Rams OW Tavon Austin is catching on

The St. Louis Rams' rookie class was in Ohio this week for the annual Rookie Symposium. That's the league's immersion course in life lessons like financial planning, history and everything else that isn't covered by the playbook. SiriusXM Radio caught up with first-round pick Tavon Austin on Friday, who has already had a bit of an introduction to the lessons of being a pro since April.

"It was definitely good for me," Austin said. "It was good to hear a lot of the old players come back and tell their stories about why they're out of the league or what they can do to save their money.

"I learned a few things, and I'm definitely glad I got to come here and take advantage of it."

Following the draft, Austin said that he'd already been hit up by a long list of people from the past, "cousins" he didn't even know he had back in Baltimore. It made some minor waves in the press. Nevertheless, Austin shut it down on his own and did so pretty hastily, later admitting that he wished he hadn't said it.

That lesson stood for him this week at the Symposium.

"The thing that stood out to me was about the money. A lot of people they've called me, but I'm pretty much going to put it in somebody else's hands, make them the bad guy. I'm staying out of it. I'm just going to do what I love doing, playing football."

The Rams spent some extra time with the rookies after the conclusion of OTAs, talking about the same things. La'Roi Glover, the team's Director of Player Programs, adds an extra layer for the team's rookies, someone to mentor them for all those off-field things.

"He's our father slash big brother," Austin said of Glover. "He teaches us about life lessons. We talked about things we've talked about [at the Rookie Symposium], so it's good to hear it again."

He also talked about the offense and his place in it. Needless to say, he feels pretty good about it.

"It was hard," Austin admitted. "I'm so hard on myself, I wanted to get it right there, I wanted to perform right there, but it takes time. After about four or five days of OTAs, I started picking it up, making a couple plays, so it's definitely coming along now.

"I'm like a freshman all over again."

You can listen to the entire interview below.