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History Has a Way of Repeating Itself: Roman Gabriel
Fifty-four years before the Los Angeles Rams selected Cal quarterback Jared Goff with the first-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, they chose Roman Gabriel.
By: Jim Gehman
History has a way of repeating itself.
Fifty-four years before the Los Angeles Rams selected Cal quarterback Jared Goff
with the first-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, they chose Roman Gabriel, a quarterback from North Carolina State, second-overall in the 1962 NFL Draft. Gabriel was also the first-overall pick in that year’s American Football League’s Draft by the Oakland Raiders.
“I was first contacted by the Raiders and they offered me $12,500 and a $2,500 bonus, which I thought was a heck of a lot of money,” Gabriel said. “My (college) coach, Earle Edwards, I had a great relationship with him so I asked him to help me. And he said, ‘Well, I think the Rams are going to try you. Let’s wait and see what they say.’
“(The Rams) sent Tom Fears, the great receiver, to play handball. They just wanted to see if I was agile enough, and I played pretty good. The Rams offered $15,000 and a $5,000 bonus. I’d never heard of that kind of money, so that’s where I went.”
Wilmington, North Carolina, Gabriel’s hometown, is approximately 2,590 miles from Los Angeles. Was he a little nervous about moving across the country?
“Well, I was up until I took that $5,000 bonus and bought a Chevrolet Impala station wagon,” he said with a laugh. “The scariest thing was the Rams were an all veteran football team. They didn’t really care much about rookies. Marlin McKeever, who was a linebacker, adopted me as his special rookie, so that helped. And a great running back, Jon Arnett, also helped me quite a bit.”
During his first season, Gabriel’s head coach Bob Waterford, who resigned after eight games when the team had a 1-7 record, didn’t seem to care much for rookies either. “Waterford’s the one who made a comment that I couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time. So I started chewing a lot of gum and walking faster,” Gabriel laughed.
Gabriel spent most of the year chewing a lot of gum on the sideline watching seven-year veteran quarterback Zeke Bratkowski guide the Rams. He looked at it as getting an on-the-job education.
“As we went on, I moved out to an area close to where Zeke was and he sort of took me under his wing and tried to explain to me how it is to break in,” Gabriel said. “At that time, the Rams were trying to build an offensive line and he took a beating. And the few times I played, I got beat up pretty good. But Zeke was a good one which was proven when he got traded to Green Bay (in 1963) and backed up Bart Starr and won some games for them.”
Under new head coach George Allen, the Rams began winning some games themselves in 1966. Part of that success was because Allen was able to convince Gabriel to stay put.
“I had signed to go to Oakland because at that time I was making $20,000 with the Rams and Oakland came and offered me $100,000 to switch leagues, Gabriel said. “What the heck, I figured. My last year under (Rams coach) Harland Svare, I didn’t play until the last four games. And the last four games of the ’65 season, we played Green Bay, Cleveland, Baltimore and St. Louis, four of the top teams in the league. We beat three of them.
“So I went ahead and signed with the Raiders, and George Allen, lo and behold, came to my house one day and said, ‘Look, I think you’re pretty decent because when you played against us in Chicago, you looked pretty good to me. If you come back, I’ll give you the opportunity to win the job. I think you have a shot. But you have to send that $100,000 back they gave you.’
“What hit home to me though because I was always a competitor is when he said, ‘I know you want to prove to these people in Los Angeles you can still play. So this would be the best place for you.’ I trusted him and sent the money back and I’ll be doggone if they didn’t send it back to me again. And then George sent it back to them the second time. I never regretted the move because George Allen was true to his word. I won the job and I got a chance to prove myself.”
By leading the league’s top-ranked offense in 1967 when Los Angeles went to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, and then being named as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1969, Gabriel, who’d spend 11 seasons with the Rams before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1973, proved himself and then some. He feels that Goff has the ability to do the same, and offers this advice.
“He’d been pretty successful at Cal, so don’t change, but listen with your eyes and ears before you speak,” Gabriel said. “If you see something that you believe will help you, then try it. But don’t let somebody try to tell you how to do something that you know won’t fit your style.
“And something I told Ron Jaworski when I was in Philadelphia because (Eagles head coach Dick) Vermeil called the plays, ‘Look Ron, even though he’s calling the plays, ask to be able to go in and watch the video with him so you know exactly what he’s thinking. And if there’s something there that you’re not quite figuring will fit your style, make sure you let him know so that the plays you have fit your style.
“In other words, what I’m trying to say is a lot of these guys are afraid they’re going to be benched. Hey, if you’re good they won’t bench you. But you’ve got to stand up for what you believe.”
Fifty-four years before the Los Angeles Rams selected Cal quarterback Jared Goff with the first-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, they chose Roman Gabriel.
By: Jim Gehman
History has a way of repeating itself.
Fifty-four years before the Los Angeles Rams selected Cal quarterback Jared Goff
with the first-overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, they chose Roman Gabriel, a quarterback from North Carolina State, second-overall in the 1962 NFL Draft. Gabriel was also the first-overall pick in that year’s American Football League’s Draft by the Oakland Raiders.“I was first contacted by the Raiders and they offered me $12,500 and a $2,500 bonus, which I thought was a heck of a lot of money,” Gabriel said. “My (college) coach, Earle Edwards, I had a great relationship with him so I asked him to help me. And he said, ‘Well, I think the Rams are going to try you. Let’s wait and see what they say.’
“(The Rams) sent Tom Fears, the great receiver, to play handball. They just wanted to see if I was agile enough, and I played pretty good. The Rams offered $15,000 and a $5,000 bonus. I’d never heard of that kind of money, so that’s where I went.”
Wilmington, North Carolina, Gabriel’s hometown, is approximately 2,590 miles from Los Angeles. Was he a little nervous about moving across the country?
“Well, I was up until I took that $5,000 bonus and bought a Chevrolet Impala station wagon,” he said with a laugh. “The scariest thing was the Rams were an all veteran football team. They didn’t really care much about rookies. Marlin McKeever, who was a linebacker, adopted me as his special rookie, so that helped. And a great running back, Jon Arnett, also helped me quite a bit.”
During his first season, Gabriel’s head coach Bob Waterford, who resigned after eight games when the team had a 1-7 record, didn’t seem to care much for rookies either. “Waterford’s the one who made a comment that I couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time. So I started chewing a lot of gum and walking faster,” Gabriel laughed.
Gabriel spent most of the year chewing a lot of gum on the sideline watching seven-year veteran quarterback Zeke Bratkowski guide the Rams. He looked at it as getting an on-the-job education.
“As we went on, I moved out to an area close to where Zeke was and he sort of took me under his wing and tried to explain to me how it is to break in,” Gabriel said. “At that time, the Rams were trying to build an offensive line and he took a beating. And the few times I played, I got beat up pretty good. But Zeke was a good one which was proven when he got traded to Green Bay (in 1963) and backed up Bart Starr and won some games for them.”
Under new head coach George Allen, the Rams began winning some games themselves in 1966. Part of that success was because Allen was able to convince Gabriel to stay put.
“I had signed to go to Oakland because at that time I was making $20,000 with the Rams and Oakland came and offered me $100,000 to switch leagues, Gabriel said. “What the heck, I figured. My last year under (Rams coach) Harland Svare, I didn’t play until the last four games. And the last four games of the ’65 season, we played Green Bay, Cleveland, Baltimore and St. Louis, four of the top teams in the league. We beat three of them.
“So I went ahead and signed with the Raiders, and George Allen, lo and behold, came to my house one day and said, ‘Look, I think you’re pretty decent because when you played against us in Chicago, you looked pretty good to me. If you come back, I’ll give you the opportunity to win the job. I think you have a shot. But you have to send that $100,000 back they gave you.’
“What hit home to me though because I was always a competitor is when he said, ‘I know you want to prove to these people in Los Angeles you can still play. So this would be the best place for you.’ I trusted him and sent the money back and I’ll be doggone if they didn’t send it back to me again. And then George sent it back to them the second time. I never regretted the move because George Allen was true to his word. I won the job and I got a chance to prove myself.”
By leading the league’s top-ranked offense in 1967 when Los Angeles went to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, and then being named as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 1969, Gabriel, who’d spend 11 seasons with the Rams before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1973, proved himself and then some. He feels that Goff has the ability to do the same, and offers this advice.
“He’d been pretty successful at Cal, so don’t change, but listen with your eyes and ears before you speak,” Gabriel said. “If you see something that you believe will help you, then try it. But don’t let somebody try to tell you how to do something that you know won’t fit your style.
“And something I told Ron Jaworski when I was in Philadelphia because (Eagles head coach Dick) Vermeil called the plays, ‘Look Ron, even though he’s calling the plays, ask to be able to go in and watch the video with him so you know exactly what he’s thinking. And if there’s something there that you’re not quite figuring will fit your style, make sure you let him know so that the plays you have fit your style.
“In other words, what I’m trying to say is a lot of these guys are afraid they’re going to be benched. Hey, if you’re good they won’t bench you. But you’ve got to stand up for what you believe.”
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