Arrowhead Adventures – A Priest Holmes Moment

I have never been much of a statistics guy Addicts. I get my stats and opinions from the other staffers here at AA. I can say with pride they are the best in the business. What I am is a game day guy. A game day experience guy. And this is one game day experience guy who can’t freaking wait to get back to Arrowhead. As I post this, I am out the door for a two day muskie tournament, my other obsession. Paddy, feel free to move it around as you see fit. By the way, how proud am I of Patrick and AA at the Draft in NYC? BIG TIME!

But back to the title of this post………..

I was fishing with my dad a couple of weeks ago, when a hawk came swooping out of the sky and grabbed a decent size crappie right out of the water.

He had his meal for the day, I figured his kids were hungry as well, and expected him to swoop back into the trees and pass out the groceries to the hungry little hawks back home.

But he didn’t.

Not right away anyway.

He swooped back up toward the clouds and made four or five lazy loops, then decided to call it a day and gently glided to his nest in the nearby forest.

It made me think of the last time I remember seeing Priest Holmes at Arrowhead.

The 2007 season, Priest Holmes was older, hurt, rich, cherished, a place quite a few NFL running backs wouldn’t mind reserving for an end of the career NFL destination.

Priest had a Superbowl ring, a ton of Chiefs records, and, I suspect, knew in his heart just like I did, that the Chiefs were going nowhere that year.

As I stared down at the play forming in his last home game, I wondered to myself why he bothered.

I missed the beginning of the play, something else got my attention, (Zach will say the cheerleaders), when I looked back Priest was heading for a six and a half foot wall of NFL bricks, I almost looked away, then something happened I’ll never forget.

Priest flew.

Nowhere near the end zone, Priest launched the famous Priest takeoff, a move that would have resulted in a touchdown in the redzone, but certainly not here. He left the game soon after, I never saw Priest Holmes take the field at Arrowhead again.

Why would Priest risk paralysis playing with a neck injury in a meaningless game, during a meaningless season, when he had that elusive Superbowl ring at home?

I knew when I saw the hawk.

That noble bird had his meal, the kids were hungry, the days work was done.

But he took a little extra time, took some extra swoops, for the pure joy of being able to fly. Just like my dad and I couldn’t.

Just like Priest Holmes did.

Sorry gang, I can’t tell you the game, I can’t tell you the final score, I can’t even tell you if we won or lost.

But I can tell you the smell of the beer my neighbor sloshed. I can tell you the the sun peeked out just for a moment, just enough time to tell us all we need not worry, it was still there. I can tell you that a beautiful young cheerleader laughed after a set, a laugh of pure joy that told me at that second she was the happiest NFL cheerleader in the world.

And I can tell you Priest Holmes flew for the same reasons that hawk soared and more. He flew for me his faithful fan of so many years. He flew for the Chiefs and the Hunt family he had so much respect for. But mostly I think he flew for himself and for the reason that hawk flew, for the pure joy of flying.