RAM NOTEBOOK / TIM KAWAKAMI : Stams Finally Gets Back Into the Picture

The last time Frank Stams appeared in an NFL game, Fritz Shurmur was still the defensive coordinator, Joe Montana was the opposing quarterback and Stams was a key part of the Rams’ defense.

That’s when he suddenly dropped out of the Rams’ picture, and it has taken him almost a year to find his way back.

Stams started at one inside linebacker spot Dec. 17 in the Rams’ 26-10 Monday night loss to the San Francisco 49ers and Montana, but he suffered an injury to his right knee and missed the final two games.

In training camp this summer, he was given a chance to win the starting middle linebacker’s spot by the Rams’ new defensive staff. But Stams suffered a nagging upper-left leg injury early on and lost any opportunity to take the job Larry Kelm smoothly assumed.

Stams has been on the injured-reserve list ever since, watching Kelm run the defense--until this Monday night, when the 49ers, without Montana, visit Anaheim again.

Monday night, Stams, a 1989 second-round pick from Notre Dame, will begin a five-game shot at middle linebacker to show the new defensive staff why they should play him.

Ram linebackers coach Ronnie Jones stresses that Kelm isn’t being demoted, but as the Rams look to the future, they have to know how or if Stams fits in.

Stams will probably start and play two-thirds of the game, rotating with Kelm.

“We just need to see what Frank Stams can do in a game-type situation,” Jones said. “He’s got to learn the game plan. He’s got to make the calls. He’s got to get the defense lined up.

“He’s been wanting to play, and we’ve been wanting to see him play, so this is his opportunity.”

Kelm leads the team in tackles with 67, had a tremendous game containing Detroit tailback Barry Sanders last week, and has run the complicated defense capably.

But the Rams want to see if Stams can inject his brand of hard-charging, free-lance football into their style of defense.

“His No. 1 assignment is to get the defense lined up, control the defense, run the defense as a quarterback, and obviously make plays,” Jones said.

“(But) I would like to see what we heard that he can do. It’s a chance for him to show us that wild, wide-open football that we have heard he can play.”

Stams, who said he recovered fully from his injury only a few weeks ago, says he recognizes that his one-week transition from inactivity to the leader’s role is a daunting one.

“I have to play under control, because if I’m not under control there’s going to be 10 other guys out of control,” Stams said.

“I’ve watched Larry a lot. He’s a fine example of what a linebacker should be. I learn a lot from him.

“I want to show them basically what any person wants to show them--that I can go out there and play and make things happen and be a positive, make a positive contribution.”

Rookie cornerback Robert Bailey attended practice Thursday, three days after undergoing surgery to reattach the tip of his left ring finger to his hand after an injury during Sunday’s 21-10 loss to the Detroit Lions.

Bailey said a specialist will notify him today if the surgery to sew back the quarter-inch tip was successful. If not, he said doctors will perform a skin graft that will return the finger to its normal length. Bailey is out for the season.

When Bailey was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit after suffering the injury, he was put in the same room as Detroit guard Mike Utley, who was later found to be paralyzed from the chest down because of a hit he received in the game.

“I was devastated at first,” said Bailey, who said he got the injury when his finger got caught in an opponent’s shoulder-pad buckle.

“But I got put in the same room as the Detroit guy who broke his back. I was crying and he was crying, but then I realized he’d die to have my injury.

“It made me think about him, and I didn’t have any fear any more. . . . It was an experience.”

Forty-Niners’ Coach George Seifert said quarterback Steve Young definitely won’t play against the Rams, but could see action the following week.

With Young still nursing his sore knee, third-stringer Steve Bono will start his third consecutive game.