Scott Figures He’s Quick Enough to Catch On : Rams Made Vanderbilt Receiver Second-Round Pick--Despite the Slow Talk

The National Football League draft is often a family experience, but Chuck Scott’s family wasn’t enjoying it at all.

“The (San Francisco) 49ers had told me if I was there at the end of the first round they would take me,” Scott said. “But the receivers went so late--Brown, Toon and Rice, the trio everybody was talking about--that they saw a chance to get in on it and traded up, got that 16th pick from the Patriots, took Rice, and that kind of closed that door.”

Gloom settled over the Scott household in Maitland, Fla.

Recalled Scott, who played at Vanderbilt: “ESPN was saying Brown, Toon and Rice, and then Stacy Robinson, Vance Johnson, ‘and other than that, I don’t see any other receivers.’ Kept saying that over and over. I’m used to it, but my dad was really gettin’ mad.”

Finally, near the end of the second round, the Rams called, just before the Chicago Bears were due to draft.

“When Chicago drafted and didn’t take me, all of a sudden the Rams said, ‘Well, hang on just a minute,’ ” Scott said. “It sounded like they were gonna go for a trade with (quarterback Vince) Ferragamo. I thought, ‘Oh, gee, I’m gonna miss out on both of ‘em.’

“Then (Coach John) Robinson came back on the phone and said, ‘You’re gonna be a Ram.’ My mom and sister and girlfriend and her mom were goin’ so crazy I couldn’t hear anything else he was saying.”

Scott has joined the Rams’ other rookie receivers in workouts with the quarterbacks this month. It is a happier time than when Scott left home--then Knoxville, Tenn.,--to go off to college. He wanted to go to the University of Tennessee, following family tradition.

“My great grandfather was on the first football team there,” Scott said. “He designed the stadium that’s there now. He had an engineering hall named after him: Ferris Hall. My grandfather played football there, my father played basketball and my mom was a cheerleader.”

But Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors wasn’t interested in perpetuating the family tradition.

“He had me up for an official visit, and my dad was playing in the old-timers’ game,” Scott said. “But he didn’t think I could play wide receiver in the Southeast Conference, so I ended up at Vanderbilt.

“My sophomore year when we beat ‘em I had two touchdowns, which I guess was my biggest thrill.”

Scott caught 20 touchdown passes as a three-year starter, set an NCAA record for tight ends with 70 catches in 1983 and averaged 18.1 yards a catch as a floating wide receiver in 1984. Still, when pro draft prospects were discussed, it was always Brown, Toon and Rice.

Eddie Brown of Miami, Al Toon of Wisconsin and Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley State all were selected in the first round, by the Bengals, Jets and 49ers, respectively. No surprises there. But Scott thought he rated on a par with them.

“I played with all of ‘em in different all-star games,” he said. “In 40 (-yard) times (for pro scouts) in Phoenix I ran 4.50 and 4.50, which is faster than Rice did. He ran 4.55. Toon and Brown didn’t show up.

“But if you read any paper it’ll be ‘good possession receiver . . . will catch it over the middle, but he lacks speed.’

“I’ve been tabbed with that from Day One, ever since I was in high school. Even with the stats I had in high school, a lot of colleges said, ‘No, we don’t think you could play in college.’ Vanderbilt gave me a chance. I hope I can do the same for the Rams.”

One unofficial scouting report even said: “Drops a few passes.” People who saw him play at Vanderbilt say that is a bum rap.

Scott has two things in common with Steve Largent, Cris Collinsworth, Steve Watson, Dwight Clark and Pat Tilley, all of whom have been picked to play in the Pro Bowl.

They’re all white, and they weren’t first-round draft choices. In the NFL, in much of sports, for that matter, white often translates to slow, no matter how fast a guy can run.

“I think that has a lot to do with it, the stereotype,” Scott said. “I was 6-2, 210 this last season. I did a lot of blocking my sophomore year and played tight end as a junior, so that typed me more as a blocker and over-the-middle guy who can’t run.

“I’ll admit I’m not a world-class sprinter, by any means. There’s guys like Ron Brown here. They can fly. But I don’t see myself as slow. People want to put me in the category of 4.7. I can run 10 4.5s in a row and they’d still say I’m slow.

“Against Alabama as a junior, our first play of the game I went 60 yards, and I ran right by their safety. Against Georgia this year, I went about 60. Against Kentucky, we went 75. Those were about the only chances I really had to run. My own coaches didn’t think I could run.”

So big, slow Chuck Scott, who drops passes, will try to make it as a wide receiver with the Rams, who are trying to develop a passing attack.