I’m happy to be with the Rams, but mostly I’m just happy to have the opportunity to play football again. I’m on my third contract and at the end I’ll have been in the league 13 years. That’s a lot of years on the D-line.

It will be good to play for Spags again, I had some of my best years when he was the Giants defensive coordinator. He’s a coach the players can relate to, they always know what to expect from him. I have a lot of respect for him so it’s a great fit for me in St. Louis.

At the end of the day you have to be comfortable with your situation, and Spags was the main reason I wanted to play for the Rams. There are a couple other guys I know on the squad and I felt very comfortable when I went out there. I’m happy with my deal and looking forward to helping the team win some games.

It’s a new challenge coming from a team that won the Super Bowl a couple years ago to a team that won 1 game last year. But this defense has a lot of talent. They’re young and could use some veteran leadership I think to get guys on the same page, get the defense feeding off each other. You can have all the good players you want, but until they’re playing together, they won’t make a great defense.

The Rams were in a lot of games last year but lost by a few points. A play here or there could have made the difference in 5 or 6 games.

I had some great years in New York, played with a lot of great players, but things like this happen all the time in this game. You don’t always finish with the team that you started with. I do want to thank the fans, the coaches and everybody else who helped me with my career when I was with the Giants. I would have liked to have finished my career in New York, but things happen.

Fred Robbins is a defensive tackle with the St. Louis Rams. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.fredrobbins98.com.