Cardinals’ James Resembles Old Self After a Trying Season

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Given the declarations coming from the Cardinals’ locker room about proving naysayers wrong, it was curious that as Edgerrin James pulled on a sweatshirt Saturday after Arizona’s 30-24 win over Atlanta, there did not appear to be a discernable chip on either of his shoulders.

If there was anyone among the Cardinals who could talk about being disrespected or written off, it was James.

Earlier this season, he lost his starting job to the rookie Tim Hightower. His request to be released was rebuffed, and he said last week that he did not plan on being back with the Cardinals next year. He said his idea of playing running back was not to block in pass protection 50 times a game.
So, did James view his performance Saturday — when he rushed for 73 yards on 16 carries and gave the Cardinals a semblance of balance that they lacked almost all season — as redemption?

“It’s playoff football, man,” said James, who brushed off several versions of the question.

This might have been the most disappointing and least productive season of his career, but there is no bitterness in James.

“It really has nothing to do with proving something to somebody,” James, 30, said. “Once I feel like I can’t play, I won’t go play the game. I’m not in a situation where I have to play. If I couldn’t play at a high level, I would hang it up.”

When James left the Indianapolis Colts and signed a four-year, $30 million contract with Arizona as a free agent in 2006, it seemed a good fit. The Cardinals had not had a 1,000-yard rusher since 1998. James was expected to be the complement to a passing game that would be developed around quarterback Matt Leinart, their first-round draft pick; and two of the N.F.L.’s best young receivers: Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.

But James struggled behind a woeful offensive line, the Cardinals got off to a 1-8 start, and Coach Dennis Green was fired at the end of the season. The Cardinals hired Ken Whisenhunt as the coach, and when Leinart was injured early in the 2007 season, they turned to Kurt Warner, who began to resemble the quarterback who had won two Most Valuable Player awards.

James entered the season with questions about how much he had left, given that he began 2008 with 366 more career carries than any other back in the league. He rushed for 100 yards on 26 carries in a season-opening victory over San Francisco, but he was rarely productive after that. After he was benched in Week 9, James carried 11 times over the next eight games.

“Obviously, things didn’t go the way he envisioned them, or the way I’m sure a lot of us envisioned our offense going,” guard Reggie Wells said. “But he persevered and showed up every day to do his job.”

Not that this should have been a surprise. Peyton Manning once called James the best teammate he had ever had, and the Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, gave James a Super Bowl ring even though he left the team a season before they won the title.

“It’s just part of the business,” James said. “I’m not going to embarrass my family. I’m not going to embarrass my momma because I wasn’t raised to act crazy and go off. I said, You know what? This is what I signed up for. You’ve got to take the good with the bad. You’ve got to stand on the sidelines and do what you’re supposed to do. If I didn’t want to do it, all I had to do was not play. Just say, O.K., I’m going home. But I want to play.”

James got his chance in an otherwise meaningless season finale, rushing for 100 yards on 14 carries against Seattle. With Hightower struggling for an offense whose 3.3 yards a carry was the lowest average in the N.F.L., Whisenhunt turned to James against Atlanta on Saturday.

He carried the ball on three consecutive plays, for 6, 9 and 6 yards, to begin the Cardinals’ second series. He was given the ball on the next play, but flipped it back to Warner, who threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald.

“Edge, from Day 1 of his career, has been known as a guy who doesn’t go backward, who doesn’t take negative runs,” Wells said. “He takes what he can get.”

Late in the third quarter, James took a handoff, juked defensive end Chauncey Davis at the line of scrimmage, ran through the arm tackle of linebacker Keith Brooking, and was brought down by three Falcons after a 10-yard gain. It was part of a drive in which he carried four times for 19 yards and caught a 9-yard pass to convert a third down. The drive ended with Hightower’s touchdown run that put Arizona ahead, 30-17.

“That’s his game,” said Falcons tight end Marcus Pollard, who played six seasons with James in Indianapolis. “He’s strong enough to run over people and quick enough to run around them and make people miss. He looked like Edgerrin James to me in every way.”

When James was asked if he might reconsider leaving the Cardinals, it was the one time he did not take the ball and run with it.

“I don’t want to bring a dark cloud over what is going on right now,” he said. “Everybody knows I can run. It’s just a matter of the situation.

Situations dictate a lot in this business. As far as next year, I’m just going to enjoy this and ride it out.”

(nytimes.com)