By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/24/2005
It's a safe bet Rams left tackle
Orlando Pace won't have eggs for breakfast Sunday morning before heading to work.
"Maybe some oatmeal or something," Pace said.
Last week at the team hotel in Phoenix, Pace's breakfast hit him the wrong way.
"I don't think those eggs agreed with me too much," Pace said. "I was 'giving it up' on the sideline quite a bit."
Pace had an easier time handling Arizona Pro Bowl defensive end Bertand Berry than his breakfast in the first half. Matt Willig replaced Pace for the final three plays of the half, yielding a sack to Berry.
Pace said he didn't leave the game for an IV.
"I just went in (to the locker room)," he said. "There was something in my throat that just kept triggering me to throw up. I just went in and tried to drink some stuff, and then just tried to get through it."
Secrets to a long life
As he works his way through his 12th NFL season, Rams wide receiver Isaac Bruce says he's getting better, not older.
"It's important to me not to burn both ends of the candle," Bruce, 32, said. "So I just prepare well, and eat right, say my prayers, eat my vitamins like Hulk Hogan used to say. And I keep moving on."
With 27 receiving yards Sunday, Bruce will keep moving on the NFL's career list for receiving yards. He has 11,878 yards; Michael Irvin, who's 11th on the NFL's career list, has 11,904.
For openers
It wasn't the most glamorous debut for offensive guard Claude Terrell, but at least the fourth-round draft pick from New Mexico got into his first NFL game.
Terrell replaced Tom Nutten at left guard at the start of the fourth quarter in Arizona . . . for one play.
"It was cool, but that one play, it just whetted my tongue," Terrell said. "I've got to do something so I can get some more of that."
Terrell also was a wedge blocker on kickoff returns, but it was an uneventful day there as well because four of Arizona's five kickoffs went for touchbacks.
No cooling system
The Rams didn't get to use the new shoulder pad cooling system after all against the Cardinals. According to a Rams official, the team was told on Friday that using the cooling compressor was a security risk at Sun Devil Stadium. On Monday morning, after the game, they were told just the opposite - that it would have been no problem using the system.
"So somewhere in-between there, somebody's not telling the truth," the Rams official said.
The Rams are writing a letter of complaint to the NFL on the subject.
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