Season Preview: Rams ’92 : Hawkins’ Secret at Defensive End Is His Positive Thinking

Bill Hawkins knows the secret to success at defensive end: line up next to one of the game’s most dominant tackles.

He played alongside Cortez Kennedy and the late Jerome Brown at the University of Miami and ended up a Lombardi Award semifinalist after racking up 8 1/2 sacks and 67 tackles during his senior season.

His first three years with the Rams haven’t earned him any trophies, but some sort of bust might be appropriate.

But then along came Sean. Three hundred and five pounds of instant intimidation. And visions of Gilbert fighting off double-team blocks danced in Hawkins’ head.

“He’s a very big, strong guy, a physically imposing player,” Hawkins said. “He makes people move. Blockers have to get in position and get ready to take him on because he’s such a big load. That sets up a lot of things we do on the field. It opens up the holes.

“Almost all of my career, when I was playing well, there was always a big guy next to me.”

Now, if Hawkins can just get past the calf injury that has kept him from lining up next to Gilbert for a month.

Hawkins, who strained his calf on the first day of training camp, tore the calf muscle during the first exhibition game against Seattle. Add it to the list--knee ligament tear, broken bone in the knee, rib and back injuries--that have reduced the Rams’ 1989 first-round selection’s pro career to, well, less-than-spectacular status.

“Bill’s had about three weeks of training camp and one half of a football game, in which he played very well,” said George Dyer, defensive coordinator and defensive line coach. “But that’s the last we’ve seen of him. What we saw, we liked, but it was half a game.

“On the basis of that, we’re hoping he gets well soon and helps us.”

For a guy who seems to be on the verge of losing the chance of a lifetime--what if he can’t play opening day in Buffalo and Gerald Robinson has a great game?--Hawkins is so upbeat he’s almost giddy.

“It’s just that it really feels better, it’s coming along really well now,” Hawkins said. “Up until recently, I was lying a lot. It wasn’t doing anything except, I guess, healing.

“Now, it’s just a matter of getting rid of the last little bit of pain, strengthening it some, and then it’ll be full go.

“This is the first time I’ve ever torn a muscle and I said to myself, ‘Heck, it’s just a muscle. It’s not cartilage or a ligament. If you give it time, it will heal completely and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.’ That’s what has kept me positive.”

Hawkins is also still clinging to memories of the first few weeks of training camp. Even before that, in January when Chuck Knox became the new coach, he sensed that his fortune had turned.

After being shuffled from tackle to end, left side to right side, Hawkins was back home at right end.

“I talked to several players and all of them seemed to like Coach Knox, but I still had to see for myself,” he said. “Once I got here, almost from Day 1, I knew this was the kind of system that I could have a lot of success in, and I was excited.”

Hawkins had struggled with his varying positions under the old administration and was puzzled by former Coach John Robinson’s decision to play him at a tackle spot in passing situations.

“When I got drafted, I knew absolutely nothing about the Rams except that Jack Youngblood, who’s from Florida, used to play here,” Hawkins said. “When I got out here, they put me inside immediately and I was a little apprehensive rushing on a guard. It was something I had never done.

“But I figured these people knew what they were doing. They were older than me and had been in the business a long time, so I listened to them. I had some small successes, but I just don’t think I’m built for that role. I’m tall and slender (6 feet 6, 269 pounds), at least I like to think I am, and I just never saw myself as a guy who can take a 300-pound player and knock him backward. I can run around them, but not through them.

“Plus, when I played inside, I was getting the (stuffing) beat out of me.”

And then there was the left-right problem. The Rams experimented with Hawkins at left end last season. The test tube blew up in their faces.

“I was moved to the left side and it was something I just couldn’t get the hang of,” he said. “I just couldn’t do it.”

Dyer, sticking to the Rams’ if-you-can’t-say-something-nice-don’t-comment party line, said he couldn’t comment on what went on in the offices of Rams Park in prior years.

“I’ve moved guys inside, especially in passing situations, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a problem,” he said. “But we just felt that right end was the best position for him. It’s his natural position. He’s had success there before and we felt he would have his best shot out there.

“We just saw him as an outside player.”

His topsy-turvy tour of the defensive line last season mirrored the roller coaster of his personal life. He was divorced from his wife of 10 months during training camp and never was able to regain his emotional equilibrium.

“My first year, I hurt my knee and that pretty much wiped out half of my second year,” Hawkins said. “Then I started coming on at the end of my second year, but last year I had some personal problems that really set me back.

“It’s all timing. I went through the divorce during training camp and it was really, well, it’s a very hard thing to go through. We had dated for six years before we got married.

“I don’t have any animosity. I’m better having gone through it. I think I’m a better person. I know more about life and I’m also having more fun. But when it happens. . . . “

Just when he was beginning to feel good about himself again, Hawkins’ fate took a familiar turn for the worse Aug. 6 on the Astroturf in the Kingdome. “Buzzard’s luck” is how Dyer describes it. But Hawkins, 26, remains confident that his best football is still ahead of him.

“Having a new coach and a new system really didn’t hurt me at all,” Hawkins said. “I needed a fresh start. It was almost like moving to a new town.

“I know it seems like I’ve been out forever and some of the coaches are getting a little impatient. That’s just the way people are. I know I am. I wanted to be out there the day after I did it. But I really believe I can do the job they want done here and I can do it a lot better if I’m healthy.

“I just have to thank God it happened when it did. If it happened during the season, everyone would be on your back and you’d really be feeling guilty.”

No one is going to make Hawkins feel guilty these days, even if they tried. If things don’t work out on the football field, he could start selling his own brand of self-help tapes on late-night television. This guy can’t seem to stop smiling.

“I’m just loving life,” he said. “Wherever it takes me, it doesn’t matter, because I’m having fun. This is my new thing. Anything bad that happens to me, I just confront it, defuse it and make it positive. It seems to be working pretty good.

“You can take yourself out of a job just by getting down on yourself. You are the only person who can make you happy. I didn’t go to any shrink to learn that. I just started living it.”

If things go the way Hawkins envisions, however, he may have to modify his new slogan: “You--and the very big guy on your left--are the only people who can make you happy.”