ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604090017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press, staff and Washington Post reports
The trade that would send the Washington Redskins' first-round draft choice to the St.Louis Rams for defensive lineman Sean Gilbert remains on track, but the deal isn't likely to be completed until after the holiday weekend, sources said Friday.
The trade would give each team something it needs. The Redskins want a young defensive tackle who is in his prime and ready to play at a Pro Bowl level. A draft pick may not reach that point for a couple years.
The Rams, who pick 13th overall, want to draft higher in the first round of April's draft, and Washington's sixth spot might enable them to select Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, who visited with Rams officials on Thursday. Phillips told reporters in St.Louis that Washington was among the teams he was due to visit, but a Redskins source said the visit has been canceled.
The 6-foot-4, 315-pound Gilbert has missed only four games in four NFL seasons, but he is recovering from shoulder surgery. He had cartilage snipped in one shoulder last winter and in the other in February.
After his Pro Bowl season of 1993 (10.5 sacks), Gilbert was hampered in 1994 by two sprained ankles, a sprained knee and the shoulder problem, but he started 14 games. Last season the 25-year-old Gilbert had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. He missed just two games.
In other football news:
Darnell Autry will be in the movies, after all.
The NCAA decided that Autry, Northwestern's star running back, ought to be in pictures - or at least have that right.
The administrative review panel granted the sophomore theater major a waiver of an NCAA rule prohibiting student athletes from appearing in commercial films.
OLYMPICS Suggs 8th in rifle trials
Matt Suggs of Roanoke is in eighth place after the first day of the 3x40 rifle field competition for the U.S. Olympic Team.
Suggs scored a 1,248.3 out of a possible 1,309.
Bob Foth of Colorado Springs, Colo., leads the event with a 1,260.9. Foth was an Olympian in 1992 and won the silver medal.
The top two shooters after three days of trials will make the 3x40 team.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Joe Markowicz ejects shells from his shotgun onby CNBFriday during the Olympic skeet shooting trials in Atlanta.