the load. Nowhere is this more evident than at quarterback, where teams with wise, veteran backups are putting up smart numbers.

Bernie Kosar a ghost? After spending the first few weeks reading defenses for Dan Marino on the sideline, his presence has allowed Marino to undergo knee surgery that perhaps would have been postponed. Kosar will start the next two games for the Miami Dolphins, who don’t appear a bit worried.

Gale Gilbert a ghost? The San Diego Chargers went to the Super Bowl in his first year as backup and sounding board for Stan Humphries. Gilbert starts Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, but nobody is fleeing.

Rodney Peete has a chance to save Philadelphia’s season. Perhaps Jim Harbaugh already has saved the season in Indianapolis.

Then there is Rypien, whose knowledge of the game has helped turn Miller, always a great natural talent, into a competent reader of defenses. Rypien had the same effect last season on Vinny Testaverde and the Cleveland Browns.

Since becoming a backup, Rypien has 17 victories in 24 games. He could be one of the Rams’ most valuable players without taking another snap.

“Veteran backups know how to study and prepare--they can read defenses quickly--the starter can’t see everything, so they can be an extra set of eyes to help him,” said Steve DeBerg, quarterback coach of the New York Giants who backed up Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway and Steve Young.

“Younger quarterbacks don’t understand exactly how coverages work,” DeBerg added.

Or how the backup role works. It is a complicated job with a description that goes like this:

‘I know what to say,” Rypien said, “and when to say it.”

ALL COVER-YOUR-BACK TEAM

1. Rypien, Rams (5-1): Making $1.125 million simply to wind up Miller and set him loose. Judging from this year’s results, he is worth every penny.

2. Steve Walsh, Chicago Bears (3-2): The ultimate quarterback coach. Imagine his mind in the body of someone like Heath Shuler. That would be some quarterback monster movie.

3. Kosar, Dolphins (4-1): He can’t throw like Marino, can’t even cuss out his receivers like Marino. But he probably knows the offense better.

4. Vince Evans, Oakland Raiders (5-1): The man is what, 50? He’s not hanging around because of his wheels.

ALL STAB-IN-THE-BACK TEAM

1. Todd Collins, Buffalo Bills (4-1): He is the only NFL quarterback who looks better in a baseball cap than a helmet. Long live Jim Kelly.

2. Casey Weldon, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2): The blind backing up the blind.

3. Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia Eagles (3-3): He has spent the last two games sitting at the end of the bench, offering no help to Peete or input into the offense. Hmmm. Maybe we should commend him.

4. Tommy Hodson, New Orleans Saints (0-5): The gratification in this sort of exercise is the discovery of players previously thought to be unemployed.

BLOWING THEIR CHANCE

The Oakland Raiders have their most exciting team this decade.

Mike White has been the AFC’s best coach.

At least three members of their offense--Jeff Hostetler, Tim Brown and Harvey Williams-- can make early reservations for the Pro Bowl.

Defensively, Pat Swilling is a monster again, and linebacker Mike Jones has gone from the Sacramento Surge to budding stardom.

By staying out of the way, Al Davis is looking like the genius he once was.

So why can’t they fill the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum? Why are there TV blackouts just as in Los Angeles last year? Why has nothing changed?

Because the Raiders’ attitude toward marketing has not changed.

Today’s consumer is far more sophisticated than when Davis left Oakland 13 years ago. It’s no longer enough to display your product for three hours on Sunday, then keep it hidden for the next six days.

Fans, particularly those young adults in the Bay Area who absorbed the Raider legacy from parents, want more.

They want to know what Hostetler is like underneath that helmet and eye black. They want to know about the “real” Tim Brown.

They want to hear players speak. They want to know them as people. Before buying this product, they want to at least believe they understand it.

That is impossible under the Raiders’ league-worst public relations policies.

That this organization is completely insensitive to the needs of its fans is not news. What is news is that even with the move to Oakland, given a rare opportunity to change, the Raiders have not.

Look at the embarrassingly empty seats and understand that they are paying the price.

The Raiders are the only team that keeps the locker room closed to reporters throughout the week. They are the only team that dictates which players talk and which don’t.

They are the only team that is openly confrontational--sometimes even nasty--to those wanting to give them free advertising.

Ironically, this makes life easy for TV, radio and newspaper reporters--quick interviews, short stories, virtually no news. But it’s hard on fans.

They have no idea who they are watching. The actors in this exciting weekly series have become a collection of helmets. And the plot has been lost.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Witness the situation in St. Louis, where the Rams have embraced everyone and been rewarded with full stadiums and fanatic consumers.

We make this point because if the Raiders don’t change, they will be forced to abandon this new market and come back to Los Angeles.

And nobody wants that.

CHEERS AND JEERS

CHEERS: In six weeks, Ram Coach Rich Brooks has ordered two cross-field passes on punt returns, a reverse to begin the game, a pass by a wide receiver, and more fourth-down tries, four, than all but one other NFC team.

JEERS: In three consecutive weeks, Buccaneer quarterback Trent Dilfer has been pulled from the game because of “exhaustion,” an unconfirmed “concussion” and “exhaustion.” Sounds as if Coach Sam Wyche can’t get his excuses straight.

CHEERS: Coach Bill Parcells of the New England Patriots, realizing the incredible hole he has dug for his team, is taking his cardiologist on trips.

JEERS: Before blaming Charger rookie cornerbacks Terrance Shaw and Mark Montreuil for that late collapse in Kansas City on Monday, realize that the “West Coast” offense is designed to score quickly. The Chargers stabbed themselves long before the final 1:12, under a flurry of dumb penalties, fumbles and dropped passes.

It is as if the team has used off-field distractions--particularly Coach Bobby Ross’ painful battle with abdominal problems--as a season-long excuse to give up. Right now, few of them are worthy of being coached by him.

CHEERS: Tamarick Vanover’s heroics for the Chiefs on Monday marked the first time in NFL history that an overtime game was decided by a punt return.

JEERS: Fernando Smith, Minnesota Viking defensive end, sat out last week’s game against the Houston Oilers because of a hamstring injury suffered during a duck-walking sack dance.

CHEERS: Thanks to the intercession of Ken Norton Jr.’s wife, Angela, whose presence caused the problems in the first place, the 49er linebacker and his famous father are speaking again for the first time in five years.

JEERS: Pittsburgh Steeler Coach Bill Cowher, who is reportedly coming apart at the seams. He is being abrasive not only with officials but his players and club personnel. Somebody once said the true measure of a man is not based on his success but his failures. The football world is watching.

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QUICK KICKS

MILLER TIME: When University of Oregon officials were honoring St. Louis Ram Coach Rich Brooks last weekend in Eugene by naming the stadium after him, Ram quarterback Chris Miller was also there.

Sort of.

“I was out in the parking lot having a couple of cold ones,” Miller said. “I heard Rich on the P.A. system, so I tried to tune in what he was saying. But he wasn’t going to cut into my tailgating time.”

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FOOL TIME: Keith Loneker, backup Ram guard, became one with his new city by getting a tattoo of the St. Louis Arch on his lower leg.

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YEAH, RIGHT: Police held up traffic for hours while stopping 4,600 cars at an interstate sobriety checkpoint near Kansas City after the Chiefs had defeated the San Diego Chargers last Monday in a game ending just before midnight.

And they made only 21 arrests?

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NICE GUY: While wilting in the final minutes of their embarrassing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Greg Lloyd mustered all of his strength for one last act of courage.

During a stop in the action, he walked up to Jaguar rookie tackle Brian DeMarco and kicked him in the groin.

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NICE GUYS: First the Raiders did a favor for former teammate Winston Moss, sneaking his wife onto a charter plane Sunday that took Raider family members from Los Angeles to Oakland for a home game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Then once there, they ran a play designed to sucker Moss, now a Seahawk linebacker. And it worked. Tight end Andrew Glover blocked him, then released to catch a 13-yard touchdown pass from running back Harvey Williams.

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LIFE IN THE REVOLVING DOOR: Cary Blanchard, the new kicker for the Indianapolis Colts, is called “Mr. B.” by his teammates.

Why? Most of them don’t know his name and don’t want to bother learning it.

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LEAGUE’S BEST PREGAME PROMOTION: In Kansas City, contestants are handed footballs at the five-yard line. Then they run into the end zone and perform touchdown dances that are judged by the crowd. You should see some of those 60-year-old farmers boogie.

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LEAGUE’S WORST PREGAME PROMOTION: All those countless places still allowing fans to try field goals. The strange beauty of this game is that regular human beings cannot do things like kicking field goals.