Delpino a Bargain in Ram Backfield : Football: Luxury cars abound among the running backs, but the team’s second-leading rusher drives a Ford.
In this week’s episode of life styles of rich and famous Rams, Robert Delpino, the second-year fullback from Dodge City, Kan., realizes he’s the only man in the Rams’ backfield driving a Ford.
In order of yards gained this season, in fact, it’s Greg Bell, Mercedes-Benz; Delpino, Mustang; Cleveland Gary, Mercedes; Gaston Green, Mercedes, and Buford McGee, BMW.
In the speculative world of judging football talent, it all boils down to plain, lousy, fifth-round luck. Delpino, we now know, is much more luxury vehicle than sedan. But under the National Football League’s system, you are what you’re drafted. First-rounders get rich. Fifth-rounders get Fords.
Why Delpino lasted eight picks into the fifth round in 1988 is a mystery in this age of unlimited budgets and sophisticated scouting services.
To the Rams’ credit, they memet Delpino face to face. Coach John Robinson and scout Lawrence McCutcheon stopped by Columbia, Mo.--it’s not as easy as it sounds--on their way back from Oklahoma State, where they had taken a hard look at tailback Thurman Thomas, ultimately deciding against drafting him because of a knee problem. (Robinson’s updated opinion: “I regret that.”)
“I came away with a sense that (Delpino) was a violent football player,” Robinson said. “And some violent things happened when he was around.”
Five rounds and Gaston Green later, the Rams squeezed Delpino onto their draft board.
“It was nothing personal,” Delpino concedes. “It was just the system; me never being a running back until my senior season in college; me coming from a losing program; me growing up in the Midwest. I was kind of a hidden name. I wasn’t out there much.”
Delpino is the Rams’ second-leading rusher with 173 yards and a 4.9-yard average. He has also caught 15 passes for 154 yards while continuing to play well on special teams.
Delpino attacks the game head-on, playing with the intensity of someone who has had to fight for every yard and every cent.
He has. Last year he came to camp and stood behind Bell, Charles White, Mike Guman, McGee, Tim Tyrrell and Green, the 14th overall pick who was being paid $1.85 million over four years.
Delpino, who checked in at $333,500 for three years, pored over the odds and decided that his only shot was on special teams.
“We were stacked,” he said of the running back situation. “After mini-camp was over, I went home and told myself to concentrate on other areas, meaning special teams.”
He ended up as the Rams’ rookie of the year for 1988 and was named the league’s special teams player of the year.
“I made a name for myself on special teams, and I got a big ol’ trophy. It looks like a Heisman Trophy,” Delpino said, laughing. “I’m damn proud of it. But you get to a point where you want to get off special teams and be more involved in the offense, to make more money, to provide for the team.”
The battles continue. Last year, he out-dueled the first-rounder, Green, at every turn, and figured to make even more inroads this season.
Then came draft day in April. Coach John Robinson, asked why he had by-passed Miami fullback Cleveland Gary with the 21st pick to take defensive end Bill Hawkins, said Delpino was everything he needed in a fullback.
Five picks later, though, Robinson took Gary with the 26th pick. Delpino, watching the draft at home with his girlfriend, nearly choked on his generic potato chips.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I didn’t know the exact position we stood as far as running backs, but I didn’t think we needed him. Not a first-rounder.
“Me and Buford McGee were talking about that. We had the same reaction. My mouth was wide open. It was my second year, and I’m going to have to do it all over again. He does much the same thing I do, the same role.
“But here he is, a first-rounder, and here I am, a fifth-rounder, so I was kind of interested to see what was going to happen.”
Delpino said his girlfriend turned to him and asked for an explanation.
“I said I didn’t know,” he said. “My head was spinning. I was surprised, shocked, dismayed and all those great words. The difference was the big money difference.”
Gary signed a four-year, $1.8-million deal. Delpino is making $80,000 this season.
Delpino has held off his latest challenge, although Gary appears closer to making an impact.
Delpino’s relentlessness has forced the Rams to reconsider the future. Robinson is already talking seriously about dumping his vaunted I-formation in favor of multiple-back sets.
Delpino can’t help but consider the financial differences among the backs, especially Green, who plays so sparingly and dresses so smartly that he might consider coming out with his own line of inactive wear.
“I can’t help but think about it, to be honest,” Delpino said. “I think about it a lot. But I do work hard enough to where somebody will take notice, and maybe I’ll get what’s coming to me--more money.”
Ram Notes
Jim Everett’s back continues to bother him, although it seems almost certain that he will start against Phoenix on Sunday. Before Thursday’s practice, though, John Robinson painted a bleaker picture. “If we said he was out of the game, we’d activate (Jeff) Carlson or send out a helicopter for (Steve) Dils,” Robinson said. Everett, however, threw painlessly in practice and announced himself fit for the Cardinals.
Everett missed Wednesday’s practice to have his back checked at Centinela Hospital Medical Center, where X-rays proved negative. Everett is also seeing a chiropractor, Robert Moore of Irvine, and is doing special exercises to strengthen his stomach muscles. “It’s probably similar to what Joe Montana was doing,” Everett said. The San Francisco quarterback had major back surgery a few years ago.
Everett’s condition appears only temporary. “He’s got a strained back,” Robinson said. “Like you or I would have a strained back from lifting a garbage can.” . . . The Rams fell 12,953 tickets shy of selling out, meaning Sunday’s game will be blacked out locally.
