RAM NOTEBOOK : At Last, Dupree’s Status Will Be Listed as Active

For a month now, his playing status has been updated, downgraded, debated and consistently ill-fated.

Marcus Dupree, whose left big toe was dislocated in training camp but was ready to go weeks ago, could only watch as chances to resurrect his football career fell by the wayside week by week.

First, Dupree had hoped to be activated off injured reserve quick enough to salvage a 1,000-yard season. Then he wanted back at least early enough to earn a starting spot by the end of the season.

Wednesday, he was informed by Coach John Robinson that he would be activated for Sunday’s game against Atlanta Falcons. It will be his first appearance of the regular season.

But by now, seven games into the season, Dupree’s greatest expectations have been winnowed to finding happiness simply in being able to put on pads and the uniform again. Finding a meaningful role comes later. That 1,000-yard season dream comes much later.

“This week (his role will) probably be watching, getting back into the offense,” Dupree said Wednesday. “Maybe next week . . . I don’t know, I’ll play it week by week.”

In the exhibition season, with Dupree looking as if he was about to regain the form that made him a mythical figure during his high school and college days, Robinson said Dupree and Cleveland Gary would share the tailback job this season.

But when Dupree got hurt in training camp on a tackle by a long-since-cut defender, and when Gary fumbled on his fourth carry of the season, backup fullback Robert Delpino stepped in at tailback and has not stumbled since.

So for now, Dupree comes into a tailback situation in which Robinson is finding it hard to work Gary into the mix, forget about another talented backup starving for carries.

Robinson has hinted, however, that Delpino could see time at fullback with either Gary or Dupree at tailback, and with the offense’s running-game production falling off, Dupree’s activation comes at an opportune moment.

“I’m prepared to go full speed,” Dupree said. “Out here (in practice) I go full speed every day. . . . It’s up to Coach Robinson how the rest of the season goes for me.

“I think he wants to get back to the running game, and like I said, all I can do is wait and see. I really don’t have any comment beyond that. Glad to be playing. Maybe slip me in there one or two plays.”

Dupree’s agent, Bud Holmes, told the Rams that if they weren’t planning to activate the running back, he hoped they would release him--a request never taken seriously by the Rams.

That was triggered by the frustration of coming back from a five-year, knee injury-induced layoff last season, only to ride on injured reserve for seven games of 1991, Dupree said.

“That was at my agent’s request,” Dupree said. “He wants to see me play, and I’m not getting any younger.

“And I want to play. I want to see where I’m at, so I know where I need to be in the off-season, what areas I need to improve at.”

Was Dupree ever worried he might sit and see another year--at age 27, usually an athlete’s physical peak--slip away?

“A little bit, I was concerned about that,” Dupree said “Like that’s what NFL stands for, not for long.”

The Falcons might be excused for feeling a little overshadowed in Atlanta these days, what with the Tomahawk Chop all but the city’s pastime and the World Series currently brewing up a madness all its own.

And who in Atlanta is going to be thinking football come Sunday, when the Rams-Falcons game is scheduled on the same day that Game 7 is set to be played in the Metrodome, if necessary?

But the Falcons say they love the Braves’ run of glory, and not so subtly that the baseball club’s dash from worst to first could be duplicated by themselves this season.

“I think what happens, we’re all aware of, is what they’ve probably done is create fans for the next 50 years who will be Atlanta Brave fans,” said Coach Jerry Glanville. “My son, it doesn’t matter where we move or where we live, I can tell at his age and what’s going on, that they’ve got a Braves’ fan for life.

“You can’t judge what that does to your city, to your fans and how everybody just thinks about living in Atlanta, now that’s a pretty good place. And I think that’s all a positive. . . .

“And you consider they were in last place a year ago, nobody cared anything about them. If you sent this to Hollywood, they would turn down the script.”

Said cornerback Tim McKyer, whose partner is part-time Brave Deion Sanders: “Oh my, the city’s on fire. It’s electrifying. I’m even into it. Call me a bandwagon fan if you want, but I don’t care.

“From worst to the World Series, I mean, come on. I’m hoping. It’s got me pumped up--when people don’t expect anything out of you, and you just come out of nowhere and show people wrong.”