Rams Notebook : Coaching Philosophies Totally Different for Robinson, Mackovic

John Robinson of the Rams and John Mackovic of the Kansas City Chiefs will be on opposite sidelines in Arrowhead Stadium Sunday, and they’re at opposite poles as coaches.

Their philosophies about offense and player relationships are so diverse that it’s hard to believe both could be successful.

Mackovic, a former Army officer and freshman coach at West Point, is a strong disciplinarian, with a dress code and rules for every occasion.

Robinson’s only rule about clothes is that his players must wear them outside the locker room.

Mackovic, a former quarterback at Wake Forest, is obsessed with the forward pass. The Chiefs rank eighth in passing and 25th in rushing.

Robinson wants to pass well enough only to allow him to run. The Rams rank eighth in rushing and 26th in passing.

“I would love to run the ball better, believe me,” Mackovic says.

Asked if he could run it like a steamroller, would he disdain the pass, Mackovic replied: “Well, I wouldn’t go that far. I like the other part of the game. When you turn on the projector (to scout opponents on film), I look for passing opportunities first.”

Mackovic must think a lot like Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers. Like Walsh, he also prepares a list of plays to run at the start of a game, regardless of situations. Walsh’s list runs about 25 plays. Mackovic’s?

“Recently, it hasn’t been deep enough,” he said.

The Chiefs have lost two in a row-to the Raiders and Chargers.

With the first NFC West showdown eight days away, the common feeling around the National Football League is that the Rams (6-0) aren’t that good and the San Francisco 49ers (3-3) aren’t that bad. Robinson agrees with the second part.

“If you asked, ‘Who’s the most talented team in the league right now?’ most people would still say, ‘The 49ers,’ ” he said. “But that isn’t where it’s at right now. They’re like us: trying to get better.”

Among Rams, there is a feeling that they’d have as much respect for the 49ers as ever, even if they were 0-6.

As for how his team is regarded, Robinson said: “I think you love this type of football team: wild and crazy.”

Tight end James McDonald had the look of a released hostage when he returned to the Rams from Detroit this week.

“It wasn’t a bad experience,” he said, “but I’m happy to be back.”

The Rams waived McDonald in the final cut Sept. 3 because they had too many tight ends. The Lions claimed him. The Rams got him back for a 12th-round draft choice because they didn’t have enough tight ends.

What happened in between was the stunning trade of Mike Barber to Denver--also for a 12th-round selection--after Barber said he wasn’t catching enough passes.

“I felt he was going to do that,” McDonald said. “He looked pretty good to me before I left.”

Playing behind David Lewis in Detroit, McDonald caught 3 passes for 23 yards in 6 games. He admitted he had some trouble adjusting to a different system.

McDonald was a special project of Robinson, who watched McDonald play basketball at USC and thought he could play football. His nickname around the Rams was “Basketball.”

“My two years here were my only two years of football,” he said.

All nose tackles seem to agree: it’s a lousy job, but they love doing it.

The Chiefs’ Bill Maas, a first-round draft choice last year, says: “It’s probably the worst position in professional sports. You don’t have any control over the game. If you’re playing end, you have only one person hitting you. At the nose, everybody’s hitting you from all sides--even your teammates.

“You make a big play and come up out of the bottom of the pile and hear the announcer say, ‘Tackle by number 67, Art Still.’ They don’t even see you on the bottom.”

Maas, who is married to the sister of Miami quarterback Dan Marino, likes to play mind games with opponents.

“I tell ‘em to take it easy or my hemorrhoids will flare up,” he says.

In the off-season he goes hunting and pals around with another University of Pittsburgh product--nose tackle Greg Meisner of the Rams, who is still single.

Maas asked Ram beat reporters over the phone: “Do the women in L.A. know that Meisner is married and has three kids back in the mountains of Pennsylvania? That should slow him down.”

Said Meisner: “It won’t make any difference.”