Addition of Lott Adds Up

The next temptation of John Robinson has a name.

Ronnie Lott.

And a number.

$1.75 million.

And another.

31.

It could be the most significant equation ever created by Plan B, the NFL’s half-hearted concession to the nagging concept of free agency, but for the Rams, the math gets a little tricky here.

Does a team with 5 victories and 11 losses subtract $1.75 million in order to add one 31-year-old future Hall of Fame safety with 4 Super Bowl rings to a franchise that has 0?

Logic says yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Robinson coached Lott at USC and Jeff Fisher, Robinson’s new defensive coordinator, played alongside Lott at USC. So the connections are there. In 1990, the Rams had a defense that allowed 412 points--only New England, Cleveland and Detroit yielded more--and Lott was the marquee name on the San Francisco 49ers’ defense that allowed only 239 points, second-best in the league. So the fit is there.

History, however, says not so fast.

Lott isn’t going to go anywhere cheaply, and you know the Rams hate to hear that. It is going to take no less than $1.75 million--that’s $1.2 million in annual salary plus $550,000 in signing bonus. The Rams detest signing bonuses. No money upfront, that’s the Ram way. No money the rest of the time, either--that’s also the Ram way.

Negotiations with Lott are at a standstill and they haven’t even begun yet.

Any potential for a Ram-Lott hookup is also damaged by last year’s Ram-Curt Warner hookup. The Rams paid $800,000 to pluck Warner off Seattle’s Plan B list. Warner paid off with 139 rushing yards in 49 carries. That math is not so tricky. It works out to $5,755.40 per yard.

Depending on how you look at it, the Rams have reason to back away from any more 30ish Plan B free agents--and two reasons to jump in head-first after this one.

1. Unlike Warner, Lott can play defense.

2. Unlike Warner, Lott can still play.

Ronnie Lott would help the Rams at 31 . . . or 41 . . . or 51. He is the hardest hitting free safety who ever lived. He is the winningest free safety who ever lived. After 25 years, it has become apparent that the Rams are never going to win a Super Bowl without a tour guide, and after Joe Montana, Lott is the best available. Lott knows how to get there. More importantly, he knows what to do once he’s there.

No question, Lott is slowing down. He only intercepted three passes last season. That’s one fewer than the Rams’ team leader. Because of a December injury, Lott didn’t play a full season. Neither did any Ram. Most of them gave up some time around Halloween.

For the Rams, Lott would be a plus if only for the minus he would represent to the 49ers. Move him from San Francisco to Anaheim and the balance of defensive power in the NFC West shifts like an earthquake. Move him from San Francisco to Anaheim and Jim Everett doesn’t have to worry about Lott turning sure touchdowns to Flipper Anderson into replays of Willie Mays-on-Vic Wertz.

Move him from San Francisco to Anaheim and the Rams might actually beat San Francisco in Anaheim.

Lott would lend credibility to Georgia Frontiere’s new Commitment To Anything Better Than 5-11.

Lott would give Georgia something new to show off in Hong Kong or Rome or Moscow or wherever she wants to vacation with her team this August.

Lott would give Ram season-ticket salespeople an even break before their phone pitch is interrupted by a burst of uproarious laughter and a dial tone.

Unfortunately, this kind of talk is fantasy football and most likely nothing more. Obstacles abound--most of them constructed by Lott himself.

Lott hates the Rams. Always has, he says. It has something to do with a bad childhood, as Lott was cruelly forced to grow up as an L.A. kid watching the L.A. pro football team continually choke in the playoffs. Lott was scarred for life. “They had Jack Snow and Roman Gabriel and all those great players (and) they could never win the big one,” Lott once said, disgusted at the recollection. One more instance of familiarity breeding contempt.

Lott also hates the thought of leaving San Francisco. If he does nothing these next two months, if he lets the April 1 Plan B deadline pass without nodding at a single offer, he will return to one of the great franchises in professional sports, to one of the great cities in the world, to one of the great contracts ($3.5 million, three years) in the world of professional defensive backs.

A great argument for inactivity.

Then there are the Ram obstacles. If they could ever talk themselves into spending $1.75 million for a free agent--and when that happens, cows will fly--they would then have to talk themselves into the idea of spending it for Lott. If Lott played cornerback, no question. If Lott played middle linebacker, no doubt.

But Lott plays free safety and the Rams, believe it or not, believe they have found their free safety of the future. His name is Pat Terrell, he is 22 years old and he plays the free-lancing, center-fielder type of free safety Fisher’s new 4-6 defense demands, rather than the rock-solid, stone-crushing style Lott has ridden down the road to Canton.

On a defense that needs many things, the Rams say their biggest needs lie elsewhere. Fisher says he can live with the safeties he inherited--Terrell, hit-man Michael Stewart and utility player Anthony Newman. In the 4-6, the most critical positions are a) middle linebacker and b) the front four, from where the main defensive thrust originates. If the Rams pursue any Plan B 49er seriously, it will probably be Matt Millen, the inside linebacker they let slip through their hands while they were too busy squeezing pennies in 1989.

Still, Ronnie Lott is Ronnie Lott. His is a name that just doesn’t pop up on Plan B lists. The 49ers know this, too; their angle is the smart gamble, figuring that Lott doesn’t really want to leave and that no one else is willing to foot what is nearly a $2 million bill, especially the Rams.

But if the Rams require incentive, they should remember Jack Reynolds and Wendell Tyler. Reynolds left the Rams for the 49ers in 1981 and won a Super Bowl. Tyler left the Rams for the 49ers in 1983 and won a Super Bowl.

Isn’t it about time for a payback?