Rams running back C.J. Anderson speaks to reporters during a news...

Rams running back C.J. Anderson speaks to reporters during a news conference for Super Bowl LIII on Tuesday in Atlanta. Credit: AP/John Bazemore

BUCKHEAD, Ga. – We’d like to think that when a team makes a roster decision on a player and parts ways with him, there is some big heartfelt meeting in which the organization lays out its reasons, the player gets to thank the front office and coaches (or possibly vent his frustrations), and the two sides embrace each other as well as the possibility that they may one day be together again.

That’s the “Hard Knocks” effect on the public perception of the business of football.

The reality? It’s usually more like a mob hit that you never see coming, quick and businesslike. A tap on the shoulder, some paperwork, and goodbye.

No one knows that more than C.J. Anderson. The running back was released by two teams this year – and three in his career — before landing on his third roster of the season with the Rams. This season the Panthers and Raiders brought the ax down without much conversation.

“I got released,” Anderson said with a little chuckle Tuesday at the Super Bowl. “They weren’t telling me nothing.”

Anderson, though, said he was able to surmise the reasons each time he was cut loose, and that helped him remain confident in his ability. “I honestly believe being released by three teams wasn’t because of talent,” he said. “There were just circumstances.”

In Denver, where he helped the Broncos win Super Bowl 50, he was a salary-cap casualty. He went to the Panthers, where Christian McCaffrey emerged as the go-to back. He landed with the Raiders but never played for them in his week-long tenure there because they suffered injuries to their offensive line and had to add at that position.

Then Rams running back Todd Gurley, who was in early-season MVP conversations, got hurt, and the team needed someone to come in and help out. Anderson was that guy.

“At the end of the day you have to believe in yourself and believe in your talent and what you can do,” said Anderson, a former undrafted free agent. 

Three teams’ trash is another team’s treasure.

These past few weeks have proved his value. While Gurley’s production has dipped, Anderson’s has soared. In the NFC Championship Game, the mid-December pickup was a bigger part of the game plan than Gurley. In Sunday’s Super Bowl, with Gurley still dealing with his knee injury, he might be again.

More likely the Rams will use the two of them in conjunction. Working in tandem presents a different dynamic for running backs and different elements to being successful.

“Respecting each other's game is one,” Anderson said. “Friendship is another. I’ve known Todd for a while, so it’s not like I came in and it was brand new.”

It also helps when the two backs have different skill sets.

“The explosiveness, the speed, the quickness, what he does with the football is super, super special,” the 5-8, 225-pound Anderson said of Gurley. “When I come in the game, it’s more smack-you-in-the-mouth, downhill, get the pads down and try to find a way to pick up as much yardage as we can.”

So at a time when some around the league are pondering the value of having a marquee running back, the Rams are showing how important it can be to have two of them.

“Just keep it moving, that’s what we’ve been doing,” Gurley said of their dynamic together. “He’s been a great addition for us ever since he came in. It’s good. He’s a Super Bowl champion. He can teach us how to be a Super Bowl champion. To have him on the team is cool.”

It’s also cool for Anderson that he landed with a team that was poised to make this title run. But the fact that none of his former teams even made the playoffs this year brings him no satisfaction.

“None at all,” he said of the potential for any last laughs or told-you-so’s.

If there were some, he probably wouldn’t tell them anyway.

Will Grayson Meak faceoff against Devin Downes in counties? Meanwhile North Babylon’s Jasmine McKay hoops it up and there's history on the mat in Nassau County in Episode 2 of "Sarra Sounds Off."  Credit: Mario Gonzalez

 SARRA SOUNDS OFF: Wrestling, North Babylon hoops and more! Will Grayson Meak faceoff against Devin Downes in counties? Meanwhile North Babylon's Jasmine McKay hoops it up and there's history on the mat in Nassau County in Episode 2 of "Sarra Sounds Off." 

Will Grayson Meak faceoff against Devin Downes in counties? Meanwhile North Babylon’s Jasmine McKay hoops it up and there's history on the mat in Nassau County in Episode 2 of "Sarra Sounds Off."  Credit: Mario Gonzalez

 SARRA SOUNDS OFF: Wrestling, North Babylon hoops and more! Will Grayson Meak faceoff against Devin Downes in counties? Meanwhile North Babylon's Jasmine McKay hoops it up and there's history on the mat in Nassau County in Episode 2 of "Sarra Sounds Off." 

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