Ram Camp Plays Into His Hands : With Early Shortage of Tailbacks, Green Gets Running Start

Just in case he should ever need to soothe his aching muscles, Gaston Green is adding a cement pond and whirlpool to his new three-bedroom home in Tustin.

“All I need now is to get in a game so I can use the Jacuzzi afterward,” he said.

Isn’t that the truth. Green can’t wait for the day when he can scrape the mud from his thigh pads, cut the tape from aching ankles and collapse near his locker amid a flash of camera bulbs and the crunch of reporters.

“What was harder, Gaston, the first 100 yards or the second?” he’s asked.

“I’d say the 40 carries were tougher,” Gaston replies.

If you can’t dream a little, why live? Green actually had a pretty good game last season, although it took a whole season to play it. In a span of 16 weeks, he carried 35 times for 117 yards. Not so bad for an eighth-round draft choice. Not so good for the 14th pick overall, the fastest runner on the draft board, California’s newest millionaire and a local flash from Gardena High School and UCLA.

It has been a long lonely winter for the former Bruin star, who has returned for his second training camp to prove doubters wrong and restore to good graces his once-famous name.

The theme of camp from this charter member of the Dead Runners Society is “seize the day.”

Green was frustrated by the lack of opportunity last summer, when he found himself locked out of the tailback position, first by Charles White, then the National Football League’s defending rushing champion, and later by Greg Bell, who stepped in to gain 1,212 yards.

Green wondered how critics could rail so loudly when he was never allowed the chance to succeed or fail on the field.

“I never knew a running back to gain yards from the sideline,” Green said.

He promises this season will be different, especially with the golden opportunity set before him. Bell’s super season in 1988 has set up an almost certain extended holdout. Charles White retired in the off-season. Cleveland Gary, the first-round fullback from Miami, is probably a few weeks from signing a contract.

Which leaves Gaston Green alone with his thoughts, the ball, and the tailback position. Robert Delpino, the fifth-round pick who stole Green’s thunder last season, will also be worked in at tailback during the summer. But this much is clear: Green will get a long, hard look from the coaching staff. He wants to make sure he’s looking good.

“He (Coach John Robinson) told me I might be getting real tired this camp because Greg’s not signed,” Green said. “This is my opportunity to show, right now. We don’t know how long it’s going to before Greg gets signed or Cleveland gets signed. I’m ready to show what I can do and make the most of it.”

The Green scene turned almost charade last season as Robinson promised week after week to get Green the ball, only to leave him standing dumbfounded on the sideline.

On the few occasions Green entered a game, he might as well have had neon lights on his helmets flashing: “I’M GETTING THE BALL! I’M GETTING THE BALL!”

The usual scenario had Green getting gang-tackled on his one precious carry followed by Green staggering back to the sideline, his helmet askew.

“It was the same thing every week,” he said. “I’d come in and get the ball and just go right back out.”

With Bell firmly entrenched at tailback and racking up 100-yard games, Green didn’t play a minute in five of the Rams’ last seven games.

“I did understand the situation,” he said. “All coaches leave the guy in that’s playing well. Plus Greg was a starter, too. Plus he was doing real well. The only thing is, I was told I would get a chance to play. Not playing was kind of upsetting to me.”

Green lacked the maturity and explosiveness as a runner to win over Robinson’s affections last season. Robinson is hoping Green will add 10 to 15 pounds in upper-body strength over the next few seasons.

He believes Green is slowly learning what it takes to run tailback at this level.

“I think he now understands what the deal is,” Robinson said. “He’s more confident and a more mature person than before.”

Green, for one, said he is excited about training camp. Averaging slightly more than two carries a game over the course of a season isn’t what Green has in mind this season.

“I didn’t get a chance to do anything last year at all,” he said. “I didn’t get a chance to play to show what I’m capable of doing. Anytime you’re a competitor and you don’t get a chance to play, it just makes you more competitive.”

Green has been waiting months for his second chance. Training camp couldn’t have come soon enough.

“My mother said I was actually different around the house,” Green said. “She said I would be kind of like, snappy. I didn’t think I was doing those things but my mother, she knows.”