It’s Not the Bears That Make the Rams Shiver

Here at the newest L. L. Bean outlet, the Rams prepare for Sunday’s NFC championship game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Equipment manager Don Hewitt, who plans for the worst, already has assembled the following winter ensembles for the discriminating player:

Capes, jackets, T-shirts, mittens, turtlenecks, face hoods, foot warmers, pants, baseball undershirts, thermal underwear, foul-weather boots, pouched jerseys and gloves. Lots of gloves.

Materials? There’s polyester, silk, cotton and some high-tech stuff that’s supposed to keep you warmer than a fire.

Hewitt even has purchased a cream, the kind used by the U.S. Army during the Korean war, that is supposed to help control the cold.

All this for Chicago and the winter chill that blows off Lake Michigan and slaps Soldier Field visitors silly.

There are gusts and swirls of wind that can sneak past the best of insulation. Those same winds apparently can cause footballs, not exactly the most reliable of objects anyway, to become even more unpredictable. Ask New York Giants punter Sean Landeta, who watched in horror as a ball sailed off path while he was trying to kick it.

Estimated distance from drop to shank: 18 inches.

“If you watch me Sunday, you’ll see me dropping the ball lower,” Ram punter Dale Hatcher said. “But basically, you should do what you normally do. I’m just not going to worry about the cold or the wind and do the best job I can.”

Said tight end David Hill: “It’s just a mental thing. We don’t need to make the weather another opponent of ours.”

There you have it. This week’s Ram anthem: Neither snow nor cold will keep them from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

“For me, I don’t give a damn if it’s a blizzard,” guard Dennis Harrah said. “I don’t care if there’s a foot of snow. I’ve never played in a blizzard before. I think it would be fun.”

Anyway, said linebacker Mel Owens, a former resident of DeKalb, Ill., “the whole key is if there’s no wind.”

Chicago meteorologists predict fair skies, highs in the 30s, lows in the teens for Sunday’s game. On Wednesday, though, citizens were treated to 16-m.p.h. winds and afternoon temperatures of 17. So, who knows for sure?

The uncertainty has led several Ram players to try various kinds of cold-weather apparel. Quarterback Dieter Brock is considering a glove for his left hand. Others, like cornerback LeRoy Irvin and tight end Tony Hunter, would wear blast furnaces if they would keep their hands warm. They’ll settle for the gloves, which both modeled during Wednesday’s workout. In all, there are about 15 glove types from which to choose.

Running back Eric Dickerson attended his post-practice media interview wearing gloves and rubber-like sleeves called “Body Gloves.” With his goggles, it was hard to tell if he was a football player or Lloyd Bridges in the old “Sea Hunt” TV series.

As if the Bears weren’t enough of a worry, the weather has become another opponent of sorts. Coach John Robinson acknowledged that, but said that life is full of little challenges. On the whole, Robinson is a bit bored by the weather angle.

Bear Coach Mike Ditka knows about Chicago weather. He said he doesn’t expect it to affect the game.

“I don’t think the cold will be a factor,” he said. “People don’t worry about the cold. You’re out on the field, your adrenaline’s pumping. Then when you’re off the field, there’s heat on the sidelines.”

About that heat. Jack Youngblood, the recently retired defensive end, said the coldest moments he ever spent in a game were on the sideline waiting for the offense to get off the field.

“I always thought how lucky those guys were,” he said. “They’re out there playing and they can’t be cold because they’re running around. I’m on the sideline freezing to death. You want to say, ‘I want to play with you guys.’ ”

Then there was the time, in a playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings at frigid Metropolitan Stadium, that Youngblood recovered a fumble and was steps away from a touchdown when he got pushed out of bounds.

“I thought I was going to score,” he said. “I was high-stepping. But I got knocked out of bounds, and the first thing that hit was my butt. I fell right on my rear end and it skinned me, tore my pants and I had a big, gaping hole here on my hip. It bruised me, skinned me up.

“The ice, well, it was like little knives, little razor blades. Painful? I’m running around with a big hole, my cheek’s showing, and Don and Todd Hewitt are trying to sew me up with shoelaces so I won’t have to change pants.”

Youngblood said the weather is a consideration, even an annoyance.

“Invariably, everyone will have to think about it,” he said. “But the only advantage that may come out of it (for the Bears) is that they have trained and played in it. But as far as Sunday goes, they’re going to be cold, and the Rams are going to be cold.”

There are other ways to contend with foul weather. One year, when center Ken Iman played for the Rams, he prepared for a game against Minnesota by dragging a bag of ice into the middle of the locker room.

“He’s standing there,” Don Hewitt said, “stark naked, rubbing ice all over his body and saying, ‘You’ve got to get used to this kind of weather.’ ”

Ditka chose more conventional methods and returned his team to the Atlanta Falcons’ facilities in Suwanee, Ga., where the Bears prepared for last week’s divisional playoff game against the Giants. The move, said several Rams, tended to take the edge off this image of the cold-happy Bears.

“For them to say they’re used to it, hey, they’re down in Atlanta,” Owens said.

No matter what the conditions, it will be hard to outdo the events of 53 years ago, when a championship game involving the Bears was forced inside because of snow and minus-30 degree temperatures. Only problem: There was no indoor football stadium.

Instead, promoters arranged for tons of dirt to be spread on the floor of the Chicago Stadium, home of the city’s hockey team, the Black Hawks. The “field” stretched just 80 yards.

The Bears beat the Portsmouth Spartans, 9-0, on a safety and Bronko Nagurski’s two-yard pass to Red Grange.