After trying offseason, Edgerrin James returns to football as a Seahawk

The NFL's leading active rusher is kind of shy. Edgerrin James doesn't make eye contact during interviews. He wears a dark visor on his helmet. For an alleged old man, there's boyishness in his mannerisms and the soft way he speaks.

It's interesting because, on the field, he's had a flashy career. His numbers — 12,121 yards, 430 receptions, 91 touchdowns — scream Hall of Fame. Now 31 and rusting, James comes to the Seahawks not as a savior for a fractured run game, but as the potential glue that might make an imperfect situation workable.

The obvious question: After 10 seasons of physical punishment, how much of an Edge did the Seahawks acquire?
The better question: What does James have left to play for?

Ask James if he's the same player he was three years ago, and he says quietly, "We'll see." Ask him if he has anything to prove, and he says, "No, I really don't have to prove nothing." Ask him about his motivations for playing, however, and then you scratch at who James is.

You scratch at what he's been through the past four months. He's not completely forthcoming, but then, this is an introduction. Nevertheless, James alludes to how tragedy has forced him to reevaluate his priorities.

In April, he lost his girlfriend, the mother of his four children, to leukemia. Andia Denise Wilson was only 30. Since then, James has been more concerned with family than football.

The Arizona Cardinals released the running back in late April after drafting Chris "Beanie" Wells, but James didn't sit by the phone waiting for his agent to find him another team. His children needed him. He needed his children.
"Football wasn't something that I was concerned with," James said.

"I had other things going on, so I wasn't worried about that right there."

Asked if he seriously considered retiring, James said: "My thing was that with everything that happened I wanted to make sure that my family was straight and that situation was taken care of. That was the most important thing. With what went on this offseason, I just didn't want to blow it as a parent."

He didn't blow it. His mother is helping him with the children. Life appears to be getting easier, but for James, it'll never be the same. It'll never be right.

What does James have left to play for? It's a heavy question.

"I am not in a position that I have to play," James said. "I want to play. It's not that I am forced to play. I have done a lot in this league, and I am not somebody that's coming here to pick up a paycheck. I want to play, and that's the best part about it."

Maybe the game will give him some comfort. This season isn't about trying to return to 1,000-yard rushing form, or bearing the burden of a team that needs him to complement Julius Jones, or sticking it to his old team.
It's about living.

"My kids, they love football," James said, smiling. "They want me to play, so I came."

James' motto: "Football is second. It's always family first."

So, back to the obvious question: How much of an Edge did the Seahawks acquire?

Plenty, physically and mentally.

As a player, James should be capable of duplicating his production from last season, when he rushed for 514 yards in 13 games. Before the Seahawks signed James, coach Jim Mora watched videos of his final four games last season, trying to gauge James' durability. Mora came away impressed.

"That's what we based it on, that and his history of being a tough runner that's durable," the coach said. "He doesn't take losses. When we watched him on film, he still looked like that guy."

But equally important was that James grown into a mature, team-leader type. He proved in Arizona that he can handle sharing carries. He's willing to let Jones be the man. He understands that, despite his career statistics, football doesn't owe him anything.

"I am not going to sit up here and say I am going to do this or that," James said. "I am just going to come to work and put myself in a position to have success."

He had to endure an emotionally taxing offseason to get to this point. James doesn't take this opportunity for granted.

What does James have left to play for?

Enjoyment.

For that reason, he needs the Seahawks as much as they need him.



(seattletimes.com)