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Heal to the Chief

Mended in body and spirit, Priest Holmes wins another term on field

Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 9, 2007 at midnight

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OK, go ahead, call it a comeback.

An improbable, illogical, totally out of the ordinary comeback, but Kansas City Chiefs running back Priest Holmes likely will start a football game against the Broncos on Sunday.

Start a football game after a comeback from a head and neck injury he suffered Oct. 30, 2005.

A football countdown that Holmes put at 721 days before he played in his first game this season, three weeks ago against Oakland.

"I think I've done everything I can that's in my reach to get back on the field,"

Holmes, 34, said. "Lo and behold, an opportunity has arisen."

Arisen in the painful, sweat-soaked path many have tried to walk in years gone by in the NFL, the same one many more will be asked to try as future seasons unfold.

For the pulls and strains, fractures and tears always will come with a parade of X-rays in tow.

Football has a price tag, one that easily is read among the magnetic resonance imaging exams each and every Monday morning around the league.

And players such as Holmes, Broncos receiver Rod Smith and Broncos rookie defensive end Jarvis Moss, who suffered a fractured lower leg in practice last month, will try to do whatever they can to get their repaired bodies back on the field, to be what they were once again.

"You listen to your body," is how Smith, who is on the Broncos' reserve/physically unable to perform list for the remainder of the season as he recovers from hip surgery, has described the workload.

"You try to push through it and work through it, but you have to be patient, too, because part of you knows pushing through the pain is how you got hurt in the first place."

Rekindled desire

Holmes' two-year odyssey, though, certainly is not the norm.

After suffering a neck injury on a tackle by Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, Holmes, who had rushed for 8,035 yards and caught passes for 2,945 in nine NFL seasons, said he was advised by doctors to avoid football and anything related to it.

So Holmes, who already had overcome what some believed to be a career-ending hip injury to close out the 2001 season, returned to San Antonio and lived life outside football for 20 months until hosting a camp this past summer.

"As far as having any type of desire (for a comeback), it didn't arrive until this past (June), the 29th of June," Holmes said. "We had a two-day camp in San Antonio, which we have annually - it's called Camp With the Pros. After being out there with the young people, helping them out, doing drills, signing autographs, taking pictures, we did a TV interview.

"On that following Saturday or Sunday, one of the stations aired it . . . and they actually had a number of runs in a little clip before they went into the story. And it actually kind of caught me off-guard, sitting with family and friends. I couldn't even believe I had made certain touchdowns the way that I did. It really just brought back that desire to do that type of stuff again."

So when the Chiefs - general manager Carl Peterson among them - asked

Holmes in July if he would like to be included in a retirement ceremony with former guard Will Shields during the season, Holmes took the big step.

"The one thing they asked me is, 'Are you ready to retire? We might be able to put you in the retirement ceremony with Will Shields,' and I looked at them and said, 'No, I don't think I'm ready to retire, I think I'm going to come back and play,' " Holmes said. "They looked at me and said, 'Are you sure?' because I hadn't worked out in two years. It really caught some people off-guard."

Said Peterson: "He's a marvelous human being. It's almost like his mantra or motivation is, 'Tell me I can't do that. Tell me this absolutely, unequivocally can't happen, and I'll prove you wrong.' "

Going it alone

The most difficult thing for many injured players is to suddenly be removed from the team's day-to-day workings. One day, they're among an elite group, on the inside; the next, they have a new schedule surrounded by teammates now doing other things.

While they are working with the training staff in their injury rehabilitation, the team is going through its usual meeting and practice schedule.

Smith goes to practice each day with the Broncos, but most players out for an extended period of time with an injury either go it alone, for the most part, or work only with other injured players.

"Yeah, it can really get to some guys," said Broncos tackle Matt Lepsis, who missed 10 games of the 2006 season after knee surgery. "Suddenly, you're out of the mix, and it really bothers some guys - I've said they just go in the tank. But for me, I chose to look at the time as a benefit, to make myself better - that's what got me through."

Former Broncos tackle Adam Meadows is one of the few players to have tried what Holmes has done this year.

After surgeries to repair a cyst, torn labrum and nerve damage in his shoulder didn't fix everything, Meadows retired from the NFL before the 2004 season, even returning his signing bonus to the Carolina Panthers to walk away.

He did not play in either 2004 or '05, instead running residential construction and real estate development companies in Georgia, only to try his return to football in '06, working out with the Broncos, Saints and Packers before he signed in Denver.

Meadows always said he "saw the "light- at-the-end-of-the-tunnel picture" in his time away from football.

"But I still had the will to play," Meadows said. "It was a matter of getting healthy. When you are hurt, it's difficult, sometimes, to get through it all. But when I felt stronger, felt better, the desire really came back." Inspirational role

The 5-foot-9, 213-pound Holmes, who is expected to replace injured Larry Johnson in the Chiefs' lineup Sunday, said his time away made him appreciate being in the game more and added that the work to get back on the field left him in better shape than he was when Merriman's tackle sent him into football uncertainty.

"A week before we went to training camp, I anticipated he was going to retire," said Chiefs coach Herm Edwards, who indicated Holmes could get 15 to 20 carries against the Broncos. "Then he called and said he wanted to try to come back. It's a credit to him."

"I'm not so much trying to be that guy before the injury," said Holmes, who has rushed for 17 yards in limited action in two games this season.

"Definitely, I accomplished a lot of great things at that time, but right now, there's much more I'm going to be able to accomplish in different ways. . . . I think, in terms of being here and inspiring the younger players we have on this team and showing them regardless of whatever you have to go through, you can always bounce back."

The long road back

Several Broncos battled their way through an arduous recovery from their injuries in 2006 to play in 2007, and several now are trying to get back on the field for '08.

• 2006

Player Injury Then Now

Nick Ferguson Knee surgery Missed six games Starter again

Cecil Sapp Fractured leg Missed five games Special teams

Matt Lepsis Knee surgery Missed 10 games Starter again

Courtney Brown Knee surgery Missed 16 games Out of league

• 2007

Player Injury Status

Ebenezer Ekuban Torn Achilles' Won't play this season; '08 still tendon a question

Rod Smith Hip surgery Won't play this season; '08 still a question

Ben Hamilton Concussion Won't play this season

Tom Nalen Torn biceps Played five games, on injured reserve

Nate Jackson Groin injury Played five games, on injured reserve

Stephen Alexander Leg fracture Inactive for four games, on injured reserve

Priest Holmes' career statistics

Year Team RUSHING Att Yds Avg TD Rec RECEIVING Yds Avg. TD

1997 Baltimore 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.0 0

1998 Baltimore 233 1,008 4.3 7 43 260 6.0 0

1999 Baltimore 89 506 5.7 1 13 104 8.0 1

2000 Baltimore 137 588 4.3 2 32 221 6.9 0

2001 Kansas City 327 1,555 4.8 8 62 614 9.9 2

2002 Kansas City 313 1,615 5.2 21 70 672 9.6 3

2003 Kansas City 320 1,420 4.4 27 74 690 9.3 0

2004 Kansas City 196 892 4.6 14 19 187 9.8 1

2005 Kansas City 119 451 3.8 6 21 197 9.4 1

2007 Kansas City 7 17 2.4 0 2 2 1.0 0

Totals 1,741 8,052 4.6 86 336 2,947 8.8 8