SWAN SONG

The best thing you can say about R. Jay Soward’s story is that it isn’t over yet.

It doesn’t have to raise the question, “What if?” or become a tale of wasted opportunities. They already have one of those in the Soward family. Soward is a history major at USC, but he needs to look no further than his father to learn all the lessons from the past he needs to know.

Rodney Soward’s football career ended some 20 years ago at Cal Poly Pomona, stopped short, he believes, by himself.

“I do feel I had the talent to play professional ball,” Rodney Soward said. (If you’ve seen R. Jay play and believe athletic ability is hereditary, that’s not hard to imagine.)

“But I didn’t do the right things. It’s not just talent. I didn’t do the things that were necessary to be a finely tuned athlete. Am I crying over it? No. But these are things I’m trying to convey to him.”

Rodney Soward doesn’t consider himself a failure. He works hard from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at a Stater Bros. warehouse in Colton. He is involved in his church. He has raised five children and tried his best to instill strong values in them.

But he simply wouldn’t be doing his job as a father if he didn’t help his son set off on his own path, instead of merely following in his footsteps. If he can’t change the past, he can at least change R. Jay’s future.

He has heard and read about R. Jay’s summer, also known as “What I didn’t do during my vacation.” Namely, R. Jay skipped football team workouts. Plenty of them.

Rodney has taken his son to task about it. And then he has saved a few words for himself, little reminders that he is dealing with “a 21-year-old kid,” as he calls R. Jay.

The kid stage won’t last much longer, though. This is R. Jay’s senior year, the last chance for the gifted flanker to fulfill his potential as a college player and help reestablish USC as a national power. His last chance to impress the NFL scouts.

You wonder when it’s going to finally click in with him, the realization that this is it.

The coaches told him to work, and he didn’t change.

He was in the recording studios all summer, laying down rap tracks. Even there, his buddy Orlando Mallory would get on him about missing workouts, and Soward wouldn’t change.

“We’ll be working on a beat or something and I’ll say, ‘Man, don’t you need to go to practice?’ ” Mallory said.

Yet it seemed as though Soward didn’t realize his mistake until the Trojans reconvened for the first time last week and Soward made it only halfway through wind sprints.

Now, he says things like, “I do feel I should have been out there this summer.”

Soward can’t go back and run sprints now. But he can make the most of training camp and make the most of this season.

He caught 44 passes for 679 yards and six touchdowns last season. He rushed 12 times for 150 yards and a touchdown. He returned seven punts for 202 yards and two touchdowns.

And there’s so much more he can do.

His football specialty is getting into the end zone. For his career, he has done it once every 6.9 times he has touched the ball.

But he also specializes in getting over. He’ll do just enough schoolwork to stay eligible, work out just hard enough to avoid growing a pot belly.

The staff at USC is more frustrated with him than angry. He’s so likable, such a pleasure to be around, that they can’t stay mad at him.

They also know they need him. He’s the veteran receiver among a group that has an abundance of speed but a shortage of experience.

Soward doesn’t have that inner motivation to keep it going without gearing up for an opponent on Saturday. In the summer his attention turned to music and meeting recording industry types.

In the past, he has always found a way to snap back into it.

“He likes football,” USC Coach Paul Hackett said. “That’s the thing that saves him.”

Said Soward: “I love to play football. I can run all day playing football, just run, run, run. It is exciting to know you’re practicing to play a game on Saturday.”

His father will be there every Saturday this season.

“My son has an opportunity to do something for himself,” Rodney said. “I’m going to make every effort to support him, be a positive influence for him and do all I can.”

It’s up to R. Jay to do the rest, to showcase his skills on the weekends, eliminate the questions about his work ethic during the week and shake that image he has in his head.

“My father is coming home and his shirt is completely soaking wet from running around in a hot warehouse for, like, 8-12 hours a day,” Soward said. “And his knees--he comes home and he’s limping and he can barely walk.

“Every time he comes home and I look at that, it hurts my feelings. Because he had the same opportunity I had and he didn’t take advantage of it. Everything that went on this summer, I’m putting it behind me. I know I’ve got to get really serious about this football thing right now. Everything that’s happened has happened. It’s gone. Every time I’m going to be out there running, running those routes, I’m going to just think about my dad running through the warehouse with the sweaty shirt and the bum knees.”

It’s not just about R. Jay anymore. He let his teammates down during the summer, and he can’t afford to let them and his family down during the season.

“If I don’t have the season I want to have, my daddy’s still going to be pulling groceries,” Soward said. “I don’t want my daddy pulling groceries this time next year.”

Now is the time to do something about it.

J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

R. Jay Soward’s ’98 Stats

RECEIVING

Catches: 44

Yards: 679

Yards/Catch: 15.4

Touchdowns: 6

*

RUSHING

Carries: 12

Yards: 150

Yards/Carry: 12.5

Touchdowns: 1

*

RETURNS

Punts: 7

Yards: 202

Yards/Return: 28.9

Touchdowns: 2

Kickoffs: 16

Yards: 344

Yards/Return: 21.5