Take Note

Robert Thomas is unbeaten UCLA’s leading tackler, a Butkus Award favorite and prized NFL prospect. The senior inside linebacker is a headliner, the leading man in the maelstrom in the middle.

Stan Thomas is Robert’s brother. These days, that’s enough for him.

Once he was star lineman at Texas and a first-round draft choice of the Chicago Bears.

Once he looked forward to a bright career.That was before the club-hopping, the fights, the bullet to the head.

Robert witnessed it all. At first Stan was his hero. Then a painful disappointment. Finally, a best friend.

“He tells me all the time about the mistakes he made and all the stuff he’s been through,” Robert said. “He knew what he could have been. He’s glad he’s able to teach me.”

Stan, 31, is a walking, talking Thomas guide. He breaks down videotape with his brother every week, calls him every day, thinks about him every minute.

“I tell him not to do what I did, but I think he already knows,” Stan said. “Nobody works harder or is more on the right path than Robert.”

Since his four-year NFL career ended prematurely in 1995, Stan turned his life around. He lives in Cardiff, is raising a son and works in real estate. He said he invested much of the $5.5 million he was paid by the Bears and Houston Oilers wisely.

Mental anguish lingers. He regrets his sideline fight with Bear Coach Mike Ditka on national television in 1992 and his locker-room brawl with Oiler teammate Hicham El-Mashtou in 1995.

There is the hazy memory of leaving a San Diego nightclub after his rookie season, someone’s car bumping his, a chase that ended in a dark alley, a man in the other car firing a shot that grazed his head.

“I cut my own NFL career short,” he said. “I hung out with the wrong people. The money got to me. I got sidetracked and forgot what got me there. I had no one to set me straight.”

Yet even through his difficulties, Stan opened doors for his younger brother. How else would a 12-year-old Robert have stood on the Bears’ sideline, eyes glued to Mike Singletary?

“That’s when I set my goal to become a linebacker,” Robert said. “Singletary was the man. I’d watched him at practice and say I want to be just like him.”

Stan was traded to Houston and Robert went to live with him as a high school freshman. Oiler star Michael Barrow, now with the New York Giants, taught Robert linebacker play.

The education continues. Last summer Stan had San Diego Charger linebackers Junior Seau and Orlando Ruff over for steaks. Robert keyed on them the way he does a scrambling quarterback. So, what do linebackers discuss while devouring hunks of red meat?

“Seau told me to attack the target, whatever the target might be, a ballcarrier, a hole, a pulling guard,” Robert said. “Never hold back.

“Attack the target. I liked that.”

He’s heeded the advice. Robert has 12 tackles for loss and is rapidly closing in on the school single-season record of 22. He had 11 tackles against Alabama, 10 against Kansas and nine against Ohio State.

He’s also more than a two-down player for the first time. In new defensive coordinator Phil Snow’s scheme, Robert is not replaced by a defensive back in passing situations. Even in the final seconds when Ohio State had no choice but to throw long, he stayed in.

“You hate to take one of your best football players off the field,” Snow said. “He’s elevated his level of play. His tempo on the field is much better than it was a year ago.”

Whether sealing off the run from tackle to tackle, following a pulling guard and chasing down a ballcarrier from behind, blitzing or dropping into pass coverage, Thomas is confident of making any play. It’s a feeling he hasn’t had since his days at El Centro Imperial High, where he was rated the nation’s No. 1 prep linebacker and took recruiting visits to Florida State, Notre Dame, Texas and UCLA.

“It’s just freelancing, running around making plays like I was in high school,” he said. “It comes from confidence, knowing what they are going to do and when they are going to do it.” Blockers aren’t all he knows how to shed. Robert dropped from 242 to 230 pounds to increase his quickness.

“He gained weight because he was worried about matching up with big linemen,”linebacker coach Marc Dove said. “But he’s better at this weight. He’s so quick to the hole, that’s one of the things that makes him special.”

Being physically sound also plays a part. Robert suffered a concussion in 1999 and played most of last season with a stress fracture in his foot.

Both injuries occurred against this week’s opponent, Oregon State.Two years ago the Beavers won, 55-7.

“I got the concussion in the second quarter and really don’t remember anything,” he said. “That’s just as well.”

Last year the Beavers won, 44-38.

“In the back of our minds we remember they embarrassed us,” he said. “They have good athletes, but we have a fast defense. And we are playing together. It’s like we’re a family on the field.”

That’s something Robert is familiar with. His father was a pro baseball player in the 1960s. Two of his brothers were athletes who launched careers in law enforcement. But the greatest influence remains Stan, whose own star faded in a maelstrom of his own making.

“He’s the person I can talk to any time about anything,” Robert said. “He went through things I know I’ll avoid. He’ll be there when it’s time for me to take the next step. I’m blessed to have him around.”