Rams Run Up the Accusations

St. Louis Coach Dick Vermeil doesn’t like being called a bully.

The St. Louis coach has bristled this week at suggestions his NFC West-champion Rams have run up the score in recent weeks.

“People that know me know I’m not trying to enhance my ego or status or our offense’s status by scoring at the end of the game,” Vermeil said.

The evidence: Marshall Faulk ran 18 yards on a sweep with 1:11 to go four weeks ago in a 35-10 victory over Carolina, and two weeks ago James Hodgins scored from the one with about three minutes left in a 43-12 victory over New Orleans. Sunday, they continued to run their offense against New Orleans well into the fourth quarter of a game they had well in hand, allowing quarterback Kurt Warner to finish with 346 yards passing.

The defense: In the first case, Vermeil said he believed his running game hadn’t gotten enough work and blamed the Panthers for poor tackling. Two weeks ago against the Saints, he said he backed off and used only running plays. Hodgins is a backup fullback who had only three carries for five yards all season.

Sunday, Warner spoke for Vermeil: “We were not trying to run up the score. We were just trying to run the ball up the gut and they happened not to be able to stop us. We’re not going to take a knee with five minutes left.”

In any case, Vermeil isn’t expecting criticism from anyone.

“It was just like the same offense I ran at Hillsdale High School,” Vermeil said, referring to his first head-coaching job. “I didn’t expect to score.”

Vermeil pointed out that Ditka’s Bears ran up a huge score in a 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in the 1986 Super Bowl.

Ram tight end Roland Williams said the proof is in the conservative play-calling.

“We’re professionals,” Williams said. “We’re not throwing bombs and trying to run reverses. We’re just running our offense.”

AND THE OSCAR FOR LARGEST EGO GOES TO. . .

After making his first touchdown catch of the season Sunday, Redskin receiver Irving Fryar celebrated by flopping on the ground and doing something that looked like upside-down push-ups. He said he was reenacting a scene from “My upcoming movie ‘Any Given Sunday.’ ”

His upcoming movie? He might want to explain what he means to his apparently supporting cast in the film--Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz and James Woods.

HEY BILL, LET A SMILE BE YOUR UMBRELLA

Think Pittsburgh Coach Bill Cowher made a bad impression when he screamed at players and tugged on a cheerleader’s pom-pom in that soft drink ad?

According to his players, he’s even worse in real life these days, now that a team trapped in a five-game tailspin has been all but eliminated from the playoffs for a second season in a row.

The Steelers (5-8) may be going down to their worst record in eight years, but, if they are, Cowher isn’t going down quietly.

“He still comes into meetings cussing, and he’s got his little jaw stuck out there,” wide receiver Hines Ward said. “He’s still out there trying to do the best job he can. We’ve got to play a 60-minute game. That’s what’s most disappointing to him. We go out there and play decent against good teams, but we don’t play a full game and we go out there and mess it up.”

Clearly, this has been the most stressful of Cowher’s eight seasons on the job. He was forced to call a team meeting to deny rumors about his future in Pittsburgh, and he said his family has been subjected to harsh, insensitive comments from fans.

“It’s been a tough, trying year,” Cowher said. “People say things that sometimes you kind of bite your tongue and you wonder why they say them and where it comes from. When you’re in the public eye, people can say whatever they want with no repercussions, with no feelings.”

Even team President Dan Rooney, who rarely criticizes employees, got into the act. He chastised Cowher for the soft drink commercial, saying it portrayed Cowher--and the Steelers--in a bad light.

But what’s really bad these days is the Steeler record, with 13 losses in 18 games and 1-7 mark since last December at Three Rivers Stadium, where they were 45-9 under Cowher until the middle of last season.

Still, even Cowher’s players aren’t certain whether they have become resigned to defeat.

“I really can’t say,” Ward said. “You hope not. Even though things aren’t looking too bright for us, you still want to go out and do the job well.”

THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT THE HORSES IN THE PARKING LOT

Because it was the last football game to be played at Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field, mounted police came on the field as the clock ran out on the Bengals’ 44-28 win over the Browns, to keep the hordes of fans looking to collect any souvenir off the field. They needn’t have bothered.

Bengal fans, perhaps not grasping the sense of history in the stadium, stayed off the field. In fact, not one even approached the field. Most fans were already long gone before the game ended. It’s a shame. Not many stadiums get to play host to the worst team of the decade in any sport.

WOMEN TACKLING A NEW CHALLENGE

The New York Sharks donned shoulder pads and helmets, mustering all their strength in trying to pound the Minnesota Vixen defense.

But these players were aiming at more than just the opposing line--they hoped to knock down the barriers that have kept women out of one of the last exclusively male sports.

The exhibition game Saturday at Uniondale, N.Y., was part of an effort to launch a professional tackle football league for women. Organizers hope to ride the wave of enthusiasm for women’s sports generated by the U.S. soccer victory in the Women’s World Cup, the success of the WNBA and the triumphs of American Olympic teams in women’s hockey and softball.

“This is a dream come true for all of us,” said lawyer Lynn Lewis, a Shark offensive tackle. “I grew up playing football with the guys. Then when you got to a certain age you couldn’t play in anything organized. Out of all the major sports, this is the last one that brought women to its playground.”

The Women’s Professional Football League, based in Edina, Minn., has two teams--the Vixens and the Lake Michigan Minx. They have played one another in a handful of games in the Midwest.

The Sharks, a Long Island flag football team that plays each year in an international tournament, trained for two months to play tackle ball against the Vixens. The Sharks won, 12-6, before about 300 fans on a windy day at Mitchel Athletic Complex.

Organizers hope to have between six and eight teams for the 2000 season and at least 12 for 2001.

AND YOU THOUGHT YOUR DAY WAS BAD

John Copeland Jr. of Harrahan, La., attempted a 40-yard field goal at halftime of Sunday’s St. Louis-New Orleans game. If he converted the kick, he would win $50,000. The Superdome crowd, sensing something to finally cheer for this season, rose to its feet to encourage him in his attempt.

It came up 35 yards short.

He was then booed off the field.

No. 9, No. 9 . . .

With his 101-yard rushing performance Sunday, Indianapolis rookie running back Edgerrin James tied the record for 100-yard rushing games by a rookie--nine:

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Rookie Team Year Ottis Anderson St. Louis Cardinals 1979 Eric Dickerson L.A. Rams 1983 Curtis Martin New England Patriots 1995 George Rogers New Orleans Saints 1981 Edgerrin James Indianapolis Colts 1999

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--Compiled by Houston Mitchell