Seahawks' James: On Edge of NFL history

Seattle Seahawks running back Edgerrin James needs 18 yards to move into the Top 10 all-time rushing leaders in NFL history. And, yeah, it matters to him.

A lot of professional athletes will pretend they're not paying that much attention to the numbers or rankings, but James doesn't dodge the question of the importance of closing in on Marcus Allen's 12,243 career yardage mark.
"It means a lot to me because especially in this day and era, you're not going to see too many guys moving to the 10- and 12,000 yards because of the two backs and the way the NFL is moving," James said.

"It's like me, LT, Fred T, Portis, we're like the last of the dying breed of running backs. You have to embrace it. When you really look at it, you say you're not going to have running backs that are going to actually accomplish this feat.

"I'll maybe do it at 31 years old and I can play. It's up to me how long I want to play and how far I want to go up that chart. That's super important to me. I'm glad I got off to a fast start. You see a lot of these guys and they're splitting time and not getting the opportunities and it's going to be tough for guys to get 10 or 12,000 yards."

James rushed for 46 yards on 16 carries last week, his most significant action since signing with the Seahawks several weeks into training camp. His career total stands at 12,226 yards.

He needs just 54 more to move past Marshall Faulk and another 33 to pass Jim Brown into eighth all time. From there, it will take 427 more yards to catch Tony Dorsett at No. 7, but James isn't putting any limits on his sights.

"I'm not chasing the top 10," he said. "I'm chasing all of them."

But how much tread is left on the tires?

James isn't buying any notion that he's lost something. He says his late arrival with the Seahawks has forced him to play catch up on the offensive system, but he insists the game and practices aren't nearly as physical as they were when he entered the NFL in 1999 and that he can keep going several more seasons in the right situation.

"Everything for me is based upon my kids, so I'm year to year," he said. "But realistically, I know it's probably two, three years. This year plus two. It's so easy. It's not like it used to be. It's not a physical game any more. It's just a matter of taking care of your body and getting in a nice situation with a coach who isn't going to run you into the ground or just beat you down in camp or practice.

"Kids these days are different. It's the video-game era. They're not going to do all that stuff that used to go on."
James likes to sound like some throwback to the '60s. He jokes about linebackers who used to go out for cigarettes at halftime of games when he first came into the league and says teams now are more focused on speed than power.

He says that's the reason teams are splitting carries between two backs so much and just another reason he can keep playing several more years.

"It's totally different now," he said. "It's a more finesse game. It's easier for someone like myself. It's like a speed game now. They just want fast guys who move up and down the field. It's turned into an entertainment."

Ironically, James could move into the top 10 playing against the Arizona team he spent the past three seasons with. He says it won't be nearly as emotional as the return to Indianapolis two weeks earlier to face the team he started with.

He grew unhappy in Arizona last year when he lost his starting role to rookie Tim Hightower, though he wound up being the Cardinals' lead dog in their playoff run to the Super Bowl.

But he asked out of the final year of his contract with the Cardinals anyway, becoming a free agent and eventually landing in Seattle.

Any regrets of his Arizona departure?

"Nah, it worked out perfect for me," he said.
In what way?

"I'm here," he said with a laugh. "No, I had personal things I needed to deal with. That was my main focus. Football was secondary."

Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt indicated it came down to money issues, but he had no quarrels with the veteran running back.

"Edgerrin James is a great pro," Whisenhunt said this week from Arizona. "He understands how he has to work. He's great with his teammates. He's great with the coaches. It was a financial issue with us more than anything, certainly not from a standpoint of not wanting Edgerrin.

"It's always hard, because Edgerrin has done a lot for this organization, especially at a time when it was really struggling as far as bringing fans in, bringing ticket sales in. And certainly last year in the playoffs, he had an important part of our run. So you never like to see players like that go, but in this business, those kinds of things happen.

"But I can tell you this: I have great respect for Edgerrin and certainly how he treated me and his teammates and what he did for this organization."

The Seahawks have found James to be a nice fit as well.

"He certainly brings a lot of wisdom and experience to our team," quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "He's a football junkie and on Friday nights you can find him at a local high school game just because he loves football. It's good to have teammates like that, guys who love the game."

Most of his work last week came in the fourth quarter as the Seahawks ground out the clock on a 41-0 win. Coach Jim Mora said James is too good to be a mop-up back and the veteran acknowledged that was a weird position to be in. But he also noted there'll be games where a clock-killing drive can clinch a victory and he's ready to do whatever it takes.

"I'm just continuing to practice hard and if you do that, you start showing the coaches you're ready to play," he said. "When you're playing from behind, it's tough to get on the field. Especially when you've got guys who aren't doing anything wrong.

"I'm going to continue to work hard and I'm always prepared for that late-season run anyway. I'll make sure I'm really ready for when we make that playoff push."

Asked if he sees Seattle as his last stop in the NFL, James said you always have to see how things play out. But he noted that he enjoys Mora and what he's seen so far.

"I like it here," he said. "I never thought I'd like it in Seattle, it's so far away from everything. But everything is taken care of at home (with his kids in Florida). And the facility here is unreal.

"Everything you would want to be a great player, they provide. So there are no excuses not to have a good team here."



(seattlepi.com)