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September 6, 2008

Rhodes comes full circle with Colts

By Tom James

INDIANAPOLIS — Life certainly does have its share of ironies.

In the final game of the 2006 National Football League season, Indianapolis Colts running back Dominic Rhodes ran for a game-high 113 yards on 21 carries and scored a touchdown in the team’s 29-17 Super Bowl XLI win over the Chicago Bears.

Now, with the Colts ready to face the Bears tonight in the team’s 2008 regular-season opener, there is Rhodes once again ready to show what he can do once again against one of the league’s better defensive units.

That’s ironic enough. But there’s much more to the story. Especially when most observers considered Rhodes’ Super Bowl appearance — there are those who contend that he should have been named as the game’s Most Valuable Player ahead of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning — to have been his last in an Indianapolis uniform.

Considered as one of the NFL’s premier free agents after the 2006 season, Rhodes signed a lucrative two-year, $7.5 million contract with the Oakland Raiders. But things didn’t work out as planned, thanks to a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

By the time he was able to return to the Raiders, four games into the season, Justin Vargas was already securely ensconced as Oakland’s starting running back. At the end of the year — one in which Rhodes wound up with just 302 yards on 75 carries and scored one TD in 10 games — Oakland opted to draft former University of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.

The handwriting was on the wall and Rhodes knew it. He asked for his release and got it this spring when the Raiders placed him on waivers. There was no doubt where he was going next. Eleven days after gaining his freedom from Oakland, the former undrafted free agent signed a one-year deal on May 9 to return to the Colts.

“All my friends [on the Colts] kept calling me during the [2007] season, asking me how I was doing and telling me how they missed me,” Rhodes recalled recently. “We kept in touch while I was in Oakland. When I saw how things were going out there, and I kind of knew that they were going to take [McFadden] if they had a chance to, that they probably wouldn’t need me as much. So I asked [the Raiders’ management] if they would release me and give me a chance to go someplace else.”

Which is exactly what happened. But as soon as that release came through, his cell phone began to light up once again.

“All of my buddies on the Colts kept calling me. They kept telling me, ‘Come back to Indy. We need you here. Come on back.’ I didn’t know if that was going to happen or not, but I told my agent that Indianapolis was where I’d like to go back to if we could,” he said. “Everything just worked out for me. I’m very glad that it did and I’m appreciative that Coach [Tony] Dungy and Mr. [team president Bill] Polian gave me a chance to come back here.

“Sometimes you don’t know how good you’ve got it somewhere. I started my [NFL] career with the Colts and I loved playing there. I don’t regret going to Oakland. I wanted to be a starting running back and they were going to give me a chance to do that. But things didn’t work out for me there. So to have the chance to come back where I started and contribute to what’s happening here, working with [starting running back] Joe [Addai] again, I’m glad that we were able to do that.”

For most of the 2006 season, Rhodes was the starting running back and Addai, then a rookie, was his primary backup. When the playoffs started, their roles were reversed. And while the tandem was split up for one season, the hope is that they pick right up where they left off at the Super Bowl. Their own relationship hasn’t changed one bit since they first met one another in the spring of 2006.

“When I came in as a rookie, Dom came over to my locker and introduced himself to me. He made me feel welcome,” Addai said. “Just having somebody like that, someone who understands what’s going on. For a lot of players, football that’s the only relationship that they have [with teammates]. I feel like if I wasn’t a player, Dom and I would still be close.”

Rhodes contends that his lack of playing time last season in Oakland may have been somewhat of a blessing in disguise. He says that his legs are fresher than they’ve been in a while and that he’s ready to show everybody that he’s back and just as good as he ever was.

“I’m definitely excited about the challenge in front of us, trying to get back to the Super Bowl. That’s all our mindset is,” he said. “I feel great. My legs feel great. This is probably the best I’ve felt in a long time. My legs aren’t heavy. I just feel refreshed. Maybe it’s the scenery, I don’t know. I just feel good.”

Dungy is glad to have Rhodes back and said his return to the Colts has been seamless.

“I think it’s good for him. He knows our offense. It wasn’t like a new guy having to come in and do a lot of work to get himself up to speed. I would think he is mentally fresh and physically fresh. He should give us a big lift,” he said.

“Joseph will start the games, but Dom is ready to go. When Joseph needs a break, [Rhodes will] go in there. We want to keep both of those guys fresh so that whoever is running in the fourth quarter is ready to go. And that’s what we really had in the [2006] playoffs. It was good for us, that we had a fresh guy in there when we had to make plays in the fourth quarter.”

“Who that ends up being, I don’t think those guys care that much. They know they’re both going to play, they’re both going to get the ball their share of the time,” Dungy continued. “So it worked out very well. Hopefully we can duplicate that.”

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