Tony Dodero -- From the Newsroom

It’s been six years now since my beloved Los Angeles Rams packed up

and left California, and specifically Orange County, for St. Louis,

tearing my heart out in the process.

Six years later, I continue to be a hopeless and rabid fan of the

team, which has become a little easier these days thanks to their

success.

So imagine my delight a few months back when, at a local athletic

awards breakfast, I got to sit at the same table as Rich Saul.

I know, I know, Rich Saul’s name probably doesn’t ring the same bells

with many of you as say a Kurt Warner or a John Elway would, but his

greatness is immeasurable just the same.

Saul, who lives in Corona del Mar, is a county hall of fame All-Pro

center who played the entire 12 years of his football career with the

Rams. He played with some of my biggest heroes, Roman Gabriel, Jack Snow,

Vince Ferragamo, Jack Youngblood, Deacon Jones and Jackie Slater.

He was a rookie of the year and a Pro-Bowl pick and he played center

for the Rams during the 1979 season when they first made it to the Super

Bowl, and lost in a heartbreaker to the powerhouse Pittsburgh Steelers.

But his most recent achievement, his most recent victory, is much more

impressive.

He beat cancer.

So with football season in the air and the news that Costa Mesa’s

exile gadfly Sid Soffer was battling cancer now himself, I called Saul

for inspiration.

How are the Rams going to do this year, I asked him? And, oh yeah, by

the way, how do you beat cancer?

He took on the easy question first.

“It’s a combination of a lot a things,” he said. “It takes good

doctors. You have to be pretty strong. You have to be in pretty good

shape. You spend a lot of time on your knees. It brings you back to the

basics and prayer, and it brings you back to the Lord.”

Saul says he knows what’s most important now. He knows how precious

life is, how easy and fast that your whole life can just take a big ol’

left turn and leave you lost.

So he works on his timing, much like he did as a world-class center

who had to hike the football to the quarterback just right.

“A lot of things today are timing,” he said. “A lot of football is

timing. We are just kidding ourselves that we are going to live forever

and it doesn’t work out that way. I think the key is how many people you

put an arm around and how many people you touch.”

He jokes that no matter what, we all ultimately need to face the facts

of our own mortality. So do the best while you can.

“Christ only lived 33 years and they are still talking about him,” he

joked.

So far, Saul seems to be doing all the right things, noting that every

time he walks into the offices of Newport Beach doctor and sailor Neil

Barth and surgeon Daniel Ng, he gets a clear bill of health.

OK, so let’s talk about football. The harder question. Are you still a

Ram fan?

Saul, who was a critic of the Rams’ move to St. Louis, still follows

the team and can’t find it in his heart to root for teams that he long

considered enemies like Dallas or Minnesota. “I gave too much blood on

those different fields, literally,” he said.

I detect in his voice that he is just as heartsick about their exile

as I am.

“I like to see them do well,” he said, but I didn’t hear any screams

of “Go Rams,” or the sense that he would go into deep depression if they

lose, much like my dad and my two brothers and I do.

Still, his ties to the organization are strong, and just last week he

went to Canton, Ohio, to see two of his former teammates, Youngblood and

Slater, inducted into the Football Hall of Fame.

Saul, whose twin brother Ron and older brother Bill also played the

game, can’t help but notice how much football has changed since he first

put on his pads.

“When I played, it was different,” he said. “I think the owners had a

little more foothold on the game. They’ve lost control. The owners don’t

really own those teams; the media owns them.”

Saul said when he first was drafted by the Rams, he was a kid from

Pennsylvania, who played at Michigan State and had no idea what to expect

in Los Angeles.

When he took off from a snow-covered Chicago and landed in Los Angeles

in February of 1969, the warmth, the Santa Ana winds and the swaying palm

trees seemed to beckon him.

“I can see heaven from here,” he thought. And here he stays, where he

has raised his three children and now works with his wife at National

Fidelity Title in Newport Beach. His gifts to charities and good causes

is legendary.

I’m sure glad I got to meet him.

And oh yeah: Go Rams!

***

Speaking of Sid Soffer, our beloved Las Vegas exile asked me to make

it clear to readers of this column that he is not exactly a former pub

owner as I noted last week.

While his steakhouse on Old Newport Boulevard remains closed, he

insists he still has plans to reopen it sometime in the future.

That’s fine with me because I miss the garlic toast, the “no smoking”

sign next to the cigarette machine, the stuffed animals mounted on the

wall and those silver dollars and $2 bills that his crew used to hand out

for change.

C’mon on back and open her up, Sid.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send messages

either via e-mail to tony.dodero@latimes.com or by phone at 949-574-4258.