LOS ANGELES RAMS
Tex Maule
September 13, 1965
"The day of the crying towel is over," says Harland (Swede) Svare, the Norwegian coach of the Los Angeles Rams. "We may finish in the first three." If so the Rams will have to remedy last year's main defect and come up with some linebackers equal to Swede when he played for the New York Giants. That may not be easy. Still, the Rams have age and experience in Dan Currie, imported from Green Bay, and Cliff Livingston, beginning his 12th season of pro football. They have youth and excitement in Anthony Guillory, a rookie. They also have Ed Holler, picked up from Pittsburgh, and rookie Fred Brown. The Rams lost a linebacker when Mike Henry decided to quit the game and sign on as Tarzan in the movies.
The Rams, then, are the team of the near future. If three of their several linebackers can do a better than average job and if their running backs are a little better than they look and if Bill Munson fulfills his promise, they could do what Svare predicts—finish in the first three.
But championships are not won on ifs and the Rams have too many. The ifs should land them somewhere around fourth place; next year there won't be so many ifs, and then the Rams could win the Western Division championship.