By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Sep. 17 2006
Since being selected in the second round of the 2003 draft, it has become a
given that linebacker
Pisa Tinoisamoa will be on the field for St. Louis. He
has played in all 52 regular season and postseason games since then for the
Rams. No other defensive player on the current roster can make the same claim.
So it was surprising to see Tinoisamoa listed on the team's injury report this
week as questionable with a sprained foot.
"My mom got scared," Tinoisamoa said. "She read in the papers that I was
questionable. She was like, 'What's going on? You didn't tell me.' "
Not to worry. After sitting out Wednesday's practice to rest the foot,
Tinoisamoa was back at practice Thursday and Friday, and will start against San
Francisco.
"It was a bruise," Tinoisamoa said. "It was real tender (on Wednesday). I
didn't want to try to make it more swollen than it had to be."
Tinoisamoa suffered the injury at the end of a play against Denver.
"It was kind of a freaky play," he said. "I shouldn't have been standing around
the pile. But I was standing around the pile and someone fell on top of it."
It takes a lot to get Tinoisamoa off the field. In 2004, he started all 16
games and recorded a career-high 145 tackles despite suffering a dislocated
shoulder in the season opener. The shoulder popped out of place at least eight
times that season, and required surgery in the offseason, but Tinoisamoa kept
playing with the help of a shoulder harness.
Tinoisamoa has led the Rams in tackles all three seasons with St. Louis, but
early indications are that he has a better supporting cast in 2006.
"It seems like we're kind of fighting for plays out there," he said. "And it's
a good thing. It's a friendly competition. ... You see a bunch of guys just
running like crazed cats to get the ballcarrier."
Westward bound
In a break from past routine, the Rams were scheduled to leave St. Louis for
San Francisco late this morning, a couple of hours earlier than usual for West
Coast trips. Instead of having their normal Saturday walk-through practice at
Rams Park, the Rams were scheduled to do so at Monster Park in San Francisco.
Coach
Scott Linehan said the Rams will follow that routine for all five Western
trips this season. Besides the San Francisco game, the Rams play at Seattle, at
Oakland, at San Diego, and at Arizona this season.
"You try not to make it a tedious schedule," Linehan said. "We're giving them a
little more time off between (Friday) and the time we get on the plane, so that
they get some time away. So Saturday isn't like Groundhog Day."
Incognito fined
After being flagged twice for illegal chop blocks in the Rams' exhibition game
against Kansas City on Aug. 26, offensive lineman
Richie Incognito said he
expected to be fined by the NFL.
The league didn't "disappoint," fining Incognito $5,000. Teammate Andy
McCollum, who was part of a high-low combination block on one of the penalties,
was fined $2,500.
"Andy was the second guy in," Incognito said. "They usually fine the second guy
in on those."
Incognito is in the process of appealing his fine. "Sometimes they'll reduce
it," he said.
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