By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

MEQUON, Wis. – Rams running back Steven Jackson officially became a hold out on Friday morning when he missed the team’s first official meeting of training camp.

The question now becomes just how long Jackson will be absent. President Jay Zygmunt said Friday afternoon that the Rams made a lucrative contract offer to Eugene Parker, Jackson’s agent late, Thursday night.

Zygmunt received a call from Parker on Friday afternoon informing him that Jackson would not be accepting the offer. At that point, Zygmunt informed Parker that Jackson would be fined (the maximum is $15,000) for any and all missed time at training camp and any further negotiations would continue only if Jackson arrives at camp.

“Last evening we made Steven an offer through Eugene Parker that would put Steven in the top group of running backs in the NFL,” Zygmunt said. “Eugene called me sometime shortly after lunch today and informed me they weren’t accepting the offer and at that time told me that Steven would not be showing up today. He didn’t mention when he might be coming in or anything of that nature. The only thing I mentioned to Eugene was that’s fine, we would really like to get something done with him. I advised him, though, that this would be considered an unexcused absence, he would be fined and as soon as he got into camp that we would like to continue negotiations but we will not be negotiating when he is not at camp.”

Jackson has one year left on his contract but a complicated offseason involving a change of agents from Gary Uberstine to Parker stalled negotiations on a new contract.

In the aftermath of the 2007 season, Zygmunt and the Rams informed Jackson and Uberstine that getting him signed to a long term contract was one of the team’s top priorities.

The passing of owner Georgia Frontiere put those negotiations on the backburner but the Rams held their position that they wanted to strike a deal.

“Early this offseason, we approached Steven and his representative and expressed a Rams interest in a long term deal with him,” Zygmunt said. “Obviously, Steven is not only an outstanding player but an outstanding person. It was something we really wanted to get done; it was one of the priorities of the offseason.”

Zygmunt had scheduled meetings with Uberstine for after April’s NFL Draft in hopes an agreement could be reached. That became impossible when Uberstine and Jackson parted ways around the same time.

For his part, Jackson did and said all of the right things in the offseason. He told stlouisrams.com during the team’s minicamp that he expected to get a deal done and that he wanted to remain a Ram.

In the meantime, he dutifully attended most of the offseason activities and spoke optimistically about the team’s chances for a rebound in 2008.

“He didn’t miss anything, he had a great offseason,” coach Scott Linehan said. “These things happen like this.”

Jackson spent the better part of the summer months searching for a new agent before settling on Eugene Parker near the end of June. Soon after, the Rams resumed negotiations, hoping an accord could be reached before training camp.

The two sides continued negotiations even up until the final moments before the team traveled to Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon.

Not long before the team departed, though, Jackson called Linehan and informed him he would not be flying with the team to Mequon. Ever the optimist, Linehan hoped Jackson’s absence was a temporary condition.

“He said, 'I’m not going to be on the plane,'” Linehan said. “He gave me a heads up. I try to be a positive thinker and hope that it would be nothing like a holdout or whatever. But I also understand the nature of this business and I’m hopeful everything will get resolved quickly. I have such respect for Steven and he was respectful with letting me know he wasn’t going to be on the plane.”

Although quarterback Marc Bulger was on the verge of a similar situation prior to the 2007 season that never reached the point where Bulger actually missed a practice. To the best of Zygmunt’s recollection, the most recent time a Ram under contract was a “holdout” was Jerome Bettis in 1995. 

“I don’t think you have a whole lot of holdouts in the league right now,” Zygmunt said. “That’s kind of the way the system has worked in free agency. There’s not many of these right now. We would like to get this thing resolved. We would like Steven here for a long time and hopefully we can get it worked out relatively shortly.”

The Rams’ hard stance on getting Jackson to camp without further negotiating is nothing new. In fact, another Parker client recently juked his way into and out of a potential holdout. The Bears’ Devin Hester threatened to stay out of camp until he received a new contract.

When Chicago took a similar stance, Hester caved and arrived at camp. For now, the Rams are hoping that Jackson will make a move similar to Hester and be in camp sooner than later.

“They have countered and we have countered them,” Zygmunt said. “We have a compressed timetable. It was a little bit of a different schedule. In the bigger picture, we are hopeful that he’ll show up and we’ll be able to get him done and he’ll wear our uniform for a lot of years.”