Stallworth Gives Rams a Flashback : Pro football: L.A. fans can still picture his second cousin beating them in the Super Bowl 10 years ago.
Ten years after receiver John Stallworth reached over cornerback Rod Perry’s outstretched fingertips to catch the classic, magazine-cover touchdown pass that polished off the Rams in Super Bowl XIV, another Stallworth dares to show his face in Ram territory.
His name is Tim, and he’s a second cousin of the former Pittsburgh Steeler. The Rams drafted Washington State’s Tim Stallworth in the sixth round this year and figure he’ll put up a good fight for a wide-open roster spot at fourth wide receiver.
Stallworth, not surprisingly, has chosen uniform No. 82, in honor of cousin John, a man whom he admires greatly but has met only on a few occasions.
John Stallworth is a cousin of Tim’s father, but that’s about as far as it goes.
“It’s kind of a distant relationship,” Tim said Wednesday, wishing the two were closer. “I’d like to get some advice from him. He was one of my idols, one of my favorite football players growing up.”
As if the Rams needed to be reminded of John Stallworth’s game-breaking, 73-yard scoring pass play in Pittsburgh’s 31-19 victory over the Rams at the Rose Bowl, Tim Stallworth serves to remind.
The Rams were leading, 19-17, in the fourth quarter when Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw and Stallworth connected on the go-ahead touchdown that made the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week.
To remember the moment back in high school, Tim Stallworth traced the magazine cover and had a friend stitch the image onto a patch, which he fixed to the back of the letterman’s jacket he earned while starring at Montclair Prep in Van Nuys.
Stallworth, though, had his uniform No. 2 stitched in place of his cousin’s 82, so it appears Tim is making the catch.
“It looks just like it,” he said. “It’s pretty nice. I can bring it in.”
Warned that a few Rams who might still be suffering from that catch--Lawrence McCutcheon, Larry Brooks, Jack Youngblood--still lurk at the Rams’ complex, Stallworth thought better of the idea.
“The Steelers were my favorite team,” Stallworth said.
His favorite team now?
“The Rams,” he replied.
With players working out year-round as it is, the notion of needing regimented, two-a-day practices in training camp is growing obsolete, Coach John Robinson said Wednesday.
“I’m moving quickly to eliminate camp,” he said. “If I coach long enough, I will coach when there’s no training camp.”
The Rams are the first NFL team to report, but they’re trying to avoid a boot-camp atmosphere by working shorter hours at their regular training facility in Anaheim. Players have the nights off, along with at least one day on the weekend.
The Rams, in fact, will only spend a total of 14 days in the so-called traditional camp setting when practices move to UC Irvine on July 26.
“The pace we go is slower,” Robinson said. “There isn’t as much demanded of the player, so he’s not mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. We’re out of here at 4:30, 5 o’clock. It’s more relaxed and it’s a better environment for teaching. You stay healthier, and don’t run their legs off. It also allows our coaches to stay out of what I call the training camp mentality.”
Ram Notes
The Rams signed three more draft choices Wednesday--eighth-round center Elbert Crawford, ninth-round receiver Tony Lomack and 11th-round nose tackle Bill Goldberg. The team also announced the signing of free-agent linebackers Paul Butcher, who made a special teams appearance in last year’s playoff game against the New York Giants, and Todd Howard, a third-round selection of the Kansas City Chiefs in 1987.
It didn’t take the team long to give Greg Bell’s jersey No. 42 to third-round pick Latin Berry. Another strange sight was seeing rookie safety Dwayne Jones wearing No. 47, cornerback LeRoy Irvin’s number for 10 years as a Ram before his release last spring.
The six recognizable players at Wednesday’s first workout were quarterback Chuck Long, cornerback Alfred Jackson, linebacker George Bethune, defensive linemen Bill Hawkins and Brian Smith and linebacker Frank Stams. Stams, drafted as an outside linebacker out of Notre Dame, will be used inside this season. Stams was forced to move inside last season after injuries to starters Larry Kelm and Fred Strickland.
Quarterback Jim Everett and running backs Curt Warner, Cleveland Gary and Gaston Green will join the workouts Monday.
