Phillips Not Feeling Civil
Visiting hours began at 11:30, but Lawrence Phillips was a no-show in the Ram locker room as the media arrived in their assigned time slot.
In front of Phillips’ locker there was no subpoena in sight.
There were seven TV cameras, more than 20 reporters, and the way the Rams have scheduled every Wednesday this was the time to make nice with the players. “Get all these damn reporters out of here,” shouted defensive end Alberto White, and apparently the honeymoon in St. Louis has come to an end.
So when does No. 21 arrive?
“There are no one-on-one interviews with Phillips and you can only ask him about football,” a Ram public relations spokesman said a few days ago in arranging an interview with Phillips.
So Lawrence, you like playing football?
“You don’t want to mess with Lawrence Phillips,” confided a Ram official. “This is a guy who can take out your entire family.”
Phillips, perceived publicly as one of the baddest mugs in football after pleading no contest to dragging his girlfriend down a flight of stairs by her hair and then months later getting arrested and charged with driving drunk while on probation, was in the news again this week, and everyone wanted an interview Wednesday.
His former University of Nebraska girlfriend, Katherine McEwen, filed a civil suit alleging Phillips beat, threatened and sexually assaulted her during their two-year relationship. The lawsuit was filed Aug. 16 in Jackson County Circuit Court in Kansas City, and the following day Phillips played against the Chiefs in an exhibition game and was served with papers.
The Rams were aware of the civil suit, but chose to keep it quiet until it surfaced this week and caused the media stir.
A week ago, Phillips screamed at a local reporter who wanted to ask him a football question, and then let a pair of the team’s public relations staff have it for reminding him of his agreement to talk each day after practice--if requested.
Forced to get his football pants out of his locker this week, he was caught from behind by a reporter.
“I don’t do interviews,” he said, and it would have been nice to know at this time if he was still undergoing treatment for anger control.
This is the time the Rams say interviews are supposed to be done, Phillips was told.
“I don’t do interviews,” he said.
Anybody up for talking to backup quarterback Jamie Martin?
A Ram official sounded encouraged. “He’s in a good mood today.”
Indeed. According to McEwen’s suit, Phillips once shoved her head into a wall so hard it broke through the wall, then he choked her and would not allow her to leave his apartment. Later, according to court papers, he allegedly told her, “I’m going to shoot you in the kneecaps and then shoot you in the elbows. This is Los Angeles gang style of dealing with people.”
Time to interview Jamie Martin.
“Before the draft we spent countless hours evaluating Lawrence with everybody in the Nebraska area,” said Steve Ortmayer, the Rams’ director of football operations. “[Coach Rich] Brooks talked for a long time with [Nebraska Coach] Tom Osborne, and the answers kept coming up this is not a dead-end guy.”
Osborne put Phillips back on the football field after Phillips’ assault incident, making some folks outside Nebraska think he was placing more importance on winning football games than holding athletes accountable for their actions.
“Apart from all the psychological testing he did before the draft, we sent him to our own team psychiatrist,” said John Shaw, Ram team president. “At the time we drafted him we did not think he had a substance problem, and that was subsequently confirmed by all of the psychological testing. That’s not to say he doesn’t have a problem. The anger-control and maturity issues and the pressure he’s under as the result of his upbringing or the profile of being an athlete, causes certain behavioral problems. Those are more the problem than any substance problem.”
The Rams had the sixth pick in the draft, and while most everyone in the NFL identified Phillips as the most talented player available, five teams passed on him.
The Rams grabbed him, had him in for minicamp, and then upon his return to Los Angeles he was spotted driving beyond the speed limit on a flat tire down the highway. Who spotted him? The patrol officer whom Phillips passed on the highway.
“In my opinion, if you want to build a championship team you have to take some shots,” Ortmayer said. “They have to be educated shots, and they have to be shots with the odds in your favor.”
By now it’s quite obvious, yes, Ortmayer grew up in the NFL working in the Raiders’ front office.
“No question,” said Ortmayer, whose background with the Raiders helped influence his decision to take a chance on Phillips. “If you feel that you can provide an environment different than a player might have had previously for him to overcome and succeed, then those risks are calculated and worth taking.”
The Rams thought long and hard about signing Phillips after his wayward drive down the highway in California. But he was their No. 1 pick, and their projected starting running back and the Rams needed him, so they penalized him by not giving him a signing bonus.
So this year Phillips will earn only $1.5 million.
Had he not gone astray, the team pointed out, he would have earned at least a $5-million bonus. Now he will be paid $5.6 million over the next three years, and he will have to earn every penny. Well, not exactly. If he’s good--if he doesn’t plead guilty or no contest to a felony or face a league suspension for substance abuse, then 40% of his salary before the next two seasons will be guaranteed.
The Rams also demanded Phillips sign a “social” contract with Shaw, Brooks, Ortmayer and other team officials, agreeing to behave while with the Rams. One of the provisions stipulates that Phillips can drink no more than two alcoholic drinks in one sitting. The contract has no implicit penalties, but a team official said the day might come when suspension or fines are imposed as a result of the unusual contract.
“We really are in a baby-sitting business,” Shaw said. “I think Lawrence was clearly economically penalized coming to the Rams for his actions. If he can get though his personal problems now, he should have a long and prosperous career.”
The Rams said they have built a support system for Phillips, although they regret not being more effective with him early on. Ortmayer said the team lost control of Phillips after drafting him because NCAA rules prevent an organization from working with a player until June 1 or until their class has graduated. As a result, Phillips remained in Los Angeles, and Ortmayer said Phillips had no structure to rely on in Los Angeles.
“He was in a tough situation there with no support,” Ortmayer said. “Now we have help. We have counseled him with respect to that [potential alcohol abuse]. Without structure his peer group becomes his structure, and that’s tough when you have nothing to fall back on and you are 21 and the standard-bearer for that peer group. Things can get away from you then. We have tried our damnedest to help him understand that this [alcohol] can be a problem, and that’s a problem he’s not going to want as a professional.
“But I will say this, from the day Lawrence Phillips walked in with permanency with us, to my knowledge we haven’t spent an anxious moment over anything he has participated in.”
Well, until all these questions about a civil lawsuit, which details a series of abusive incidents. Phillips is already facing a pre-trial hearing for drunk driving in Rio Hondo Municipal Court in El Monte on Sept. 30.
If found guilty in California, Phillips faces the prospect of having his probation revoked in Nebraska and serving a jail sentence.
Ram officials, who intimated a settlement was in the works in regard to the civil suit, are relying on a slow American judicial system in the hopes that if Phillips’ probation is revoked, he will be sitting in jail during the off-season.
Phillips’ agent, Mitch Frankel, tried to quell the media storm by standing in for him via a telephone conference call. Frankel said he advised his client not to talk about the civil suit, but he said he never advised Phillips to go silent.
“I think as time goes on and everybody gets to know him better you’ll find him very engaging and hospitable,” Frankel said.
Is that hostile or hospitable? Hard to tell since he’s on the lam from the media, even after scoring two touchdowns in his pro debut, the Rams’ 26-16 victory over Cincinnati on Sunday. But worth a try, and so there he was after practice again, and to get to the locker room he was going to have to get through a notebook.
Phillips was walking off the field, all right, but he was intercepted by Brooks. Brooks and Phillips chatted, and then Brooks led Phillips to the interview.
“Just football, nothing but football,” Brooks said. “You got your questions about football? No sense talking to him if you don’t want to talk football.”
Is that right? Phillips was asked.
“Yes, sir,” he said, and the interview ended.
*
TROUBLE AHEAD?
A Nebraska prosecutor intends to file a probation violation charge that could land Phillips in jail. C5