Rams update, 2/2

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Rams news:

Since it's been a couple of months since he's had any surgery, Scott Wells has recently had his right knee scoped. He missed all of training camp after having surgery on that same knee last spring, then broke his foot his second game back from that, missing over half the regular season as a result. The first practice he participated in coming back from that, he tore cartilage in the knee again. To his credit, he played the rest of the season with that injury. All the same, Wells is fortunate the Rams didn't stink last season; a big-ticket signing who was on the field less in 2012 than Danario Alexander would have been a giant electromagnet for criticism. With luck, Wells will heal up well here in the offseason, give the Rams a full season in 2013, and the offensive line will be that much more cohesive and effective.

Super Bowl:

There is not a big ex-Rams contingent in Super Bowl XLVII. The 49ers have linebacker Larry Grant; the Ravens have tight end Billy Bajema, corner Chris Johnson (yes, the guy who stepped out of bounds at the 1 with the 2005 Opening Day kickoff) and running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery.

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A more interesting angle for the big game Sunday involves the refereeing. The game will in fact be refereed by Jerome Boger, which RamView still finds unbelievable. Having watched him mangle Rams games the past two seasons, Boger's about the last referee I'd pick to do a game of any importance. Turns out my uninformed fan opinion is a pretty damn good one – some of Boger's own refereeing colleagues question what he's doing there, and have accused the NFL's whole selection process of being rigged. Boger was downgraded 8 times for mistakes during the regular season, but they were all magically reversed later at league offices. In fact, Boger and two other members of the Super Bowl officiating crew didn't even qualify to work last year's playoffs. Boger's never worked a conference championship game, either, which is supposed to be a requirement for a ref to work a Super Bowl.

The excellent Football Zebras site has done great work reporting this controversy; have a good look at their work and hope Boger doesn't butcher Sunday's game too badly.

RamView's taking a sure-fire losing proposition for Sunday: 49ers to win, Ravens to cover, take the over. I expect Kaepernick to tie Terrell Suggs in knots like RGIII did to Demarcus Ware on Thanksgiving, and I'm suspicious of Baltimore's run defense in general. That's putting a lot of faith in a young QB on the biggest stage, though, and I've underestimated Baltimore's secondary all postseason. They could easily trigger a rout with a pick-six. I expect the Niners to put a lot of heat on Joe Flacco and get him off his game, but that's the same line that did squat two weeks ago in Atlanta. And if Jim Harbaugh needs David Akers to make a clutch kick, he's not going to get it. Baltimore's special teams have issues, too, though. The 49ers could easily trigger a rout with a big return. Baltimore manhandled the 49ers last Thanksgiving, though. That was the 49ers with Alex Smith, though. I'm expecting a game as back-and-forth as my thought processes. 28-26, San Francisco.

Belated Pro Bowl update:

Thanks to the need to replace players appearing in the Super Bowl, two ex-Rams did play in last week's Pro Bowl: London Fletcher, and, yes, Richie Incognito. Had I known sooner that Richie was in, I might actually have watched the game to see if he could become the first player ever thrown out of the Pro Bowl. Didn't happen, though. The NFC won this year's farce, 62-35.

Hall of Fame update:

This year's Pro Football Hall of Fame class will be announced Saturday. Former Rams Aeneas Williams, Jerome Bettis and Kevin Greene are finalists. I do not expect any of them to gain admission tomorrow, even though all three should have by now. Amending my prediction from last month, I think both veterans' selections, Curley Culp and Dave Robinson, will join Larry Allen, Jonathan Ogden, Michael Strahan, Charles Haley and Cris Carter in this year's class. I think Allen is the closest thing to a lock in this year's class. Strahan is almost surely in thanks to an all-New York NFL career and his current show-biz career. Ogden and Haley will be helped by their teams playing in the Super Bowl Sunday. I get the sinking feeling, though, that the person who's really going to be helped is NFL rulebreaker and criminal Eddie DeBartolo. I can see him and Andre Reed in those last two spots, and I think I've been underestimating Warren Sapp's chances, too. I think the voters go with the maximum class of seven in part to tweak the Baseball Hall of Fame for admitting nobody this year.

Ex-Rams updates:

He's not going into the Hall of Fame, but Mike Jones was recently featured in an ESPN article about “lost heroes” of the Super Bowl: http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/lost-heroes/lost-heroes-super-bowl

In other ex-Rams news:

- You already know Marshall Faulk, justifiably, is still not happy about the way Super Bowl XXXVI went down. You may not have heard that Marshall is going to participate in what may be the biggest reclamation project in NFL history, which would be resurrecting the career of Jamarcus Russell. He's going to be part of a group of advisors helping the 27-year-old draft megabust make a comeback. Specifically, Marshall is going to tutor Russell on how to read defenses. In preparation to make a run at a second chance in the NFL, Russell has his weight down to 308 pounds. You read that right. 308.

God help you, Marshall.

- Steve Spagnuolo and Ken Flajole were both fired by New Orleans. Spags “led” the Saints to the worst season ever by a defense; they allowed a league-record 7,042 total yards. But hey, they did finish ahead of the Titans in scoring defense. Unfortunately, that's the only team they finished ahead of. Spags was also ripped in local press by an anonymous player who called him a control freak and a phony, and said he had no personality, treated players like crap and was poor at adjusting during games.

Well, Spagnuolo is nothing if not consistent in a couple of those areas, at least.

Hey, you don't suppose Jeff Fisher would.... Um, NO.

- Al Harris has joined Andy Reid in Kansas City as a secondary coach.

- Ron Milus, who was just fired in Denver, joined San Diego's staff as secondary coach, rejoining Chargers head coach Mike McCoy, also plucked from Denver's staff.

- Adam Schefter reported last weekend that Gregg Williams could be reinstated by commissioner Roger Goodell before the Super Bowl. Whenever it happens, he's expected to join Tennessee's staff as assistant head coach.

In ex-player news, Jamie Childers was signed by the Giants to a reserve/future contract. Justin Medlock also tried out there but was not signed.

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