Ellard Has One-Track Mind About His Holdout : Receiver Planning to Resume Triple Jumping if Rams Don’t Improve Offer
Receiver Henry Ellard, who has seen no progress during the five months of negotiations between the Rams and his agent, has come to the realization that the only running he’s likely to do during the next year will be at track meets in the triple-jump competition.
“If they think we’re gonna crack,” he said, “they’re wrong.”
Ellard, speaking by phone from Stockton, said he is feeling fine and is stronger and faster than he was last year, but that he’s resigned to concentrating on his track comeback while his football career is on hold.
“If they’re going to stick with this offer ($1.2 million for four years), then I won’t be in L.A. this year,” Ellard said. “That’s a joke. I don’t think they’re being fair.”
Ellard, a track and football star at Fresno State, was the Rams’ leading receiver last season with 54 catches and was the NFC’s best punt returner. His agent, Mike Blatt, said if Ellard accepted the Ram offer, he would be only the 45th highest-paid receiver in the NFL.
Teammate Ron Brown, who will make $437,500 this year and $487,500 in 1987 (when averaging in his signing bonus), has the 12th-best salary for a receiver.
Ellard said he thinks that his soft-spoken reputation may have hurt his chances of getting what he believes is a fair contract.
“I’m easy-going,” he said. “I never complain. I’ve been a good citizen all along and always did what they asked. We didn’t try to re-negotiate after I made the Pro Bowl in ’84 so I guess they figured they could play hard core with me.”
Ellard, who triple-jumped 54-3 1/2 in the 1981 NCAA meet, said he is prepared to sit out the season. He is hoping a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached next year, making free agency in the NFL similar to the way it is in major league baseball.
Ellard said he would rather be traded if “nothing works out,” but it is highly unlikely the Rams would accommodate him.
John Shaw, the Ram vice president of finance, and Jay Zygmunt, the team’s general counsel, met with Blatt on Monday in Fresno. At the time, Blatt said they had nothing new to offer.
Wednesday, however, Blatt admitted that the Rams upped the ante to include incentives of $25,000 for any year Ellard led the team in punt returns and $10,000 for leading wide receivers in overall receptions, touchdowns receptions or total yards receiving.
“The punt return offer is a super incentive if there was a guarantee they’d let Henry return punts,” Blatt said. “The other incentives I negotiated four years ago.”
Blatt said that Shaw told him the Rams were interested in Ellard only as a punt returner because Brown and Bobby Duckworth were better receivers.
“I think it was funny for him (Shaw) to come out and say things like that after what I accomplished last year,” Ellard said. “I wasn’t mad, I just laughed.”
Ram executives refuse to comment on the negotiations.
Ellard said he thinks only Coach John Robinson has the power to break the impasse.
“It’s a business decision,” Robinson said. “It’s my job to make sure everyone realizes what they’re doing from a football standpoint.
“I’d sooner have Henry here, of course. We won’t be as good a team without him, but we’re prepared to go on without him. We won’t even a blink an eye.”
There’s at least one person in the Rams organization who would like to fuel a quarterback controversy.
Steve Dils, No. 8 in your program, is No. 3 on the depth chart at quarterback these days. But the eight-year veteran will get the chance to show what he can do Friday night against Denver. Dieter Brock is at least a couple of weeks short of recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery and Steve Bartkowski is nursing a slight abdominal strain.
What would an 80% completion rate, a lot of yardage and a few long touchdowns Friday night do to the depth chart?
Robinson is still saying, “I haven’t got a starting quarterback.” But don’t tell that to Bartkowski, who wouldn’t be watching this one if it wasn’t an exhibition game.
“Everyone presumes Bartkowski will start (in the Sept. 7 opener at St. Louis) . . . “ Robinson said, without denying it.
“I suppose what Steve (Dils) could do Friday would be to elevate himself into a position of being a guy who you’d go to first if whoever was in there was having a bad day.”
Dils says he’s looking forward to the game simply because “it’s a chance to throw more than six or seven passes.”
He’s not sure he will be able to create a quarterback controversy, though.
“A big night would mean a great ride home,” he said, smiling. “I’d just like to make things interesting.
Rams Notes
Denver Coach Dan Reeves said his team will be approaching Friday’s game “much more like a regular-season game.” Reeves would like to see his Broncos on a roll when the other team with L.A. preceding its nickname shows up at Mile High Stadium for the Sept. 7 opener. “Opening with the division champs at home is a good way to start,” he said in a telephone interview. “The Raiders beat us in two overtimes last year. They were in the playoffs and we weren’t.” Maybe that’s why Denver quarterback John Elway, who is bothered by a groin pull, will “start and play the majority of the (Friday’s) game,” according to Reeves. . . . Coach John Robinson said Tuesday that Steve Bartkowski wasn’t going to suit up against Denver and then got to thinking about who would play quarterback if Steve Dils got hurt. Scott Tinsley, the former USC quarterback who was cut Monday, was re-signed, back in uniform and practiced Wednesday. Tackle Robert Cox, who aggravated a shoulder injury, was placed on injured reserve to make room for Tinsley. . . . Herman Edwards, the veteran Philadelphia cornerback recently cut by the Eagles and former Green Bay cornerback Chuck Clanton were expected to arrive in Anaheim Wednesday night for quick tryouts.
