Laurinaitis is ready to hit the field

ST. LOUIS -- Being a holdout was something that St. Louis Rams rookie linebacker James Laurinaitis wanted to avoid more than a missed tackle or a blown assignment.

Laurinaitis, a second-round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, signed a four-year contract with the Rams on Wednesday.

He promptly headed to the Embassy Suites in St. Charles, Mo., checking in at the hotel a few of hours ahead of deadline for rookies to report for training camp.

"It's nice to have all that out of the way,'' Laurinaitis said. "It's time for football now.''

Rookies, quarterbacks and a few selected veterans will hold two 90-minute practices today at the team's headquarters in Earth City, Mo.

The first full-squad practice is slated for Friday afternoon.

Laurinaitis seemed truly relieved to have signed -- getting the "monkey off his back,'' as he called it -- his first NFL contract.

"Before I left, Coach (Steve) Spagnuolo kind of said, 'Hey, I don't like talking about all of that contractual stuff, but make sure you get into camp on time,''' Laurinaitis said. "You don't want anybody thinking of you as that guy holding out. You don't want that label on you.''

Projected as the Rams' starting middle linebacker, Laurinaitis couldn't afford to miss much practice time.

"You can look at the plays on a sheet of paper all you want, but until you actually go out there and go through it ... you're going to fall behind,'' Laurinaitis said.

The Rams also have signed defensive tackle Darell Scott, a fourth-round draft choice, and quarterback Keith Null, a sixth-round draft choice.

That leaves first-rounder Jason Smith, an offensive tackle out of Baylor who was taken with the No. 2 overall selection, as the Rams' only unsigned draft pick.

Laurinaitis had 375 career tackles at Ohio State, the seventh highest total in school history.

While he got his feet wet during the Rams' minicamps and Organized Team Activities this spring, Laurinaitis said he was looking forward to putting on the pads during training camp.

"A lot of guys look very good in shorts, you know what I mean,'' Laurinaitis said. "When you're a linebacker, wearing shorts all the time is kind of hard for you. Your whole position is about physicality and showing what you can do.''

Laurinaitis said he felt ready for two-a-day practices.

"Having straight two-a-days is like going back to high school,'' said Laurinaitis, noting that college teams hold two-a-days every other day under NCAA rules. "It's been a while and the body is not used to it, but I tried to prepare myself by working out twice a day back home.''

Laurinaitis prepared for training camp by spending the past three weeks attending workouts run by Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald in Minnesota.

"Larry and I have known each other just from being Minnesota high school football products,'' Laurinaitis said. "There's not many of us that make it to the NFL. The few of us that there are, we're interconnected. He's just great guy. I wanted to go home to see my family, and getting to train with a world-class athlete like him was fun.''

Laurinaitis said he worked on his pass protection by going against Pittsburgh tight end Matt Spaeth and Arizona tight end Dominique Byrd, formerly of the Rams, during Fitzgerald's workouts.

Laurinaitis said he queried Fitzgerald about how he handled the rigors of training camp.

"I asked him, 'How do you get through it?' He said, 'The most important thing I can tell you is take care of your body,''' Laurinaitis said. "As long as I can stick to it, those nights when you get done with that second practice and you want to do is go back and go to sleep, get in that cold tub, stretch and do certain things to help your body.''

Laurinaitis said he wasn't planning any spending sprees to celebrate his contract.

"I'm totally the opposite,'' Laurinaitis said. "I'll give it all to my financial team and tell them to put it away so I can't touch it. Put me on my budget and make sure I keep spending what I was used to in college getting that scholarship check.''

Laurinaitis said he learned to be frugal from his family.

His father, Joe, was a professional wrestler whose ring name was "Animal.'' He was a member of the tag team known as Road Warriors.

"I'm very cheap, and I credit that to my parents,'' Laurinaitis said. "They brought me up in humble beginnings. My dad, even though he was in the profession he was, he was always about saving it or giving it away to family.''