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Injured player remains inactive for season
NFL
BY STEVE BRISENDINE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Running back Priest Holmes will not return to the Kansas City Chiefs this season.
Ed Zurga/ASSOCIATED PRESS
However, Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson said Tuesday that recent medical tests on Holmes have been encouraging and Holmes hopes to return for the 2007 season. Tuesday was the last day the Chiefs could have activated Holmes.
"He does not, at this time, plan to give up football," Peterson said. "We're looking at another evaluation in January or February of '07."
The three-time Pro Bowler, who turned 33 last month, has not played since Oct. 30, 2005; when he was injured on a hit by Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman in a game at San Diego. The hit left him with head and neck trauma, diagnosed by three spinal specialists.
"We're 12 weeks into the regular season," Peterson said. "Without getting into the medical aspects of it, I think there were some questions as to whether he could have himself ready to play."
He missed the last nine games of the season after skipping the last eight games of the 2004 season with a knee injury. He has appeared in all 16 games in a season only four times since breaking into the NFL in 1997.
Peterson said Holmes, who is under contract through 2009, told him on Friday that he wanted to remain on the physically unable-toperform list through this season.
Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson has replaced Priest Holmes, who was injured on Oct. 30, 2005. Holmes has not played football since his injury during a game against the San Diego Chargers.
Peterson declined to say whether Holmes would have been able to return had he gotten the same evaluations earlier in the season rather than within the past week.
Hoimes had his best year in 2003,
Since Holmes' injury, though, Larry Johnson has emerged as
Alexander broke the record with 28 TBs last year.
Charlie Riede/VASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas City Chiefs running back Priest Holmes will remain out for the rest of the season. The Chiefs general manager said Holmes hopes to return for the 2007-08 season.
when he repaid a lucrative contract extension by rushing for 1,420 yards and setting an NFL record with 27 touchdowns. Seattle's Shaun
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He ran for 1,615 yards in 2002, third in the league, despite missing the last two games with a hip injury that prompted the Chiefs to take Johnson with their first-round pick in the 2003 draft.
Kansas City's marque running back and Holmes has been all but invisible, staying at his home in Texas instead of working out with the Chiefs in Kansas City.
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That was nothing unusual for the intensely private and enigmatic back who became a surprise star after going undrafted out of Texas.
He joined Baltimore as a rookie free agent in 1997, rushing for 1,008 yards the following season, before taking on a reduced role behind Jamal Lewis. He came to Kansas City as an unrestricted free agent before the 2001 season, when he led the league in rushing with 1,555 yards and earned his first Pro Bowl berth.
"With Priest, you can never count him out," said Holmes' agent, Todd France. "In my mind, there's no question. In his mind, there's no question.
"In everyone else's mind, he's been second-guessed his entire career, and people have been wrong."
Peterson said he has maintained regular contact with Holmes and the team understood and supported the running back's decision to stay in Texas.
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