God Bless the Priest

Per Rotoworld, Priest Holmes does not plan on playing football again. However, being the savvy business man that Priest is, he'll continue to see spine specialists and doctors at the expense of the Chiefs, in order to protect his $10 million dollar "pro-rated" signing bonus, along with the 4 year/$20 million dollar contract extension he signed in 2003 that is set to expire after the 2009 season.

Good for you, Priest....you're sitting back and getting paid. You risked your life day in/day out, and suffered a fairly serious injury....so I honestly don't think that you should have to lose a dime of that fat contract you signed. Kansas City pretty much wore you into the dirt during the seasons of 2001-2003, as you had 327, 313, and 320 rushes, respectvely, in each of those seasons. His total numbers during this period of time were just absolutely filthy....especially in 2002/2003 where he might have had the two best years a running back has ever had...back-to-back.

Career Stats
			Rushing						Receiving						Fumb.	KO Ret		Punt Ret
Year	Team	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	100 Yd	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	100 Yd	TD	Lost	Yds	TD	Yds	TD
1999	BAL	8	89	506	63.3	5.7	2	1	13	104	13.0	8.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
2000	BAL	16	137	588	36.8	4.3	1	2	32	221	13.8	6.9	0	0	1	7	0	0	0
2001	KC	16	327	1555	97.2	4.8	7	8	62	614	38.4	9.9	2	2	3	0	0	0	0
2002	KC	14	313	1615	115.4	5.2	9	21	70	672	48.0	9.6	1	3	1	0	0	0	0
2003	KC	16	320	1420	88.8	4.4	3	27	74	690	43.1	9.3	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
2004	KC	8	196	892	111.5	4.6	5	14	19	187	23.4	9.8	0	1	2	0	0	0	0
2005	KC	7	119	451	64.4	3.8	0	6	21	197	28.1	9.4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0

Imagine the year he would have had in 2004 if it weren't cut short due to injury? He rushed for almost 900 yards and 14 TD's in the FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!! Although his career as an every day back was cut short and sweet, watching Holmes do his signature touchdown dance a few times each weekend was worth the price of admission. Not too shabby from a kid that was an undrafted free agent out of Texas.

Should he ever step foot on a football field again, I hope he can become a two-headed beast of an attack with LJ, but I just don't see him risking another spinal cord injury to do so. Sit back, get paid, and watch the Kansas City run another one of their running backs into the ground....as they don't believe in the "Hey, can I get a breather?" technique.

You play to win the game....you play to win the game.