Monday, May 21, 2007

By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

Shortly before the Rams’ front office got to work on putting together their draft board and strategy, President of Football Operations Jay Zygmunt took the floor. His message was clear: for as much as 40-yard dash times and tackling statistics will factor into a player’s draft position, character will mean just as much.

“That set the tone for everyone,” Vice President of Player Personnel Tony Softli said.

And while the Rams have set about trying to find guys with high character in recent drafts, this year was different. And the added emphasis to drafting character players came from above.

At the annual league meetings, Commissioner Roger Goodell set forth a revamped conduct policy for all of the league’s players, coaches and employees. At the heart of the matter, it is every player’s job to police his actions and represent himself and the league in a becoming manner.

If a player doesn’t follow through on that, he is subject to severe and harsh penalties that include long-term suspensions. Tennessee cornerback Pacman Jones was suspended for the 2007 season because of myriad off the field issues and Cincinnati receiver Chris Henry will miss half the season for similar actions.

Goodell even made it clear that lifetime banishment from the league is a possibility should the punishment fit the crime.

In other words, while the league has always wanted character players, it’s never been more important for it to be at the top of the list in evaluating and adding talent.

“The points of emphasis of how you go about putting your team together were very clear, and we’ve always factored in character and those kinds of things,” coach Scott Linehan said.

Indeed, the Rams went through this year’s NFL Draft without adding a single player to have known character issues. In fact, first-round choice Adam Carriker was a three-time All Big 12 Academic Honor Roll member and second-rounder Brian Leonard won the Draddy Award in 2006 as the nation’s top student-athlete.

In emphasizing a commitment to character, the Rams were forced to remove some highly regarded prospects from their draft board. In all, the team had eight players that were immediately placed on the “Do Not Draft” board. Those players were not, under any circumstance, to be considered for drafting.

The Rams would not name names of those they refused to pick, but Linehan indicated that four were chosen, two on the first day and two on the second.

“They were outstanding football players on film, but they had a number of things that kept them from being on our final board,” Linehan said. “It’s a way of controlling your philosophy and not letting it become emotional and saying, ‘This guy is so fast or so big, or can dominate his position.’ We didn’t let that come into it. It takes the emotion out of it.”

Linehan credits Softli and the scouting department with formulating an approach to adding character players to the team in face of the changing emphasis from Goodell.

But Softli said it was a team effort and he has no problems with passing on a potentially more talented player for a guy with talent and character. After all, if something goes awry with a player, it’s easy to point the finger back at the guy who vouched for him.

“Character has always been big with me coming from Carolina,” Softli said. “When I interviewed here, I told them character is big. I like to get those guys in here because I don’t want you coming back to me saying, ‘Hey, Tony, what about this guy that is now in trouble?’ It eliminates that part of the process.”

So, how exactly does one evaluate character? While teams are given plenty of chances to meet with players, including the annual NFL Scouting Combine, the Senior Bowl, pro days and pre-draft visits, it is difficult to get a feel for every player on the board.

Likewise, it can be hard to discern whether a prospect has poor character makeup or he simply made an isolated mistake. But Softli says that is what all of the research is for.

“There were guys that went off the board this year that deserved to go off the board,” Softli said. “To me, there is no gray area. He either has good character or he doesn’t have good character. That’s the way it ended. Jay set the tone in our meetings and Scott followed and so did I. That’s how we set the board.”

And though there isn’t a numerical or alphabetical grade that a team can place on a player in terms of character, Softli says it’s up to the scouts to find out as much background about a player as possible. Then, Softli will take that information and look to expound on it with more if possible.

If indeed there is something in a player’s past, the personnel department will mark it with a yellow flag that serves as an alert. That doesn’t eliminate the player, but it brings him into focus for a more drawn out discussion with the coaching staff. At that point, Linehan serves as the final say on whether the player remains on the board or not.

With each of their additions in the draft, the Rams did their best to find guys with the combination of talent and character. At the end of the weekend, Linehan was more than happy with the final haul.

“I feel really good about being able to stand in front of you and tell you that these guys that we added to our football team are guys that we’re all going to be very, very proud of as far as men,” Linehan said. “That’s a real positive.”


http://www.stlouisrams.com/article/61354/