EARTH CITY, Mo. -- In case it wasn't already clear that the St. Louis Rams will do whatever it takes to prepare for the Green Bay Packers, linebacker Daren Bates added more evidence to the case Friday afternoon.
Attempting to give the Rams offense an opportunity to identify Packers linebacker Clay Matthews before plays, Bates went full-on method acting for his job on the scout team. Donning a blonde wig and a No. 52 jersey, Bates embraced his role.
Rams LB Daren Bates committed to playing the part of Clay Matthews in practice today with the wig and jersey. pic.twitter.com/OAOr7WDD0l
— Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) October 9, 2015Rams coach Jeff Fisher thought Bates did well in the Matthews role.
"He's a little shorter than Clay," Fisher said. "He moves around; he's watched Clay. I'm sure he grew up watching Clay and has a great deal of respect for Clay. Obviously we need to know where he is every snap so that's why we dressed him up a little bit."
From a pure aesthetics standpoint, however, Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams wasn't so fond of the look.
"It didn't really look good on him," Williams said, laughing. "He battles looks anyway. He doesn't need any more things to hurt him, for sure."
This isn't the first time the Rams have broken out the blonde wig to have a scout-team player impersonate Matthews. In 2012, linebacker Sammy Brown played the role.
That begged the question: Was it the same wig?
"No, that's not the same one," Fisher said. "I think Sammy took it with him."