Injuries at the cornerback position in 2011 prompted the St. Louis Rams to invest heavily in the position this offseason. Cortland Finnegan was signed to a five-year, $50 million contract and the Rams added Janoris Jenkins in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft and Trumaine Johnson in the third.
The Rams reached agreement on rookie contracts with Jenkins and Johnson on Tuesday, which meant both should have been on the practice field at Rams Park on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Johnson overslept and missed his flight to St. Louis on Wednesday morning, Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
"I set my alarm clock," Johnson said after his day of practice on Thursday. "I didn't hear it. I missed my flight. I messed up."
Full-squad practices for the Rams do not begin until Sunday, so Johnson missing one day of practice is not too big a deal and Thomas notes there will be no fine involved. If there is a lesson to be learned from Johnson's scramble from Stockton, California to Earth City, Missouri, it's that agents should have their unsigned rookies in a local hotel a night or two before the player is due to report to training camp so he can hit the ground running.