[KingPriest2]

Priest Holmes Chronicles - Take 2
Oct 11, 2004, 12:30:00 PM by Bob Gretz

This is the second of a three-part series on the remarkable production of Chiefs running back Priest Holmes, who this past Thursday celebrated his 31st birthday.


Age is a relative thing. There are 50-year old spirits living in the bodies of 20-year olds. There are 60-year olds who think and act like someone half that age. Age is mind over matter.

Unless however, one should happen to be a running back in the National Football League. Then, it becomes nearly impossible for the mind to overcome the bumps, bruises, aches, pains and major injuries that accumulate over the career of a talented running back.

Think about the hits that running backs absorb in every game and it’s not hard to understand the NFL axiom that once a running back hits 30, it’s all downhill.

That’s the history that Priest Holmes is running up against right now. Holmes celebrated his 31st birthday last week. After four weeks of the 2004 season, he was leading the NFL in rushing and was on pace to have the best season of his career.

What Holmes is doing would be impressive for a running back of any age. For a back over the age of 30, it’s uncharted territory. On his current pace, Holmes would finish the season with 1,904 yards. The most yards by a running back at 30 or older came in 1984 when Walter Payton ran for 1,684 yards when he was 30 years old.

Quarterbacks frequently play into their late 30s. Linemen on both sides of the ball are contributors well into their third decade. Not so at running back. Research shows that while the age barrier may not be exactly 30, it’s close. More like 31, maybe 32 years of age is where the production falls off dramatically at that position.

In NFL history, there have been 422 cases where a running back gained 1,000 yards or more during a season. The first was Beattie Feathers of the Chicago Bears, who ran for 1,004 yards in 1934, the first season of professional football. Last year, there were 18 backs who gained over 1,000 yards.

Of those 422 seasons of 1,000 yards or more, only 28 have come from running backs 30 years or older. That’s just seven percent. Here’s the list:



As that charts shows, the bulk of the running backs with 1,000 yards when they were 30 or older were 32 and younger. Only four backs older than 32 have been able to gain 1,000 yards in a season:





There are always exceptions. Kansas City fans saw the greatest one in the 1990s with Marcus Allen, who remained an effective NFL runner at the age of 37. He gained 505 yards on 124 carries during the 1997 season. No running back in NFL statistical history has carried that many times and gained that many yards at the age of 37. The legendary Jim Thorpe scored two rushing touchdowns in 1926 at the age of 39, but there are no statistics available on rushing attempts and yardage.

In fact, few come close to matching Allen for productivity into his later years. Only John Riggins (176 carries for 677 yards during the 1985 season) and John Henry Johnson (70 carries for 226 yards in 1966) were able to top 100 yards rushing at the age of 36. Allen carried 206 times for 830 yards in 1996 when he was 36 years old.

Consider the names you’ve just read: Allen, Riggins, Johnson, Franco Harris, Payton. That’s the kind of company Holmes is running with right now.