Warner Sidesteps Questions About His Starting Status

Curt Warner does not want to be standing here, taking these questions, and his whole body says so.

He sighs when he hears the group of reporters call his name as he trudges off the practice field. When he stops, his shoulders hang, his head drops, his eyes lock hard on the ground.

Warner did not come to Anaheim, did not sign a one-year $700,000 contract as a Plan B free agent, did not shelve his proud seven-season career with the Seattle Seahawks to be standing here, being asked how it feels to be blamed for the Rams’ poor early-season running attack.

This man has rushed for 6,819 yards, scored 56 touchdowns and come back from a severe knee injury. This trip south from Seattle was supposed to be the climax to a successful career. After three games, it hasn’t been quite that.

“I really don’t have anything to say, to be honest with you,” Warner says politely but firmly Thursday at Rams Park. “There’s no sense in talking about it; I just have to play it as it comes and not worry about it.

“I don’t want to get into any kind of dispute or argument or anything like that--that’s not what I’m down here for.”

So what is he here for now?

Cleveland Gary, the hard-running, second-year tailback, is practicing now, and the Rams are suggesting very strongly that Warner’s starting job should be Gary’s before long--maybe by the Rams’ next game, Oct. 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals at Anaheim Stadium.

Others clamor that the change to Gary should have occurred long ago. Even quarterback Jim Everett, who usually stays above the fray, has suggested all too clearly and repeatedly that he would prefer Gary behind him full time. So all is not well for Curt Warner.

In three games as the Rams’ starting tailback, the 29-year-old Warner has rushed 38 times for 114 yards and one touchdown, for a 3.0-yard average, continuing the steady decline of Warner’s average gain per carry every year since 1986.

By comparison, after three games last season, Warner’s Ram predecessor, current Raider Greg Bell, had 417 yards and five touchdowns in 70 carries, for a 5.9-yard average.

Warner’s longest gain has been for nine yards, and as the Rams’ vaunted running game slowed to a halt in last week’s dismal 35-yard output against the Philadelphia Eagles, the easiest target for blame has been the lack of firepower in his legs.

“Statistically, no, it doesn’t look that good,” Warner says. “But I don’t have any complaints as far as the way I’m running (goes). I’m running up in there hard.

“I would be the first to tell you if I’m not running up in there hard or not giving it my best shot, you know? I’m doing whatever I think is necessary to play.”

But doing whatever is necessary is not getting the Rams the production everyone expects out of a John Robinson tailback, and Warner understands that all too well.

“What can you say? There’s nothing you can do,” Warner says. “Everybody’s got something to say, everybody has their own opinion, and frankly . . . “ A pause. Another sigh. He continues: “Well, everybody has their own opinion.”

Robinson, for one, says there isn’t much he can do about the situation other than let it play out and try not to let Warner get destroyed by the criticism. And he points out that he considers Warner’s nifty six-yard touchdown burst through the Green Bay defense “one of the nicest runs we’ve had for a touchdown here in three or four years.”

But Robinson, who compares Warner’s predicament in some ways to the firestorm of criticism that besieged quarterback Dieter Brock in 1985, also has said Gary is definitely in the plans for a big role next Sunday and beyond.

“I’m sure he’s wounded by it,” Robinson says of the criticism of Warner. “I think he would like to be rushing at about a 4.9-clip. It’s like anything else; if somebody else had had the ball those runs, it wouldn’t have been much different.

“But that’s just part of the heat you have to take. What he has to do and what we have to do is deal with the reality, our reality.”

And as Gary gets more practice time--he was sidelined for the exhibition season because of a back problem and has carried just 12 times so far this season--the reality is that Warner is going to get pushed out of the picture more and more. Gary is the kind of slam-bang, hit-the-hole-hard runner the Rams prefer. Warner is more of a pick-and-chose runner who doesn’t attack defenses in the Ram way.

“I’m going to play Cleveland Gary a lot this game, see how that goes,” Robinson says, although he would not go so far as to name Gary the starter.

So is Robinson disappointed with Warner’s production?

“I think it’s been OK,” Robinson says. “I don’t think he’s done anything where I’ve looked and said that’s a bad run.

“But in the same notion, we’re not producing much. Neither Curt nor Gaston (Green) has broken tackles, knocked people over, done anything where you go, ‘Wow.’ I think (Warner’s) running has been, uh, average. I guess you’d say middle of the pack.”

Gary, for his part, doesn’t want to talk much about the situation, either, emphasizing that the most important thing isn’t who starts, but whether the Rams win. He does say, however, that his back is fine and that he is ready to roll.

“I don’t want anybody looking to me for anything,” Gary says. “I’m just going out to do what’s asked of me. I’m not going to answer any questions until the Cincinnati game. I don’t expect anything. I just wait until my number is called.”

But if Gary isn’t saying much, his quarterback is implying a lot.

“I’ll state that I’m a big Cleveland Gary fan, and that’s just the way that I’ll put it,” Everett says. “The other two guys, Gaston and everyone we have there can run the ball very well. But I just think I like Cleveland’s style, personally.”

And what can Warner do about that besides politely stand there, try not to show how much it hurts, and wish this were not happening?

“I don’t really have anything to say,” Warner repeats. “I really don’t. I don’t mean to be a jerk, I just don’t have anything to say.”