I remember an explosive young player named Christian Okoye, the 'Nigerian Nightmare'. #35 played for the Kansas City Chiefs, and as a young boy I was awed by his punishing running style. He was a shooting star who was a second round draft pick in 1987, won the rushing title in 1989, and was out of football after the 1992 season. He had a short but impactful career like Terrell Davis after him.
All of the great backs from my childhood had one thing in common: they fought for every yard. Guys like Roger Craig, who's signature move was his brutal high stepping, churning running style. He used his knees as weapons, ferociously inflicting pain and regret on any defender who foolishly tried to tackle him low.
How about "Little" Joe Morris, the 5'7" RB from the NY Giants? All this undersized back did was play a key role on the 86' Giants Superbowl champion squad, and open the door for a pair of vertically challenged runners named Smith and Sanders who came after him. Emmitt and Barry are two of the best who have ever played the game, and Morris helped to change conventional thinking regarding what height a RB needed to be.
Runners like Dickerson, Bo Jackson and Jerome Bettis took great pride in their profession. Their business was abusing as many defenders as they could, and in the good old days, business was good. They looked for contact, and it was an unwritten rule that any RB worth his salt would drop his shoulder when running near the sidelines and put a physical exclamation point on the end of every run.
So what do we see from todays crop of young runners? First off, running like a rabbit for the sidelines has become commonplace. You won't find a back in this league that will try and wear down the defender and fight for that two or three extra yards. I was inspired to share this on the day Larry Johnson was finally released by the Chiefs. It made me think of the Nigerian Nightmare and what a superior player he was... on the field, off the field, and in the locker room.
I am also watching Rashard Mendenhall playing against the Broncos on MNF as I write this. He has put together a solid overall game as a young, up and coming player. I have admired his vision and burst. I have also watched him getting tackled, one on one, by small DB's who have no business de-cleating a 225lb runner.
He had a beautiful counter play late in the fourth quarter that went for a huge gain. At the end of the run he turned sharply for the sideline in order to avoid contact with the big bad... Champ Bailey. Yes, all 190 pounds of Bailey was heading for the Steelers RB, who out weighs him by over 30lbs, and he scared Mendenhall off the field. That sickens me, especially considering Pittsburgh was nursing an 11 point lead with 5 minutes on the clock. He should have stayed in bounds, no only for prides sake, but because thats what basic strategy dictates. Someone should have sent him a memo that his team was trying to run the clock out.
The hope of this generation seemed to be Marion Barber of the Dallas Cowboys. That was until he got his big multi-million dollar deal. Now he looks like most other backs, which is in no way a compliment.
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