The Amazing Journey - Tennessee Titans' Eddie George

Once headed down a road to nowhere, Eddie George has turned into one of the true titans of the league

WITHOUT A FORK IN THE road, Eddie George doubts his career path would have led to the Super Bowl. The superstar running back of the 1999 AFC champion Tennessee Titans says his decision to attend Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia was the turning point in his life. Had it not been for that experience, the 1996 first-round draft pick admits he might have spent his days dishing out fries at a burger joint rather than all-pro moves before throngs of adoring football fans.

"I wouldn't be in jail somewhere, but I don't think I would be as successful as I am," says George. "I'd probably be a manager at a fast-food restaurant or something. Not that that's a bad job, but that was just the reality of my situation."

George transferred to Fork Union after his sophomore year at Abington High School in his hometown of Philadelphia. "It instilled discipline in me," he says. "I think I lacked that at that particular time in my life. It was very crucial for me to leave and go to Fork Union because I was on a path headed to nowhere. So I had to really get focused and decide on what I wanted to do with my life. I was young, but time was starting to run out on me. I really had no ambitions of doing anything other than skipping school and playing street football."

Scoring a touchdown while avoiding curbs, potholes, and the neighbor's Oldsmobile is certainly a pleasant childhood memory. But George's maturity, drive, and determination helped him eventually achieve so much more than that as a football player. By the tender age of 26, George has earned a scholarship to Ohio State, won the Heisman Trophy, and made an improbable appearance on pro football's ultimate stage.

George helped lead the surprising Titans to Super Bowl 34, where Tennessee came up a yard short on the final play in a dramatic 23-16 loss to the St. Louis Rams. George rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns in the defeat.

The Titans are looking to make a return trip in 2000 behind George, who is considered one of the NFL's top running backs after just four seasons. The 6'3", 240-pounder boasts a rare combination of power and speed. A punishing between-the-tackles runner, George wears down opposing defenses while being both remarkably productive and durable.

"The problem with him is he would sometimes rather run into you than run around you," says Miami Dolphins middle line-backer Zach Thomas.

"I don't like tackling him," adds New Orleans Saints cornerback Ashley Ambrose. "A guy like that gets into the secondary ... and look at me. I'm 180 pounds. I'm trying to bring that guy down by myself, and it's tough."

George already ranks second in franchise history with 5,365 rushing yards, trailing the great Earl Campbell (8,574 yards, 1978-84). Only five players in league history have rushed for more yards in their first four seasons: Eric Dickerson (6,968), Campbell (6,457), Terrell Davis (6,413), Emmitt Smith (5,699), and Barry Sanders (5,674).

"He's got the whole package," Dolphins as running back Thurman Thomas says of George. "He kind of reminds me of Eric Dickerson a little because he is big, strong, and powerful. He's one of the few backs coming up right now who's big and can make plays." Adds Jets linebacker Bryan Cox, "He's the premier big back in the game right now."

In 1999 George turned in the most dominant performance of his young career, rushing for 1,304 yards and a personal-best nine touchdowns. He also set career highs in receptions (47), yards receiving (458), receiving touchdowns (four), and total touchdowns (13), and his 199 rushing yards against the Oakland Raiders marked the league's highest single-game total in 1999. All of this earned George his third straight berth in the Pro Bowl.

"Eddie wants to go down as one of the great ones," says Titans fullback Lorenzo Neal, George's lead blocker, "and with the way he works, the things he does, I think he'll achieve all those goals: getting 1,500, 1,700, 2,000 yards in a season, where people say he's not just a great back but in the cream of the crop."

After being utilized primarily as a runner his first three seasons, George emerged as a complete back in 1999. He ranked second among AFC running backs in total yards from scrimmage with 1,730, the highest total of his NFL career. But numbers tell only part of the story. George's leadership and presence were just as pivotal as his gaudy rushing stats to the Titans' climb to the AFC title.

"Eddie's a great, powerful running back," says former Titans tackle Jon Runyan, who signed with the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason. "He's a great guy to be, around, another of the really quiet guys in the huddle. It's a great feeling to know you have someone back there, a Heisman Trophy winner who Knows how to do his job and does it very well."

George always has led by example, but his teammates say he became more vocal in 1999. The bruising yet elusive running back frequently delivered a pregame pep talk, and tackle Brad Hopkins told The Tennessean that his normally reserved teammate "has the ability to incite things in some people."

"He can get you fired up before and during a game," says Neal. "He talks to the team, then he delivers on the field. That gets you going even more."

George's maturity became evident in an episode in '99, when he asked head coach Jeff Fisher if he could meet with him after a practice. Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton had just died of bile duct cancer at age 45, and George wanted to know what had made Payton a champion as a person and a player (Fisher and Payton were teammates with the Chicago Bears from 1981 through '85.)

"Everybody in their efforts to eulogize Walter has talked about all the things about him off the field, the way he lived," Fisher says. "Eddie's asked me about him: `What did he do? How did he practice?' Those kinds of things."

While many people believe there never will be as complete a person or player as Payton was, George is at least keeping pace with "Sweetness" in the numbers department. George's 5,365 yards are 49 more than Payton's total after four seasons. George has averaged more than 300 carries per season and has started all 68 NFL games since being selected with the 14th overall pick in the 1996 draft. He has led the Titans in rushing in 57 of those 68 games.

Remarkably, George has been the model of consistency despite his team's nomadic existence. Remember, this is a franchise that played in a different city and/or stadium in each of his first four seasons. The lame-duck Oilers drew sparse crowds in Houston in 1996 before heading to Tennessee, where they played at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis in 1997 and Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville the following year. In 1999 the franchise finally changed its name to the Titans, donned new uniforms, and planted roots at Adelphia Coliseum.

"Finally having a home field made a huge difference for us," George says. "A new name and identity helped. There was a new stability in the organization that wasn't there in previous years. We could focus just on football and not things like where we were going to live."

The Titans advanced to the Super Bowl by thumping the Jacksonville Jaguars 33-14 in the AFC Championship Game. It was the third time in as many meetings in 1999 that Tennessee beat its AFC Central rival. In fact, the only losses the division-champion Jaguars had last season were to the Titans.

While the upset of the Jaguars in Jacksonville wasn't a huge surprise, advancing to the AFC title game was a miracle--a Music City Miracle. That's what the amazing play that salvaged an unforgettable 22-16 playoff-opening win over the Buffalo Bills is now called. Trailing 16-15 in the final seconds, Kevin Dyson raced 75 yards after a lateral from Frank Wycheck on a kickoff return for the winning score. It was a play that fueled Tennessee's postseason run, which also included a 19-16 win against the Colts at Indianapolis in the divisional playoffs.

"There was a moment there when we were hurting," George says of the Buffalo game. "I was hurt on that bench. That [emotional] pain that I felt was unbelievable. It was close to having someone die. But then the big play happened, and I said, `Let's take advantage of this because it's definitely a sign that we get another opportunity.'"

Tennessee's playoff romp may have been aided by a miracle, but George's contribution was hardly unexpected. He continues to develop into the player the franchise thought he would be when it drafted him out of Ohio State.

"I've been in the league for 25 years--I've coached for 17," says Titans general manager Floyd Reese. "If you say [there's one player] I've got to put my money on, I've got to put my career on, Eddie's one of those guys. He's going to do everything in his power to get us where we've got to go."

Even when there's a Fork in the road.

Eddie vs. Walter

LIKE MOST RUNNING BACKS WHO ASPIRE TO greatness, Eddie George idolizes the late Walter Payton. Here's how the two comapre in each of their first four seasons in the NFL:

         Season   Atts.   Yds.    Avg.   TDs

Year 1
George     1996     335   1,368    4.1     8
Payton     1975     196     675    3.5     7

Year 2
George     1997     357   1,399    3.9     6
Payton     1976     311   1,390    4.5    13

Year 3
George     1998     348   1,294    3.7     5
Payton     1977     339   1,852    5.5    14

Year 4
George     1999     320   1,304    4.1     9
Payton     1978     333   1,395    4.2    11

Totals
George            1,360   5,365    3.9    28
Payton            1,179   5,316    4.5    45

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