The Sports Informant

Being an NFL running back does not give you much job security. While you could be coming to work, clocking in and performing to the best of your abilities day in and day out, at any time you could instantly be yanked from your post and put in the mail room.

It’s amazing how quickly the turnover is from one back to another in the sport. I’m watching Brandon Jacobs play the Eagles right now in a playoff game and remember just last week thinking, “What happened to Tiki Barber?”

Barber is now a correspondent for NBC’s Today Show and Football Night in America/Sunday Night Football. He retired from the New York Giants in 2007 after the 2006 season’s playoffs. I remember him being the face of the Giants for quite some time, and him completely redoing his running style to prevent fumbles and bring more success to the team’s rushing attack.

With Barber at the helm, the Giants were beat in the NFC Wild Card game by the same Philadelphia Eagles, then, the following year, won the Super Bowl over the Patriots… without Barber. After years of basing a good majority of their success on his legs, the Giants replaced him with Jacobs, a relative unknown, and he helped carry them to a historical championship.

This is only one example of how the position is not really safe for anyone looking for a career. Edgerrin James was a stud with the Indianapolis Colts in his heyday, virtually an unstoppable ground force that complimented Peyton Manning well in several deep playoff runs. Then, in March of 2006, he signed with the Arizona Cardinals, and the following year, with Dominic Rhodes in his spot in Indy, the Colts won the Super Bowl. Not even Rhodes remains as the star in Indianapolis now, as Joseph Addai took over shortly after. Meanwhile, James struggles to get playing time in Arizona despite his abilities, being just as talented as he was in Indy. He shares his carries with another running back and has clearly stated he wants out of Arizona after the season. He’s in the process of being replaced, even though he clearly showed he could carry the team in its first-round playoff win over Atlanta this season.

The list goes on and on, but is no more evident than with the surprising San Diego Chargers. When LaDanian Tomlinson, arguably the best running back in the league every year, came into the first-round playoff matchup with the Colts last week, very few said he’d play. He was coming off an injury, but the team, thinking it needed his contributions to win, played him anyway… or at least tried to.

Tomlinson scored a touchdown in the second quarter, but left the game with a groin injury after. Backup Darren Sproles took his place, and instead of spelling the end for San Diego, lifted them to a spirited 23-17 overtime victory against a Colts team that had won nine straight games prior to. Sproles carried the ball 23 times for 105 yards in the game, and had 178 yards on four kickoff and three punt returns. He had five pass receptions for 45 yards and scored a touchdown on one of his rushes.

Unlike the Edgerrin James situation, Tomlinson was clearly the man. Sproles didn’t get a bunch of rushes each game in training to replace Tomlinson, he was just thrown the duties mid-game. During the regular season, spanning 16 games, Sproles averaged less than for carries a game, all coming mainly to give Tomlinson a breather. Now, today, Sproles will be the man who could lead the previously 8-8 Chargers to the AFC Championship game.

How’s that for job security?