Dave’s Football Blog

Professional football players don’t know when to let go. This is a proven fact, especially when it comes to NFL stars — witness Emmitt Smith in Arizona, Jerry Rice in Oakland, Franco Harris in Seattle, and so on. These guys spent their entire lives in the spotlight; walking away from that is just too damn hard. If you approached any former NFL player and asked them if they would give anything for one more game of gridiron glory, more often than not, he would answer, “Hell, yes.”

Priest Holmes got one more game.

None of us wanted to see a running back 3 years past his expiration date try to come back from a pretty major spinal injury just to be a backup — and talk trash at the starter in the process. We all ripped him for it. Who would be insane enough to risk re-injury to their spine, just so they could play this violent form of football?

NFL players, that’s who. This is all they know. They spend their entire lives wrapped up in the spotlight of this game, and when their career is over, we tell them that we’re turning the spotlight off now, and it’s time for them to go live the rest of their lives — sometimes with debilitating injuries they willingly accepted to continue playing. Imagine if someone told you that you couldn’t do your job anymore, and it was time to move on to something else. You might not want to accept it, either.

Neither did Priest Holmes. He risked his ability to walk to give it one more go, and he almost walked away with a win. Perhaps he’s just lucky that he’s still able to walk away.

You can admire it, or you can admonish it. None of that matters. Priest Holmes lived out the dream of every former NFL player — he got to play football one more time. Show me one gridiron star who wouldn’t want that.

Okay, besides Robert Smith.

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