By Howard Balzer Friday, July 25, 2008
Yesterday, I referred to Rams defensive tackle
Claude Wroten as a knucklehead after it was learned he had been suspended for one year after violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.
Knowing now the events that led to the suspension, it's important to spell Knucklehead with a capital "K."
Insidestl.com has learned the process began when Wroten missed a drug test. Players in the league's drug program can be randomly tested as many as 10 times per month, including the offseason. Missed tests count as if it was a positive test.
After being informed he had violated the policy, Wroten filed for an appeal. Sources told Insidestl.com that the league internally decided not to issue a one-year suspension, believing that was too strong a punishment for a missed test. The NFL instead planned to fine him four game checks for the mistake.
However, Wroten incurred the suspension when he failed to show up for his appeal not once, but twice. After missing the first appeal, a second was scheduled, for which Wroten also was a no-show. It is believed didn't know the league plans, but what was he thinking, not showing up? Of course. He wasn't thinking.
Asked about losing another third-round pick from the 2006 draft (Jon Alston and
Dominique Byrd have been released), coach Scott Linehan said, “It is always disappointing when it doesn’t work out. There were a lot of expectations. I’m sure it's disappointing for our football team, but to this point it has not worked out. You try to hit on every player and every draft pick, but for some reason, sometimes, other circumstances creep in there that don’t give you chance to be successful. The bottom line is I think it’s a great way for someone else to make an impact on this football team.”
Linehan said Wroten's absence would barely be felt. “It really doesn’t affect us," he said. "Our plan going into the offseason is that we had depth within the defensive line; we really thought Claude was going to be in a battle to make this team going into camp. What the suspension does it eliminates him from the mix. We’re going into the season carrying seven defensive linemen, four defensive ends and three defensive tackles. He would have been battling to get a roster spot.”
One of those ends, Victor Adeyanju, can fill in at tackle if needed.
LINEHAN CHAMPING AT THE BIT
Following last season's disastrous results, Linehan couldn't wait for the opening of training camp.
“I have been waiting for this day since the last game," he said Thursday in Mequon. "I really didn’t take a break this year. There were a lot of changes and a lot of things done in a short amount of time. In my opinion, they will be positive changes for our football team. It just felt like the right thing to do and we had to do it in the amount of time we had.
"I remember standing on the sidelines when we played Arizona (in the season finale). It was a tough season and a tough finish to the season. I remember (safety) Todd Johnson coming up to me and saying, 'We will be back.' We’re going to have a chance to show everybody this year. With the dedication and the kind of people or team we are, I remember thinking: I can’t really wait until we can show that. I’ll always remember when Todd did that. We’re excited, to have something different."
Of course, one of the big differences is training out of town and in weather conducive to getting work done.
Said Linehan, "If you are going to find one negative about living in the Midwest or St. Louis, it would be training camp in that sweltering heat. It is hard; we had to manage our schedule so much. The league even has guidelines that we have to follow. We had to modify the practices just because of the heat. Really the afternoon practices that we did there were really close to a dangerous heat level.”
Meanwhile, Linehan got a buzz cut before camp, and is intent on changing anything he can.
He concluded, after asked if he's superstitious, “I joked with Jay (Zygmunt) that I’m going to find a way to do everything different this year. Last year, I had a black car, this year I have white car. I had long hair last year and this year is a crew cut. My son always goes down stairs one way and I always go the other way. This year I switched with him. I don’t know if it’s superstitious, but I’m having fun with it. I am going to approach things in a different way.
"Somebody approached me and said it’s painful to watch you at the podium during such a rough year. This year I can’t tell you what it’s going to be, but we’re going to do it together. It may be in the first scrimmage when we have some laughs, but we’re going to do this together. And that’s the way I approach it."
PACE CLEARED FOR PRACTICE
After a meeting with the club's medical personnel Thursday night, left tackle
Orlando Pace was cleared for practice Friday afternoon. On Tuesday, Linehan said there was a chance Pace might start camp on active/physically unable to perform, which would have kept him from practicing until being cleared.
But that clearance came Thursday, and while his participation will be somewhat limited, Pace will practice. Defensive tackle Adam Carriker was also cleared for Friday's practice. Pace underwent surgery last season for a torn labrum, while Carriker underwent shoulder surgery following the season.
SIMPLY NOTING
*Linehan said he is confident running back
Steven Jackson will have a new contract in the near future. Jackson recently hired Eugene Parker as his new agent (Parker represents Bears holdout Devin Hester). “That has been a priority," Linehan said. "I know Jay has had contact with Steven’s agent. I know within the last couple days there has been dialogue. Our hope is that will be done pretty soon.” Linehan also said he expects wide receiver Donnie Avery, the team's only unsigned draft pick, to be present for the first practice Friday afternoon.
*It hasn't been talked about a lot, but first-round pick Chris Long is making the transition from a 3-4 end in college to the 4-3. Asked about getting adjusted to a different scheme, Long said, “The learning is the biggest (thing) that makes your job as a rookie tough. You don’t know everything yet, not even close. Everything you do physically, which is harder anyway, is amplified because you don’t know everything mentally."
As for the scheme at Virginia, Long said, “It was a pure 3-4 as far as 3-4’s go, it was as pure as they come. We got to stunt and do things of that nature. Things are much different here and I’m excited to be turned loose a little bit. Both schemes have their pluses and minuses and I am looking forward to trying something else."
*Quarterback Trent Green can't believe how time flys. He said, "I was just talking in the lunch room with some of the guys and they were asking me how many training camps it has been and you look back at 16 training camps. 1993 was my first training camp. I still love it and I’m glad I’m here and looking to have a big year.”
Green suffered concussions in each of the last two seasons, but said, “I don’t worry about it at all. I have talked to more doctors and done more tests. Even when I was here in 1999, I hurt my knee. That was the thing that people kept saying, ‘Are you going to have any fear going back into the pocket again?’ Fortunately for me, that has never been an issue. You focus on what you can control and that is trying to run the offense as best I can. Everything else will happen if it’s meant to be and I feel good about that.
“When I was put on (injured reserve) last year down in Miami, I really thought that was it and was the end of it. It was fun to get back out onto the field again in the spring, just because I was doing what I loved to do and I had made that commitment to want to play and the Rams had made a commitment to me that they wanted me to play."
POSTCARD FROM MEQUON
*Any postcard from here should show the view from the players' dorm, which has a spectacular view of massive Lake Michigan. Dorothy, we're not in Macomb anymore.
*The Rams have their first practice Friday afternoon, and the fields look outstanding. Concordia University ripped up some tennis courts to install a new field for the Rams.
*The first meal showed how serious the university is taking this effort: thick steaks and lobster tail.
*Figure this one out: I'm in my hotel room at the Radisson, about eight miles from Concordia, working on my computer and looking for the Cardinals game against the Brewers. Can't find it. I call the desk and ask what station the Brewers are on, and they tell me it's FoxSportsNet. One problem: that channel isn't on the hotel's cable system? Huh? So I have to go downstairs to Zambonie's Sports Bar to watch Ryan Franklin give up another ninth-inning bomb.
Can you imagine a St. Louis hotel not having the local FoxSportsNet on their TVs?
*Here's the log on the first leg of my 21-day journey: 397 miles from my door to Concordia University. Elapsed time: A bit over six hours, with one stop for gas at a Clark station in Bloomington, Ill. Gas price: $3.99. CD listened to: Billy Joel's Greatest Hits.
GO RAMS 
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