Zampese Says He Wants This Job

Ernie Zampese, who has turned down numerous NFL head coaching jobs over the years, said Saturday that he is definitely interested in the Rams’ job and will meet with team officials on Monday.

Zampese, the Dallas offensive coordinator who is in Hawaii with the Cowboys’ staff for the Pro Bowl, spent seven of his 35 years coaching in the NFL as an assistant with the Los Angeles Rams, who intend to move to St. Louis this year.

“This would be a little different situation for me,” he said of the prospect of becoming the Rams’ head coach. “I know all their people real well, and (owner) Georgia Frontiere and (president) John Shaw have always been very nice to me and I like them. I think it’s something I should consider for my family.”

Although he told one newspaper earlier in the week that he thought he could have the Rams’ job if he wanted it, Zampese, 58, said Saturday that he wasn’t sure of that, adding, “I know they’re considering quite a few people.”

UCLA coach Terry Donahue and San Diego State’s Ted Tollner are reportedly also among the leading candidates for the job that came open when Chuck Knox was fired after the Rams went 4-12 last season.

Other candidates reportedly include Oregon coach Rich Brooks and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.

Davis stirs brew

The rivalry between the Denver Broncos and the Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders, which goes back to the early days of the AFL, became even hotter last week.

Raiders Owner Al Davis stoked the fire by taking a few shots at Mike Shanahan, the new Denver coach, after Davis had fired Art Shell and hired Mike White as the Raiders’ head coach.

Shanahan was Davis’ coach for 20 games in 1988-89. He was fired with an 8-12 mark and replaced by Shell.

Shanahan not only lost, but he irritated Davis by trying to do some things his way. With the Raiders, there’s only one way - Davis’ way.

After Davis fired him, Shanahan went back to Denver as an assistant coach and then moved on to San Francisco, where he called plays for the Super Bowl champions.

That made him this year’s hot assistant - except in Davis’ eyes.

“He’s six years older now,” Davis said. “When he was here, he was just overwhelmed. Everything was explained to him, what he had to do. Maybe he just didn’t hear me. Then in Denver, they fired him for sneaking around and doing things underhanded against the coach (an apparent reference to rumors that Shanahan sided with John Elway instead of former coach Dan Reeves).

“He was just so insecure. He used to talk to the players at this lectern here and he would put a box behind it so he would seem taller. One day, the players were going to juke the box so he would go down. I had to get rid of him.”

Davis also denied reports that he dictated what Shanahan should do.

“Anyone who knows me knows that 50 percent of our offense (under Shanahan) was the shotgun offense. And if anyone dislikes the shotgun, it’s Al Davis,” Davis said. “But they ran it 50 percent of the time. He said he wasn’t able to run his own plays.”

When The Genius talks …

Bill Walsh has been gone from the 49ers for six years, but he still has a lot of clout. He may have more than Miami’s Don Shula, who’s still coaching.

When Philadelphia Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie selected his fifth choice - Ray Rhodes of the 49ers - over Gary Stevens, a Miami assistant under Shula, Walsh’s recommendation may have been the deciding factor.

“I’m sure he was a factor,” Stevens said. “Bill has his pipeline, and Ray is one of his guys. Bill Walsh is a very big name, and when he talks some owners listen.”

Rhodes becomes the third African-American head coach in modern NFL history, although Shell’s firing leaves the NFL with only two.

In the past, minority coaches didn’t have friends in the right places, but that’s starting to change. Former Walsh assistants Rhodes and Dennis Green of the Minnesota Vikings now have head coaching jobs. Four other Walsh assistants are head coaches.

Moon over Houston?

With one year left in his contract with the Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Warren Moon has told a Houston newspaper that he would like to return to the Houston Oilers to finish his career.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle for today’s editions, Moon said he would welcome a reconciliation with the Oilers and owner Bud Adams.

“I think it would be the right thing to do, considering I spent 10 years of my career with the Oilers,” he said.

Moon was angrily critical of the Oilers after the team he led to the 1993 playoffs traded him to Minnesota before last season. The new NFL salary cap was cited as the reason for the trade.

Around the league

Former All-Pro wide receiver Sterling Sharpe is expected to spend the weekend in a North Carolina hospital after undergoing surgery to repair two vertebrae in his neck. Team physician Patrick McKenzie said the surgery, performed by Dr. Craig Brigham at the North Carolina Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., “went well and as planned.”

Cardinals quarterback Steve Beuerlein is expected to be the first pick of either Jacksonville, which goes first, or Carolina in the Feb. 15 expansion draft. Beuerlein has a cap number of $2.083 million, easy for an expansion team to swallow.

Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter is considered the best player in the April 22 draft. Will Carolina take him No. 1? The old theory for expansion teams was not to take a back so high because he would get beat up playing behind a patchwork offensive line. But with free agency, the expansion teams have a chance to reach respectability quicker… . Alcorn State’s Steve McNair is likely to be the first quarterback taken, probably by Houston at No. 3.