The Rams drew a line in the sand last Friday with Steven Jackson, telling the running back's agent there would be no more negotiations until Jackson reports for training camp. That was reportedly the last communication between the sides.

According to general manager Jay Zygmunt, the two sides have been exchanging proposals since June, when Jackson hired Eugene Parker as his agent, after agent Gary Uberstine dropped Jackson as a client. Zygmunt said it was the team that approached Jackson and Uberstine early in the offseason to let them know the club was interested in signing him to a new contract.

Zygmunt said the team made an offer Thursday night that would place Jackson within the group of the league's highest-paid running backs. Parker got back to Zygmunt after lunch the next day rejecting the offer, further informing Zygmunt that Jackson would not be reporting to training camp.

Said Zygmunt, "We are treating this as an unexcused absence and will be fining him. I also told Parker there will be no more negotiating until Jackson comes to training camp. We want him on this team for a long time. In the short term, we want him to show up so we can get this done."

Jackson is entering the final year of his contract and is scheduled to be paid $1.708 million. The maximum fine for players who do not report to camp when they are under contract is $15,000 per day.

--As expected, left tackle Orlando Pace participated at the start of practice and did a lot of the work in the early parts of practice. In the team segments, he took two snaps and then gave way for the rest of the segment to Adam Goldberg. "It was good to see Orlando out there," coach Scott Linehan said. "We will modify his work, like we are doing with (defensive tackle) Adam (Carriker). Adam did get more reps than Orlando." Pace had surgery last season for a torn labrum, while Carriker had shoulder surgery in January.

With the offensive line, Brett Romberg worked with the first unit at center and Richie Incognito with the second group. The No. 1 unit remains left tackle Pace/Goldberg, left guard Jacob Bell, center Romberg, right guard Mark Setterstrom and right tackle Alex Barron. The No. 2 unit, left to right, is Brandon Gorin, rookie Roy Schuening, Incognito, Dustin Fry and rookie John Greco.

Rookie offensive lineman John Greco got some reps the second day with the second unit at right guard after being mostly at tackle Friday.

--DT Claude Wroten was suspended July 23 for one year after violating the league's substance abuse policy. Wroten was suspended for four games last season and was drafted in the third round by the Rams in 2006 despite being arrested for possession of marijuana in January and then testing positive for marijuana at the Scouting Combine.

This violation was for missing a drug test. After being informed he had violated the policy, Wroten filed for an appeal. Sources indicate the league internally decided not to issue a one-year suspension, believing that was too strong a punishment for a missed test. The NFL instead planned to fine him four game checks for the mistake.

However, Wroten incurred the suspension when he failed to show up for his appeal not once, but twice. After missing the first appeal, a second was scheduled, for which Wroten also was a no-show.

Asked about losing another third-round pick from the 2006 draft (Jon Alston and Dominique Byrd have been released), coach Scott Linehan said, "It is always disappointing when it doesn't work out. There were a lot of expectations. I'm sure it's disappointing for our football team, but to this point it has not worked out. You try to hit on every player and every draft pick, but for some reason, sometimes, other circumstances creep in there that don't give you chance to be successful. The bottom line is I think it's a great way for someone else to make an impact on this football team."

Linehan said Wroten's absence would barely be felt. "It really doesn't affect us," he said. "Our plan going into the offseason is that we had depth within the defensive line; we really thought Claude was going to be in a battle to make this team going into camp. What the suspension does it eliminates him from the mix. We're going into the season carrying seven defensive linemen, four defensive ends and three defensive tackles. He would have been battling to get a roster spot."

--At the end of OTAs in June, Linehan had a golf contest where one player from each unit had a chance at one shot at a pin held by equipment assistant John Welby. The pin was about 125 yards away. Wide receiver Dane Looker put his shot about three feet from the pin. However, quarterback Marc Bulger shanked his shot 30 yards to the right.

Asked then how that happened, Bulger smiled and said, "It's Al's fault. He has me in all these meetings, so it's killing my golf game."

Told what Bulger said, Saunders responded, "That shank was the best thing that happened today and the best thing I saw at all the OTAs. It shows if you spend more time on football and less time on golf, we'll be a better football team. I'd have been pissed if his shot had hit John Welby in the head."

The situation was revisited Saturday when Bulger was reminded about the shot. "I can't sit here and make excuses," he said, "but I did not have one practice swing and they were Coach Linehan's clubs."

When it was noted that Looker had the same circumstances, Bulger said, "Yeah, but he wasn't in meetings all the time like I was. He was able to play all spring. I had played once before that."

After OTAs, though, Bulger got his game going again, finishing third at his club championship at Oakmont Country Club in the Pittsburgh area. Oakmont has played host to U.S. Open tournaments in the past.

"I'm proud about that," Bulger said.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"I joked with Jay (Zygmunt) that I'm going to find a way to do everything different this year. Last year, I had a black car, this year I have white car. I had long hair last year and this year is a crew cut. My son always goes down stairs one way and I always go the other way. This year I switched with him. I don't know if it's superstitious, but I'm having fun with it. I am going to approach things in a different way. Somebody approached me and said it's painful to watch you at the podium during such a rough year. This year I can't tell you what it's going to be, but we're going to do it together. It may be in the first scrimmage when we have some laughs, but we're going to do this together. And that's the way I approach it." -- Coach Scott Linehan on his different approach this season.

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