Gary’s Relapse Is Costly for the Rams

Cleveland Gary let his fingers do the talking Sunday afternoon.

If this was bad news to the media mob that assembled around Gary’s locker stall, only to find no clothes, no towels, no equipment bag and no Gary--hence, no comment--consider what it meant to Chuck Knox.

Knox, head coach of a still-wobbly Ram football team, has entrusted his ground offense this year to a recovering fumblaholic. Not by design, mind you; call it a case of mutual desperation.

Gary had fumbled 12 times in 1990, had fumbled away his job in 1991, but together, he and Knox were determined to make it back, all the way back, because, well, they needed each other. Gary needed the paycheck, Knox needed at least one play in the book that involved both a handoff and forward progress.

Before Sunday, they were halfway through a 16-step rehabilitation program with nothing to show but encouraging results. Five touchdowns, 663 yards, only two setbacks--one of them a fumble that the Rams recovered, the other a fumble that the New York Giants recovered, early in the second quarter of an eventual 21-point victory by the Rams.

So, in essence: Eight games down, no harm done.

One day at a time.

One step at a time.

Knox, however, knew there could be days like Sunday. No amount of positive reinforcement and daily affirmation could obscure the reality that Gary was riding atop a rickety wagon and was capable of falling off that wagon, any where and at any moment.

Knox only hoped it wouldn’t hurt his team the way it was hurt against the Phoenix Cardinals. Gary’s fall was a free one, complete with arms flailing, footballs sailing and 14 points gift-wrapped and bow-tied for the Cardinals. Gary fumbled three times in four quarters and lost the ball twice.

Once at the Ram 45, setting up a seven-play Phoenix drive and a six-yard touchdown run by Johnny Johnson.

Once at the Cardinal 31, setting up Phoenix linebacker Aeneas Williams for a 39-yard recovery-and-return, followed, six plays later, by a 10-yard touchdown run by Johnson.

Gary also scored a touchdown for the Rams, so, without his presence, the final score might have read: Rams 7, Cardinals 6.

But Gary did play, and he did give and he did take away, and so Knox is stuck with this final score: Cardinals 20, Rams 14.

Any wonder Gary didn’t choose to stick around afterward?

“That’s a natural response,” said Chick Harris, Ram running back coach and Gary’s personal tuck-it-in-and-hold-it-there therapist.

“I think any guy going through that situation, where he has victory in his hands and lets it slip away like that, is going to feel that way. He’s going to be disappointed and the only thing he wants to do is get away.”

Gary has been a special project for Harris. One-on-one on the practice field at Rams Park, Harris and Gary have comprised the Chick Center for Ballhandling Abuse, rehearsing pitchouts and handoffs and what to do with the football from that point onward.

“We practice ball security every day, before and after practice,” Harris said. “We say, ‘Every time a running back handles the football, it’s a critical situation. There’s a sense of urgency on every carry.’ We talk about ball position at the point of impact, how to bring the ball in when closing off a run.

“He’s been making progress. Cleveland hasn’t missed a practice day all year long and it had been evident in the games. The more repetitions a back gets during practice, the more he can hone his skills.”

Still, Gary’s reputation precedes him, and follows him, around the league. Once a fumbler, always a fumbler, right?

“It’s talked about, yeah,” said Williams, who would have run Gary’s last fumble back for a 69-yard touchdown if teammate Eric Swann hadn’t been flagged for clipping that noted Ram speedster, Jackie Slater. “You know the guys who have fumbled a lot . . . I heard guys talking about how (Gary) carries the ball in his left hand. Guys were saying, ‘Just go after the ball.’ ”

Such knowledge proved dangerous for Gary. Having detected a weakness, Williams claimed the Cardinals attempted to exploit it whenever possible.

“It’s always in the back of our minds,” said Williams, who proceeded to explain how the drill works.

“The first guy goes for the tackle. Then the rest of us go for the ball.”

Fritz Shurmur, a member of the Rams’ coaching staff during that scarring 1990 season and now defensive coordinator for the Cardinals, no doubt helped to spread the word around. But once the damage was done, he tried to put a friendly spin on Gary’s miscarries.

“A couple of them were real, legitimate contact fumbles,” Shurmur allowed, “and I’m not sure what you do about it. The one Ken Harvey made (leading to Williams’ recovery), he put his hat right in the middle of him, got part of the ball and I’m not sure anyone could hold onto the ball in that situation.

“On another one, the ball was in his left hand. Our guys were coming from the left side and there’s always that split second before you hit the ground when the ball swings out a little bit. I think we hit it just right.”

Harris was asked if he feared a relapse for Gary, after so many positive gains made in previous weeks.

“No,” Harris replied, somewhat bravely. “We just go forward from here. Tomorrow, we’re going to look at film and learn from this. We’re going to go back to positive teaching and positive practicing . . .

“If anyone in the stadium wanted to hold onto the football today, it was Cleveland Gary. He feels worse about it than anyone else. Let it lay. We’ll move on from here.”

Let it lay.

When it comes to the trials and tribulation of Cleveland Gary, the advice and the predicament sound exactly the same.