Good Man in Bad Spots : Dolphin Running Back Aaron Craver Survived an Amazing Year, From L.A. Floods, Riots and Earthquakes to Hurricane Andrew

Aaron Craver, the Dolphins’ disaster back, has unimpeachable credentials should things go awry and his services be required in Sunday’s AFC championship game against the Buffalo Bills in Miami.

Count on things going wrong, for that matter, with Craver in attendance.

“I can’t explain it,” he said from Miami on Wednesday. “Things just happen.”

Craver watched the water rise last January when the heavy rains hit the San Fernando Valley, stood by his mother at his childhood home in Compton during the riots, returned to the Valley in time to feel the June earthquakes and then weathered Hurricane Andrew in Miami.

“My main man, Aaron Craver,” said Joe Brodsky, the Cowboys’ running backs coach, from Dallas. “The kid’s obviously cool under fire, real cool.”

Two years ago, shortly after Brodsky joined several other NFL scouts to watch Craver and other players work out at East Los Angeles College, Brodsky collapsed on the sideline.

“They told me later that the (other) coaches who were standing around, said, ‘What the hell is this?’ and then they moved away,” Brodsky said. “No one knew what to do, but then they said this kid just came running over and saved my life.”

Brodsky had suffered a seizure, the result of malfunctioning veins in his head, he said, and Craver had kept a perilous situation from becoming a catastrophe.

“I had just taken a first-aid course at Fresno State,” Craver said, “and while I didn’t know what was happening, I thought doing something is better than just standing around and watching. He was turning blue, so I propped up his head and put something in his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue.

“Scary stuff, but he was all right.”

Brodsky underwent surgery, recovered, and is now overseeing Emmitt Smith’s daily workouts in Dallas.

“I still keep my eye on Aaron, though,” Brodsky said. “That was a damn fine run he had (last Sunday) against the Chargers.”

Craver went 25 yards for a touchdown in the Dolphins’ 31-0 AFC playoff victory over San Diego and, in response to the postseason pressure, it was also the longest run in his two-year career.

“I knew when Mark Higgs injured his knee that I would get some practice reps in case Bobby Humphrey got hurt,” Craver said. “But I had no idea I’d get to play as much as I did.

“I made some good runs and told myself, ‘Now just don’t do something stupid.’ But when I turned the corner, I saw I had the chance to score. I juked one guy and then just ran over another one to get into the end zone.”

Craver, a bust as the Dolphins’ third-round draft pick last season, ran eight times against the Chargers and gained a game-high 72 yards for the Dolphins. He also caught a pass for 13 yards and returned a kick 18 yards.

The Dolphins gave Craver the chance to emerge as their No. 1 back last season after Sammie Smith injured his knee. But Craver forgot to take the ball along on his run to stardom, and Coach Don Shula has no patience with running backs who fumble.

“There was some uncertainty there with him,” said Shula, who turned to Higgs after Craver’s failure. “He just wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t ready.”

The Dolphins dispatched Craver to the bench each Sunday and compounded his problems by switching him from tailback to fullback in practice.

“I feel like they gave up on me too fast,” said Craver, after his fumbled kickoff allowed Buffalo to beat the Dolphins last season. “All those minicamps, all those practices at tailback, it was all just a waste. And I don’t think they really wanted me at fullback.”

Craver returned this summer invigorated but shaken.

“First it was the earthquake in the Valley; it felt like a giant monster was pounding on the side of my house with his fist,” he said. “Then we’re in Miami and they say this is the worst sort of hurricane you have. I stayed at the stadium through the whole thing, and that was scary.”

When practice resumed, he stood in line behind Higgs and Humphrey. He became the Dolphins’ primary kickoff returner, ranked fourth in the AFC through six games, but then tore a hamstring, which kept him on injured reserve until last weekend’s game against the Chargers.

“It has been a real struggle the past two years,” he said, “but here I am, thinking I’ve had it real bad, and then I go back to my neighborhood and all this stuff is going on.”

Craver returned to the Los Angeles area from Miami on the afternoon of the Rodney King verdict. He had rented a home in the San Fernando Valley, but when trouble broke out in South-Central Los Angeles, he joined his six brothers at his mother’s house in Compton.

He watched the store at the corner of his street burn and then took a protective stance against possible intruders.

“I was worried. I’m from there, but you might find people not involved coming from 50 miles away to start trouble and try to rob you,” he said. “It’s a tough neighborhood, but the toughness comes when people from the outside try to mess with somebody here.

“There wasn’t any damage on my mother’s street, but the businesses were hurt. It took them eight years to rebuild downtown and we started to get sporting goods stores and shopping malls. We never used to get franchises in that neighborhood because no one would bring them there.

“And in three days, it was all burned down. That’s what hurt the most. They took everything out of the neighborhood.”

Craver began his football career at Compton High in disastrous fashion. He wanted to play running back or quarterback, but the coaches wanted him to work at wide receiver, so he didn’t play football.

“Not a down,” he said.

“My friends kept telling me I should go to college. There were some guys hanging around the park (in Compton), and they saw me shagging balls with the kids. They thought I was fast and urged me to go to school.”

After two years away from school, he tried out for baseball at El Camino College but injured an ankle. When he recovered, it was time to play football.

Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing, but they couldn’t catch him. He gained 1,355 yards in two seasons at El Camino, and a number of major colleges took notice.

“Fresno State was the only school to check into everything and find out that I qualified for school,” Craver said. “They cared. If it wasn’t for Fresno State, I would never have made it.

“Here in Miami, of course, it is ‘Fresno what?’ That is, until Fresno State beat USC. I mean I couldn’t even sleep that night I was so excited. I heard all that stuff USC was saying about Fresno, and obviously USC hadn’t been doing their homework.

“Fresno beat USC and beat them badly. Awesome. The next day, I put on my Fresno State shirt and walked around the locker room.”

During Craver’s two-year run with Fresno State, he gained 2,316 yards, scored 26 rushing touchdowns and played a prominent role in the Bulldogs’ 19-3-1 record in 1989 and ’90.

“He’s got the best hands that I’ve seen since Henry Ellard--there was no ball he couldn’t catch,” Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney said. “The kid’s got awesome legs, and if he gets out on the perimeter, he’s gone downtown.”