Rams odd jobs: It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it

Each week the Los Angeles Times will examine some of the behind-the-scene jobs associated with the Rams:

It always seems to be laundry day inside the Rams’ locker room at their practice facility in Thousand Oaks. Enter Justin Gilbert and Jack Murray, clothes horses of a different kind. They are the Rams’ laundry men.

This isn’t exactly the work these equipment interns dreamed about when they considered a career in sports.

But it’s one step closer, a foot in the door.

Gilbert is a senior at Cal Lutheran University working toward a business degree. Murray recently graduated from UCLA with a degree in business economics and accounting.

“Hopefully I get somewhere higher up, in business stuff, managing,” Gilbert said.

Said Murray: “I would like to do sports finance or something like that. That’s my ultimate goal.”

The short-term goals are right in front of them. Gilbert doesn’t hesitate to dive into a deep yellow garbage bin full of soiled jerseys, sweatshirts, shorts, socks, towels and even some unmentionables. He searches for any shirt that’s unlike the others — the dry-fit type — as he sorts everything into bins that eventually will get thrown into washers.

“We’re sorting for shirts, to make sure they get hung up because they get washed a different way than the regular clothes do in the bags,” Gilbert explained.

As Gilbert sorts, Murray searches. He scours around lockers occupied by 53 players, picking up any dirty laundry they might have left behind.

“It’s important,” Murray said. “Everyone has stuff they want to wear for each game, each practice.”

And it’s the equipment intern’s job to make sure everything gets cleaned, and more importantly, that nothing gets ruined.

And that takes time. The interns patrol the locker room and surrounding areas from eight to 12 hours a day, not necessarily using a college degree, but rather home economics tips learned from Mom.

“It’s a cool experience, just being around the team and everything, kind of getting a certain viewpoint from it and making connections with people and meet people,” Murray said. “It’s cool being a part of the team.”

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