Give Everett New Year’s Eve Off

Jim Everett should be benched Monday.

Not because he played badly in last Sunday’s Ram game at Atlanta--although, heaven knows, he did.

Everett should be benched for his own safety.

If Jim’s family wants to keep him in one piece for the holidays, they should ask--no, beg--Coach John Robinson to excuse the quarterback from Monday night’s game at New Orleans.

At the moment, Everett is one of the few quarterbacks in the NFL who has not been maimed, mangled or mashed in the month of December.

Quarterbacks are being yanked and pulled like Stretch Armstrong dolls, and it is not a pretty sight.

So, since the last thing the raggedy Rams need is for Jim Everett to spend his entire off-season mending from New Year’s Eve breakage, they should start their No. 2 quarterback--whoever he is--in the season’s meaningless final game.

Now, you might be asking yourself:

1. Why are the flesh and blood of the No. 2 quarterback (Chuck Long) any less precious or more expendable than Jim Everett’s?

2. Why else is Everett is being paid so much money, if not to put his whole being on the line for his team?

3. Why would it be proper for the Rams to bench a starting player when the Lakers got fined $25,000 for doing much the same thing last season at Portland?

Well, we’ll try to answer you:

1. They’re not. But understudies go on when the headliners don’t; that’s their job. And Long needs a chance to show what he can do. He has to play one of these days. Why not now?

2. Yes, Everett owes the Rams a day’s work for a day’s (huge) pay. It shouldn’t be left up to him. But considering the Rams’ record, what’s the point of his playing? More good will come from seeing what somebody else can do. It might even motivate the Rams to try harder than they did at Atlanta. If Long has a great day, it might even motivate Everett.

3. This one’s tricky. All we can say is, even if it’s the quarterback, it seems different benching one of 22 first-string football players than benching some or all of a five-man basketball lineup.

I know, Pat Riley and Jerry West would understandably argue that they were simply taking precautions to keep the Lakers safe and sound for the playoffs. But the NBA saw it differently, and so did I.

If I go to an NFL game and one player isn’t playing, I don’t feel cheated--even it’s Joe Montana.

Montana was benched by his coaches last Sunday when San Francisco played New Orleans. Nobody from the NFL objected. Nobody in Candlestick Park’s stands objected. And nobody from the Saints objected, that’s for sure.

Since the Saints still have slim playoff hopes, a case could be made that the league should make certain that opponents play their best players.

Imagine the wrath of the Dallas Cowboys if the Saints make the playoffs by beating the 49ers without Joe Montana and then smashing a Ram team that kept Jim Everett on the bench.

But, among other things, Everett has hardly been Joe Montana this season. You could make an argument for benching him on recent efforts alone, including that 13-of-40, two-interception odor-leaver at Atlanta.

Other teams have experimented at quarterback this season, trying to find a formula that works. Before it’s too late, shouldn’t the Rams find out if their backup quarterback can perform under actual game conditions, rather than during the last two minutes of a slaughter?

We’re sorry, Jimmy Johnson and you Cowboys, but considering the quarterback roulette that has already claimed Warren Moon, Phil Simms, Jim Kelly, Jim Harbaugh, Steve DeBerg, Troy Aikman, Don Majkowski, Bernie Kosar, Mark Rypien, Wade Wilson and others this season, the Rams have every right not to risk one of their most valuable properties in this particular game.

Basketball players get injured, yes, but not the way these poor quarterbacks have been getting injured. Quarterbacks are under siege. It’s a trend.

Also, while it would certainly be unethical for the Rams to “tank” this game, the outcome will have an effect on next year’s NFL college player draft. At 5-10, the Rams presently have a record that is one defeat worse than San Diego’s, Detroit’s, Minnesota’s, Green Bay’s and Tampa Bay’s, and equal to that of Phoenix and the New York Jets.

The Rams must try to win. But benching a slumping quarterback should not be confused with taking a dive.

If Jim Everett walks on egg shells Monday, throwing too soon--even subconsciously--to avoid injury, he is not going to be playing to his full ability anyway. Chuck Long would have something to prove to the Rams. Everett would not.

Give Jim the night off.

Frankly, we think the Rams will have enough trouble surviving a New Year’s Eve in New Orleans without adding to their problems.