When he hung up, he turned to me he said: "That was Vermeil. press box - maybe this was before the draft - and beat writer Adam Teicher was on the phone. And one day, if I'm remembering this right, we were up in the K.C. So I wrote that the Chiefs badly needed a running back. The Chiefs had not had a thousand-yard rusher in a decade, not since Christian Okoye crashed those enormous shoulder pads into defenders’ chests. The previous two years, it was another fullback sort, Donnell Bennett, with 627 and 527 yards respectively. In 2000, the Chiefs leading rusher had been a fullback, Tony Richardson, with 697 yards. I had written a column for The Kansas City Star about the Chiefs' running back woes. I heard about the Priest Holmes signing in a funny way. It was harder for him to think globally, and he got fired right around Christmas, and the Chiefs brought Dick Vermeil out of his second retirement.
#Priest holmes how to
He was a details guy, a get-in-the-players'-faces type of coach, the sort who would get out on the field and damn well SHOW YOU how to fight off a block and get in on the tackle. 500 in his two seasons - but he never quite commanded the job. Well, where the hell are you?"Īnyway, Gunther couldn't quite get the team started again.
And when he would get the answering machine, he would growl in that wonderful voice of his, "Hey Gruden, I keep reading how you're the hardest working man in football. When he was head coach, he used to make a habit of calling then (and current) Raiders coach Jon Gruden's office at 3 a.m. He was a self-made football coach, one of those lifers who grew up with nothing and just kept clawing, just kept working, just kept fighting until he developed a defense good enough to get him a head coaching spot.
His defensive coordinator, Gunther Cunningham, took over, and, man, I loved Gunther. Schottenheimer was gone after the next season. Marty Schottenheimer was the coach, and after the game, in his end-of-season-press conference, he asked us all to turn off our microphones and put down our pens, and then he asked us what the heck he was doing wrong. Something about the team snapped in that Denver loss. The Chiefs were dismal, and had been ever since they lost a heartbreaking playoff game at home to the Broncos in 1997. Holmes had come to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2001 after being the "veteran presence" on the 2000 Super Bowl champion Ravens. I'll get back to that in a bit.įirst, let me remind you of the season. It's one of the great privileges of my life. But it was so incredible, ridiculous, impossible, that I try to think about it every so often just to remind myself of what it feels like to be that close to perfection.Īs some of you might know, I was given a backstage pass to that season. Nobody, outside of Kansas City and the fantasy football owners he enriched, remembers that season. That's why his teammates, opposing players, his coaches and some very special fans will paint a vivid picture of what Priest Homes means to Kansas City - both on and off the field - in Priest Holmes: From Sidelines to Center Stage.In 2002, Priest Holmes broke football. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than tackling Holmes is getting him to open up about his success on the playing field. The devout father of two young boys has risen to new heights in the annals of the NFL. The story of Priest Holmes's rise to the top of the NFL is the stuff legends are made of. He went on to enjoy a solid career at the University of Texas and beyond. Holmes has a love of the game that can be traced back to his prep days at John Marshall High School in San Antonio, Texas. Louis's Marshall Faulk in 2000, but missed the final two games of the season with a hip injury. The five-foot-nine package of dynamite led the NFL with 24 touchdowns and was on pace to break the single-season mark of 26, set by St. He led the Chiefs in rushing for the second year in a row in 2002 and was named the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press. The five-foot-nine package of dynamite led the NFL with 24 touchdowns and was on pa Perhaps the most unassuming and unlikely hero in Kansas City sports history, Priest Holmes has already etched his name in the Chiefs' record books. Perhaps the most unassuming and unlikely hero in Kansas City sports history, Priest Holmes has already etched his name in the Chiefs' record books.
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