Robinson On Shaky Ground As Rams Struggle

One of the more surprising developments of the professional football season has been the fall from management's grace of John Robinson, illustrious coach of the Los Angeles Rams.

Suddenly, Robinson, who has guided the Rams to the playoffs in six of the last seven years, finds his employment status with the team quite tenuous, and his shaky future has been the subject of great analysis by the media in recent days.

Even though the Rams fashioned a major triumph by beating the San Francisco 49ers, Robinson still finds himself wondering if he will be able to retain his job when it's known that two influential members of the Ram organization, owner Georgia Frontiere and general manager John Shaw, are aligned solidly against him.

Ironically, his detractors are pointing to the Rams' dramatic 28-17 win over the 49ers as proof that Robinson, billed also as Jolly John and Robocoach, has failed in his duties to have his team properly prepared to play football for most of the dismal 5-8 autumn.

``That was the first time all season that the Rams played with any great passion, with any sense of urgency,'' said one longtime Ram insider. ``And only one person is to blame for that: John Robinson. He just hasn't been doing the job.''

It's indisputable that John Robinson hasn't done the job this season, taking a team considered to be a Super Bowl contender to depths so embarrassing that he has been forced to dig deep into his bottomless

well of dissembling monologues to come up with all sorts of flimsy excuses for his team's unexpected decline.

A cunning man, Robinson is a forceful speaker skilled in the hyperbolic utterances and euphemistic disclaimers of award-winning car salesmen - and he even has been viewed in some quarters as being nothing more than a Machiavellian politician masquerading as a football coach.

This assessment might be too harsh, but it is a commentary on Robinson's manipulative qualities that, for an awful long time this season, the only people on the Ram coaching staff feeling the heat were Fritz Shurmur, the defensive coordinator, and Ernie Zampese, the offensive coordinator, both of whom were totally blameless for the team's deterioration.

Finally, after the Rams reached the abyss with their flameout against Dallas, Robinson's work came under the kind of public scrutiny that both Georgia Frontiere and John Shaw had been privately giving it for months.

How has Robinson, a guerrilla fighter who always has had the dangerous corners covered, managed to fall out of favor with Georgia Frontiere, whom he has, with practiced calculation, toadied up to throughout his eight years with the Rams?

How does Robinson, even with national television apologists like John Madden and various newspaper ``buddies'' rallying to support him in his moment of crisis, suddenly find himself in a position so harrowing that all his persuasive rhetoric might not be enough to keep him employed in Anaheim in 1991?

It's quite simple, really.

John Shaw doesn't like him - and Robinson isn't exactly a fawning admirer of Shaw.

And John Shaw has Georgia Frontiere's ear more often than Robinson, who has Georgia's ear only when she stands on the Ram sidelines and bestows kisses to Jolly John and her other minions.

Curiously, it might be John Robinson's vaunted silver tongue that eventually leads to his demise with the Rams because it's known both Frontiere and Shaw feel that Robinson has been stealthily spreading fables to his ``buddies'' about the way team business is handled.

``Georgia knows exactly what John Robinson is all about - and too many things come out blaming her and John Shaw for everything that is wrong with the Rams,'' says the Ram insider. ``A lot of the stuff is just not true. Somehow, the perception is that Robinson has no input on high draft picks, but that's a complete falsehood. He definitely does. But he's the guy who's skilled at diverting blame to other people when the players he picks turn out to be busts.''

In a Ram organization that tilts between the Gothic and burlesque; where dark intrigues; where rumors, holdouts, European jaunts abound; the truth is as hard to determine as John Robinson's current weight, which might be nearing that of the team's 300-pound offensive tackle, Mr. Irv Pankey.

Was it Robinson who demanded that Eric Dickerson be detached, as some say, or was it the salary-gouging Shaw, as others say? Was it Robinson who drafted the ineffective Gaston Green, or was it Shaw and John Math? Was Robinson responsible for Donald Evans and Mike Schad, or was it Shaw and Math?

While only the principals themselves know for sure the answers to these questions - and none will allow themselves to be cited for the record - there are some certainties one can make about the Rams.

It is known for sure that Georgia Frontiere, herself married seven times, was not overjoyed that Robinson decided to leave his wife of three decades and a woman she likes dearly, Barbara Robinson, and soon thereafter married the owner of an Orange County modeling agency.

It is known for sure that Robinson pushed for getting rid of Greg Bell, who had gained more than 2,000 yards and scored more than 30 touchdowns in the two previous seasons, in the offseason - and that the fumble-plagued Cleveland Gary hasn't exactly been a stirring replacement.

It is known for sure that Georgia Frontiere and John Shaw think Robinson doesn't work as hard as he once did - and the fact he was recently spotted by a sportswriter at a 4:30 Friday afternoon movie in Orange County indicates that ol' Robocoach hasn't exactly been burning the midnight oil a la George Allen.

It is known for sure that there are those high in the Ram organization who drool over the prospect of a creative thinker like Bill Walsh taking over the team - and making the kind of personnel decisions that built the San Francisco 49er dynasty.

The feeling here is that Robinson probably will make it back for another Ram season because his team, which is surfeited with talented players contrary to what Robinson now is claiming, probably will finish strongly.

But if the Rams continue to slide, then all of Jolly John Robinson's wily words might not be able to keep his head from landing on Georgia Frontiere's dreaded chopping block sometime in the offseason.