The Rams practiced this morning and then packed up for a late-afternoon flight to Seattle. The team normally travels on Saturdays, but coach Scott Linehan went with a new schedule in an attempt to reduce the effect of the two-hour time difference as well as the 4 1/2-hour flight.

“It’s a long flight, and that’s a problem. It just seemed like we were really dead when we got there on Saturdays,” Linehan explained. “It gives us a little more time to acclimate and get that flight out of you.”

Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt is thinking along the same lines. The NFC West-leading Big Red also is traveling today, to Washington where it will meet the Redskins on Sunday. Then the Cardinals will stay in D.C. to practice for next week’s game against the Jets in East Rutherford, N.J.

“It saves us 6,000 miles of travel and 10 hours in an airplane,” Whisenhunt told reporters in Arizona. “That’s a big difference . . . when you travel that long in an airplane, your body suffers.”

As an NFL player, Whisenhunt once spent a week in California for back-to-back games in Los Angeles and San Francisco. “I thought it worked out well,” he said.

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Notes & quotes:

*CB Ron Bartell, who took a shot just below his ribcage Wednesday and sat out Thursday, was back at practice Friday and will play Sunday. “I feel fine; I feel perfect,” he said. “The swelling went down, and I have all my movement back.”

*Bartell said Qwest Field is his favorite stop on the road. “The crowd, the weather, the backdrop . . . everything’s wonderful,” he said. “I just like playing there.”

*DE Leonard Little and G Jacob Bell were listed as “questionable” Friday with hamstring injuries. Little probably won’t suit up Sunday. Bell might, but Adam Goldberg is expected to start at left guard.

*WR Torry Holt, on former teammate Isaac Bruce’s four-catch, 153-yard day for Frisco last week in its overtime win at Seattle: “It was really good to see Ike out on the field and having a good time. He was very efficient.”

*Donnie Jones, whose 51.2-yard punting average is No. 1 in the league, played tight end his senior year at Catholic High in Baton Rouge, La., with pretty good results. “I was in P.E. class one day, and we were playing flag football,” Jones recalled. “I was just running around, catching some passes, and the coach asked me if I’d ever played there. I think I had almost 500 yards receiving and seven or eight touchdowns.”

*C Brett Romberg might need surgery on his hand, which was broken in training camp. If so, it will be done after the season.

*Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren isn’t letting his players get away with anything just because they know he’s retiring after the season. “He’ll throw little jabs in, like, ‘Don’t think I won’t fine you. I’ll get my money’s worth out of you before I get out of here,’” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “So I’d say it’s business as usual for us.”

*Sunday’s forecast for Seattle: high of 60 degrees, with a 30 percent chance of rain.

All for now . . .