Steven Jackson beats Marshall Faulk into Hall of Fame!

Well, Steven was inducted into a Hall of Fame last weekend, but it was the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame. Article

Steven's actually considered a bit of a football pioneer in Las Vegas; colleges didn't recruit heavily for players there until he broke out as one of the nation's elite players at Oregon State. He scored five TDs for the Beavers in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl, and before that, rushed for 81 TDs and nearly 6,400 yards in his high school career at Eldorado High.

The first inductee into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame? The legendary David Humm, in 1997. Steven also joins Jerry Tarkanian, Randall Cunningham, Lionel Hollins, Greg Maddux, Gerald Riggs, Robert Gamez, Matt Williams, Greg Anthony and Larry Grandmama Johnson.

Photo: Las Vegas Sun

Throwback vote

The Rams are holding a vote on Twitter to determine which home game they'll wear their throwback uniforms this year. Details here. Choice of opponent is the Ravens, Redskins or Saints.

Hate to whine, but this is a double bummer. The best opponent for throwback uniform week would definitely be the 49ers, but the league supposedly mandates throwback uniforms can only be worn the first 10 weeks. Bummer. (P.S. Thanksgiving is NOT in the first ten weeks, yet throwbacks are worn in those games all the time.) That makes the Saints, a throwback NFC West rival, the best choice of the three available to me.

And the Rams can only have one throwback week? Double bummer. Shouldn't teams with cool uniforms get an exemption?

Vobora vindicated

Going back at least as far as the 1988 Summer Olympics and Ben Johnson, when an athlete tests positive for steroids and blames the test result on a spiked sports drink, or as members of the Mexican soccer team did just a couple of weeks ago, blame tainted meat, the general reaction of a skeptical public has been, yeah, right, guys. Either you meant to take what you took or were too careless to check what you were taking against your sport's list of approved supplements.

Rams linebacker David Vobora knows all about this. He tested positive for steroids in 2009 and was suspended for four games, all the while insisting he had followed NFL procedure to the letter. Public reaction? Yeah, right, kid, we get you don't want to admit to screwing up, just don't do it again. Vobora's lawsuit against the producer of the supplement that caused his positive test has been virtually ignored and more than likely viewed publicly as a quixotic face-saving enterprise.

Until today, when a judge awarded Vobora $5.4 million in damages from the ironically-named Anti-Steroid Program, LLC, the Florida company that made the Ultimate Sports Spray that caused Vobora to fail his league drug test. The company did not disclose that the spray contained methyltestosterone, A STEROID. Gee, thanks, ANTI-Steroid Program. Vobora was awarded $2 million for damage to his reputation, and $3.4 million representing lost earnings and earnings opportunities.

Most importantly, he clears his good name from a blemish that was always going to be there otherwise. Maybe his victory in court will help all of sports as a significant step toward cleaning up the supplement industry, though that is certainly a long row to hoe. However, an ESPN.com poll is running 64%-36 to start giving athletes more of a benefit of the doubt in these situations.

A very relevant victory for Mr. Irrelevant.

Photo: Sky Sports

Offseason workout non-report

There was precious little coverage of it, but the Rams players did conduct another minicamp-style workout last weekend in the Phoenix area. The biggest news from that workout: Mardy Gilyard was there. (Credit to Turf Show Times for outscooping the crap out of the Post-Dispatch on that one. Also, note to self: join the 21st century and start following players' Twitter feeds.) Fred Robbins was reported to be hosting workouts for the d-linemen in Florida, with first-round pick Robert Quinn in attendance. Player-conducted team workouts around the league are non-contact, and skills-position focused, so linemen don't get anywhere near as much to do.

If form held from last month, the Rams will be up around the top of the league in player participation this offseason, having had 35 players at their May workout. Sacramento Bee football writer Matt Barrows saves me some hours of web searches with this post. Maybe ten other teams had organized workouts of 30 or more players back in May. Highest participation I saw was the Cowboys, with 45 players. Other high-attendance team workouts in May: Washington (30), Atlanta (30), New Orleans (30-40), Detroit (30-35), Oakland (34), Buffalo (30), Jacksonville (30), Baltimore (27). Honorable mention to Miami, which has reportedly run some two-a-days. Other teams, such as the Eagles, have gotten together in small groups at best, or haven't had an organized workout at all, which is the case in Green Bay.

The Seahawks had a couple of days of workouts at the beginning of June, led by free agent Matt Hasselbeck, with at least 40 players participating, though not all were Seahawk players. Beat writer Kent Somers claims the Cardinals have had "great attendance" at their offseason practices, which included Packers WR Greg Jennings, but the best number I see for them is 20, which wasn't all Arizona players. The 49ers had "a couple of dozen" players, led by free agent Alex Smith, at workouts last week, so of course, you get articles like this one proclaiming that these workouts are absolutely not important.

And they may not be. But as a fan, I'd rather be rooting for a team that's been willing to make up for lockout-cancelled OTAs by getting most of its players together and holding workouts. At a minimum, it's team-building for the season to come. Whether it's a leg up, or just a toe, I'm happy as a Ram fan to see the players doing what they can to gain an edge.

And in the very best case, an agreement ending the lockout is right around the corner, training camp'll open on time, and this'll all be moot.

-$-

Stat of the day

Got this from a Mike Sando entry on ESPN.com but probably should have noticed it a lot sooner, like last winter, for instance....

Rams were 0-6 last season when they allowed over 120 yards rushing.

Dec. 19 Kansas City Chiefs 210
Sept. 19 Oakland Raiders 173
Jan. 2 Seattle Seahawks 141
Nov. 21 Atlanta Falcons 138
Dec. 12 New Orleans Saints 132
Oct. 24 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 124

They were 7-3 otherwise, and "should" have won two of those.
(Arizona here, San Francisco there)

Nov. 28 Denver Broncos 119
Sept. 26 Washington Redskins 116
Sept. 12 Arizona Cardinals 112
Dec. 5 Arizona Cardinals 105
Nov. 14 San Francisco 49ers 98
Oct. 10 Detroit Lions 89
Dec. 26 San Francisco 49ers 85
Oct. 17 San Diego Chargers 79
Oct. 3 Seattle Seahawks 64
Oct. 31 Carolina Panthers 25

The Rams will help themselves a lot more in free agency by focusing on DTs and WLBs, and much less on Plaxico Burress. (Though my prediction that their first free agent signing will be Daniel Graham stands)

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Here we Plaxi-co again

The NFL really, really needs to get its labor situation squared away, and fast, because I don't know how much more I can take of the rumor mill being the only people in charge.

Former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is out of prison after serving 20 months for a gun-related charge, and guess where he's heading next? St. Louis, of course, for the electrifyingly-logical reason that he used to be on the same team as Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo. The latest source using that logic to put Burress in horns is the Giants' beat writer for the Newark Star-Ledger, Mike Garofalo.

- Never mind that Burress has been in jail for two years.
- Never mind that he'll turn 34 in training camp, assuming it's held on time, and the Rams haven't been keen on adding older players to the roster. Sure, Michael Vick became a superstar again after a similar absence, but he's three years younger, and he had a year on the bench before his outstanding 2010 season.
- Never mind that the Rams just drafted THREE receivers, and despite the insistence of blogs all over the Internet (Bing "Plaxico Burress mentor", you'll see) that he's going to come in and mentor the Rams' (or Eagles') young receivers, Burress doesn't have much of a track record for it.
- Never mind that the Rams passed on Randy Moss and Terrell Owens last year when presented with opportunities to sign them. What would Burress bring that either one of them doesn't?

There are potential positives to signing Burress:
- He's reportedly stayed in shape.
- If he follows Michael Vick's example, jail will have changed him for the better and he won't be the coach's nightmare he was in New York, knowing he's getting his last chance in the league.
- The Rams have been hurting badly for a red zone weapon, and at the height of his game, Burress was the epitome of a red zone weapon.
- He hasn't necessarily been the dreaded cancer-in-the-locker-room. His Giants teammates have said they'd welcome him back with open arms. Fred Robbins has pushed for the Rams to sign Burress on Sirius Radio.
- Signing Burress would dramatically increase the Rams' chances of appearing on Hard Knocks, which was still casting around for a team for this season at last word.

I'm no threat to picket Rams Park if they do sign Burress, but I just don't see the team doing it. Sure, he could be one humble bumble now that he's been through prison, but his long history of off-field troubles and breaking team rules surely make him a hard sell for a "Four Pillars" organization. And on the field, it's going to take him a long time to get into real playing shape, and you'd be signing him this year hoping he starts contributing late this season, or more likely, next season. When he's 35. The Rams can't sign Burress and just stash him on the roster; they have to be pretty convinced he can play right away.

I'm not convinced of that at all, so it's Plaxi-no to signing Burress here at RamView.

-$-
photo: Detroit Free-Press

More thoughts on Avery

I criticize the draft experts every spring when they say that a player's "stock" is rising or falling, and it's during a lull in the offseason schedule when literally nothing football-related has happened. I find myself doing the same here at the beginning of summer '11, though. Very little's going on, but Donnie Avery's stock seems to be rising as fast as he runs the 40.

101.1 ESPN NFL analyst Tony Softli has said that Avery has his speed back after blowing out a knee last August, and expects him to be the Rams' primary deep threat next season. Avery claims to have recently run a 4.34 40. Footballguys.com, one of the web's top fantasy football sites, uses this news when they speculate that Avery will have the opportunity to be to the Rams what Brandon Lloyd was for Josh McDaniels and the Broncos last year.

That's an eye-opening reference, because Lloyd, similar in size to Avery, went from career obscurity to the Pro Bowl last season in Denver under McDaniels, with 77 catches for 1,448 yards and 11 TDs. A season like that from two of the Rams WRs COMBINED would be impressive; if Avery, now under McDaniels, could pull it off by himself, it would be massive.

I had not seen Avery in the Brandon Lloyd / Randy Moss role in the McDaniels offense; I was thinking Danario Alexander, for his speed and size. Softli, though, says DX was still dragging his oft-injured leg during the recent players-only workouts, and expressed concern about it. I also had Mark Clayton beating Avery out for a roster spot in training camp, but...
- even though he's a free agent, Clayton's trailing Avery right now because he didn't work out with the team. Lack of a contract didn't stop Adam Goldberg or draft pick Greg Salas from being at workouts, for instance.
- Clayton was barely here last year for more than a cup of coffee, and though it was a very good cup, it's an opportunity he never would have gotten if not for the injury to, yes, Avery.
- and Clayton and Avery could easily both make the roster if Alexander's knee proves to be too balky. This year's DX's first real opportunity in a while to road-test it.

It's worth noting that Softli very likely is not without a rooting interest in Avery, since he was the Rams' VP of player personnel when Avery was (arguably over-)drafted by the Rams in 2008. But I've been inspired enough for now to pencil Avery's name in for about the 12th round of my fantasy league draft this year (assuming there are any).

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