Adams Wants to Relive Some Memories

All right, quick Charger quiz. Who was the Chargers’ leading rusher in the opening game of the 1985 regular season at Buffalo?

Need a hint? He also scored the Chargers’ first touchdown of the season on a one-yard run. If you don’t remember, don’t feel so bad. The team’s leading rusher that game didn’t figure many people would remember.

But running back Curtis Adams would like to reintroduce himself.

“I’m almost sure everybody has forgotten about me,” Adams said after the Chargers’ 20-0 victory over Dallas Saturday night. “I want to remind all of the people what I can do.”

He was given a chance Saturday. Adams carried the ball more than any other Charger (16 times) and gained 52 yards, more than any other running back in the game. It was his first appearance in a game since he injured his left knee in the third quarter of a game last September against Buffalo.

Adams had started that game, a 14-9 victory, and scored on a one-yard run to culminate the Chargers’ first offensive possession of the season. Before his injury he had gained 49 yards on 16 carries.

“I remember that I caught my foot on the (artificial) turf and my knee twisted,” Adams said. “That was it for the season.”

While Lionel James and Gary Anderson were leading the Chargers’ running game, Adams began his comeback. He knew he could still play football. He had set a Mid-American Conference record with 43 career touchdowns at Central Michigan and he had gained 4,162 yards to set a school mark.

One guy who didn’t forget him was Charger Coach Don Coryell. Saturday, Adams entered the game in the second quarter and was given plenty of opportunities to show what he could do. “We wouldn’t have given him the ball that much if we didn’t plan on having him help us this year,” Coryell said.

That was good news to Adams.

“He said that?” Adams asked. “I sure hope he’s planning on using me. But I still have a ways to go. I felt I was a step slow on everything. I wasn’t exploding through the holes the way I would have liked.”

He still has time to get that step back. After all, there are still three exhibition games left. And Adams knows what those games can mean to him.

Last year, he led all Charger rushers in the exhibition season with 187 yards on 40 carries. That effort earned him a start in the season opener.

This year, Adams just wants to make the team.

“I’m not concerned with starting,” Adams said. “All of us (running backs) have different things that we do well. I might be on the special teams and I might carry the ball some. You just have to wait and see how it works out.”