A Higher Calling

There was no bed, no sofa, not a stick of furniture. Still, the parents of Priest Holmes understood. Their only concern was that their middle son was indeed chasing his dream, which happened to be playing running back in the NFL.

They didn’t fret that he’d gone undrafted out of Texas, or that his signing bonus from the Baltimore Ravens was a mere $2,500, or that his chances of carving out a career in pro football were about as slim as the meager pickings in his bachelor-style refrigerator. Priest was living like a monk.

“We went up and visited him and slept on the floor with him,” said his stepfather, Herman Morris, the only dad Holmes has ever known. “He had blankets and pillows, linens, but no bed. Priest will probably kill me for telling you this, but he used boxes and stuff as tables. He had a small TV and a VCR to watch game films. It was very humbling.”

Humility runs deep in Holmes, even now, five years removed from his rookie season. He’s the centerpiece of Kansas City’s offense, led the league in rushing last season, made the Pro Bowl, and is coming off a 30-carry, 180-yard rushing performance in a 41-38 overtime loss to New England--even though the defending Super Bowl champions knew who was getting the ball down after punishing down.

The day after the Patriot game, Holmes didn’t stick around Kansas City, collecting handshakes and backslaps. He did what he does every week: boarded a plane for San Antonio to spend 24 hours with his three sons and their mother, Stephanie, his longtime girlfriend. Holmes has been trying to persuade her to move to Kansas City. So far, she’s resisted. In the meantime, the frequent-flier miles are piling up.

“He’s very involved with their schoolwork,” said Morris, who still lives in San Antonio with his wife, Norma, where they raised their family. “Their teachers all have Priest’s number, and he goes by their school quite a bit. His coming home every week has really helped those kids; they were getting to be a real handful. He stays until Tuesday night every week. He pretends he isn’t sore, but I know he is. I’m just really proud he’s doing what he’s doing.”

When the Chiefs play host to Miami today, the game will have special meaning for Holmes and Dolphin running back Ricky Williams, who were teammates at Texas for two seasons. Holmes was the undersized mentor with the oversized heart, the senior who came back from a devastating knee injury to have a 120-yard rushing game against third-ranked Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game. Williams, almost four years his junior, was the high school All-American who went on to win the Heisman Trophy. The Longhorns also had another outstanding back, Shon Mitchell, who was faster than both.

“It’s pretty amazing how they worked us all in,” Holmes said. “Pretty much, we’d give Ricky the ball at the 20, and he’d probably get an 80-yard run. If he didn’t, we’d give the ball to Shon Mitchell at the 50-yard line, and once we’d get down to the goal line, they would give it to me.”

The three backs got along remarkably well, considering each would have been the offensive focal point on just about any other team in the country.

“No one was greedy,” said former Longhorn coach John Mackovic, who now coaches at Arizona. “Clearly, Priest was the most unselfish of them all.”

Apparently, that didn’t carry much weight with NFL scouts. Holmes was not drafted, an especially low point because his parents had planned a celebratory barbecue that weekend and filled the house with well-wishers. With each round, the mood grew darker.

“There weren’t any tears, but there were some sad expressions,” Morris said. “There was some gloom. But those were close, supportive friends. Today, those same people will tell you, they knew all along it would work out. And they did.”

Holmes signed a free-agent deal with the Ravens in 1997 and bucked long odds to make the team as a special-teams player and reserve running back. When he was sure he had a job and those weekly paychecks were rolling in, he sent for his oldest son, De’Andre, who was 5 at the time.

“Priest wanted to play an active role in [De’Andre’s] life,” Morris said. “He came to Stephanie with a plan, a proposal. He made sure he had families around them who could help give them support.”

The boy lived with his father for the better part of two years, going home to San Antonio for holidays and the summer months.

“Having De’Andre up there helped Priest, also,” Morris said. “It balanced him. The kid had to be ready for school every day, do his homework. Priest had a legitimate excuse not to go wild.”

Meanwhile, Holmes’ career flourished. He burst into the national consciousness in his second season, starting the first 13 games at running back and finishing with 1,008 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.

At 5 feet 9, 213 pounds, he was dwarfed by the other backs in the AFC Central, bruisers such as Tennessee’s Eddie George, Pittsburgh’s Jerome Bettis and Cincinnati’s Corey Dillon. The Ravens felt they needed to get bigger at the position--and they were shaken when Holmes suffered another knee injury in 1999--so in 2000 they used the No. 5 pick on Jamal Lewis, who is two inches taller and 15 pounds heavier than Holmes.

“Even though Priest knew Jamal was going to get his job, he supported Jamal throughout the whole process,” said Ernest Byner, the longtime NFL running back who now is Baltimore’s director of player development. “Priest was teaching him, giving him knowledge and information from Day 1. Not a lot of guys would do that.”

Although Holmes played in 2000, his role was greatly reduced. Predictably, Lewis took over as the No. 1 back. After winning the Super Bowl, the Ravens let Holmes go. It wasn’t a popular decision among Baltimore players.

“It was a no-brainer to me that this guy was a great player,” said former Baltimore defensive back Rod Woodson, who now plays for the Raiders. “He was a great worker, a family guy, everything that you’d want as a player. I remember looking around the locker room and everybody was saying the same thing: Wherever this guy goes, he’s going to do well.”

That was immediately apparent in Kansas City last season, when Holmes gained 1,555 yards on the ground, joining Christian Okoye as the only Kansas City player ever to lead the league in rushing.

All the while, he made those weekly trips home to San Antonio. His stepfather has put together a scrapbook, clipping every Holmes-related newspaper and magazine story he can find. Holmes might leaf through it someday. For the moment, though, he spends more time looking through photo albums of his kids.

“Priest doesn’t even keep his Super Bowl ring,” Morris said. “We keep it here.”

Morris paused, then made a confession.

“I slip that ring on every now and then,” he said. “I’ve thought about wearing it, but I haven’t gotten that bold yet. I represented Priest at a banquet when the school district honored him. He wasn’t able to go, so his mother and I went and accepted an award for him. I felt like wearing that Super Bowl ring, but I decided against it. I will sometime.”

A guy can dream.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Heavenly Season

Chief running back Priest Holmes is off to his best start ever. A look at his career numbers:

*--* RUSHING Year Team G Att Yds TDs 1997 Ravens 7 0 0 0 1998 Ravens 16 233 1,008 7 1999 Ravens 9 89 506 1 2000 Ravens 16 137 588 2 2001 Chiefs 16 327 1,555 8 2002 Chiefs 3 74 386 6 Totals 67 860 4,043 24 RECEIVING Year Team G Rec Yds TDs 1997 Ravens 7 0 0 0 1998 Ravens 16 43 260 0 1999 Ravens 9 13 104 1 2000 Ravens 16 32 221 0 2001 Chiefs 16 62 614 2 2002 Chiefs 3 16 69 1 Totals 67 166 1,268 4

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