Gerald Perry Faces Another Detour on Road to Recovery : Rams: Offensive tackle, hoping injuries and other problems were behind him, is bothered by sore left knee.

Gerald Perry should have known better. After surgery on both knees, after all the ice packs, the swelling, the pain, the months of soft-stepping his way through life, he should have known better.

But for the first time in months, his left knee actually felt good and he really started to believe something wonderful had happened during his latest trip to the hospital.

Perry, a 6-foot-6, 305-pound offensive tackle, missed most of training camp last year because of an injured right knee, then was sidelined for the last five games of the season after injuring his left knee against the Detroit Lions on Oct. 17 and undergoing surgery a month later.

Last May, Perry was back in the hospital for surgery to “clean up” the left knee. But this time, he walked away feeling like a new man.

“It just felt so good when I came into camp (this summer),” Perry said. “The leg was so fresh and it tends to fool you into thinking a miracle had taken place. But that wasn’t the case. After a few of the two-a-day (practices), it got worn out.”

The knee began to swell, and Perry’s spirits started to deflate. He has practiced sporadically since the first week of camp, going through a morning workout one day, then waiting two or three days for the fluid on his knee to dissipate so he could try again. In the Rams’ exhibition opener against the Seattle Seahawks, he played only on field-goal teams.

“I guess I kind of expected this when they had to do the surgery again in May,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you try hard not to let it frustrate you, but it’s not easy. My main objective is to work the leg as much as possible, to try to get the leg as strong as possible.

“The quad (muscle) is not as strong as it should be, which is natural because of the surgery. But when it swells up, I’m not able to lift as rigorously as I would have to do to get the quad built up.”

It’s just the latest in a series of problems that Perry has faced in his sometimes-brilliant, always expectation-laden career. He reached the NFL on good legs, displaying uncommon quickness for a man his size at Southern University. The Denver Broncos drafted him in the second round in 1988, and his technique and footwork continued to improve. In 1989, he started 15 games for the Broncos.

Repeated scrapes with the law because of alcohol-related incidents and a resulting suspension limited his playing time to eight games in 1990. The Rams acquired Perry on draft day of 1991 in a trade for running back Gaston Green and a fourth-round pick.

Coach Chuck Knox, whose Seahawks played Denver twice each season, knows what a physically sound Gerald Perry can mean to an offensive line.

“He’s a big key,” Knox said. “Gerald Perry, we’d like to go into a game and feel like he’s going to pitch a shutout on that left side. OK? That’s what we would like to have done. Don’t have to worry about it, so that Jim Everett isn’t back there looking over here at some guy flying by him all of the time.

“That’s what we’d like to have. He’s got that kind of ability. Now, he’s got to do it and then do it every week. That’s the difference.”

According to Jim Erkenbeck, the Ram offensive line coach, the difference is hardly a fine line. It’s more like a Grand Canyon.

“Let me give you this,” Erkenbeck says. “The injured player, the bad player, they’re all the same. Potentially, he’s a Pro Bowl player, but there’s a lot of distance between doing it and potential.

“For whatever reason, he hasn’t done it. If you’re hurt, that’s unfortunate. But whether you’re hurt or sick or a bad player, all of those mean you’re not on the field, and if you’re not on the field, then you won’t be going to the Pro Bowl.”

Perry has a plan, one of inaction maybe, but a plan. It’s a schedule that may not endear him to the coaching staff, but it’s the only course that he says will allow him to help the Rams on game days.

“The general idea is all about getting to the regular season, where there is one practice a day, and that will give the leg time to recuperate,” he said. “It’s one of those things where if I can get (an exhibition) game in, it would be great, but the major focus is the regular season, to play in the games that are for the money.

“You need to tune up. The preseason is important. But if I don’t play in the preseason, I don’t.”

Knox says he hasn’t ruled out the possibility that Perry could be ready for Saturday night’s exhibition against the Raiders at Anaheim Stadium.

Perry, however, already has made a decision.

“Will I play Saturday?” he said. “Absolutely not.

“Maybe I should have focused more on taking it slow when I came into camp, working with the weights to build up the strength in my leg. Maybe I came back a little too fast after the Seattle game. But the main objective is to play on Sundays. That’s my goal.”

If Perry can run out onto the field each Sunday, he will probably be the Rams’ starting left tackle. The team is preparing, however, for the possibility that he will be limping.

“I would hate to speculate because I’m not a doctor, but if he’s healthy, he’s the starter, yeah,” Erkenbeck said. “If he’s there, he’s the guy. If he’s not there, he’s not the guy. I can only worry about the guys that are there.

“He knows the pitfalls of not (practicing) and that’s extremely important for him to know. I really believe in camp, in practice during the season, and I don’t think there is any substitute for those things.

“A lot of times, the best players aren’t on the field, but the best- prepared players are.”

So daily, Perry runs the risk of either irritating his position coach or his left knee. Will he realize his potential? Or finish his career with a reputation as a guy you can never count on when you need him?

He doesn’t have any answers, but he knows now there are no overnight cures.

“Look, it’s a tough situation,” he said, “I have some things wrong with my knees and they’re never going to feel like they once did. So if I have to take it a little easy, I will.”