NEW YORK—The image made Trent Richardson flinch. and blink. and think of his two young daughters, who already know how to bring him gauze bandages and a plastic stethoscope whenever he has even the hint of a tired limp.
“They try to doctor me up,” he said.
This was the day before the NFL draft spat out two predictable picks and then stunningly reversed course. This was an afternoon when strangers kept asking Richardson where he thought he’d land, which teams intrigued him, and the more they poked around his future, the more he did a slow burn. he bristled when someone wondered why it has been fashionable for clubs to shy away from selecting running backs in the first round.
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But then Earl Campbell’s name was mentioned, and how he’s forced to use a walker when he isn’t in a wheelchair because of debilitating back pain and arthritic knees. Somewhere Eddie George strolled the grounds, his shuffle a harsh reminder that statistically, running backs have the shortest career of all prospects. perhaps feeling sympathy pangs, Richardson gestured at his own knee that just two months ago had to be scoped.
“I want to make sure I can walk when I’m done with my college career. Excuse me, I mean my NFL career. I’m still in college mindset,” he said.
there was a time when running back was football’s marquee position. Every little kid wanted to wear the white shoes, be on the magazine covers. Now the league’s besotted with empty backfields and running backs-by-committee. That’s why it was something of a mind-blowing moment when the Cleveland Browns traded up a spot and relinquished precious other picks—a fourth-, fifth- and a seventh-rounder—to grab Richardson with the third selection overall Thursday night.
Trent Richardson is the Cleveland Browns’ new franchise cornerstone. (AP Photo)
even before Cleveland shook up the draft, Browns legend Jim Brown crankily told ESPN Radio that Richardson was “ordinary.” while that characterization of Richardson is seriously debatable, Brown understands that running backs do tend to require more replacement parts than an Alfa Romeo.
“I got a lot of big shoes to fill, and I’ve got high expectations for myself,” Richardson said after being selected, when his professional shelf life began ticking. “This team has a real good tradition with running backs. I want to be one of the great ones.”
with a thickly coiled physique and a punishing running style that resembles Campbell’s, Richardson at Alabama was an outstanding tackle breaker. He’d stiff-arm opponents in the open field, drag the pile, pick up extra yards while running through defenders, block and dazzle with soft hands as a receiver out of the backfield.
Imagine the kind of college career he’d have had if he hadn’t spent chunks of it sharing the load with Heisman Trophy winner mark Ingram. last year, Ingram was the first back chosen in the draft, sweating it out until the New Orleans Saints grabbed him with the 28th pick.
Imagine how Ray Lewis must now be salivating. last year, Browns quarterback Colt McCoy was chewed up and regurgitated in the AFC North, a division so brutal it’s a shock that players can even make it to the team bus on certain Sundays. Into this fun house of an offense that averaged all of 13.6 points per game comes Richardson, heralded as Cleveland’s most gifted running back since Brown burst onto the scene as the no. 6 overall pick in 1957.
Ordinary? That’s hard to digest considering Richardson, in his three-year tenure with the Crimson Tide, was a powerful cog in two BCS national championship teams. there are some SEC teams still plotting how to take him down.
“I’m an ordinary human, but as a back, I’m going to be that special guy,” Richardson said, his confidence scorching for someone not yet 21.
Ordinary players don’t have surgery on both ankles in college, hear doctors say they might never run again … and then rush for 1,679 total yards in 2011, seemingly half of them while lugging along defenders. it takes a big man to rise far above ordinary and be a full-time, doting father to two girls, now ages 5 and 3, while also happily doing whatever it took to keep his mother, Trina, smiling as she battled cancer.
“Adversity makes you stronger,” he said before the Browns did the unfashionable and cleared the decks. “I can’t speak for any of the running backs that have come before me, but that’s why I plan to survive and thrive.”
Richardson plans to buck odds, be anything but ordinary for Browns
