Priest Holmes reflects on how joining the Chiefs changed trajectory of his career

Kansas City will always hold a special place in Priest Holmes’ heart.

Holmes had been a backup for the Baltimore Ravens when he signed as a free agent with the Chiefs in 2001 and became a star.

This Saturday, Holmes will be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and ahead of that honor he spoke with the Waco Tribune’s Brice Cherry about his career.

That included the decision to join the Chiefs. After having 2,687 yards from scrimmage in the previous three seasons with the Ravens, Holmes piled up 2,169 in that first season with the Chiefs. That included an NFL-best 1,555 yards rushing.

In the 2002 season, Holmes had 2,287 yards from scrimmage and 21 rushing touchdowns. Both led the NFL. Holmes’ 27 rushing touchdowns in 2003 also was tops in the NFL.

“Instead of 3 yards and a cloud of dust,” Homes told the Tribune, “when they opened up the playing field for me in Kansas City, it just allowed me to (be) more of a perimeter runner and allowed me to do draws, screens and get me one on one in space versus a defender, which would put me at the advantage immediately, which allowed me to have a lot of success. I just took advantage of it.

“I always said I was playing make-up for those years where I was the third-down back or I was on special teams.”

Holmes scored 51 total touchdowns in the 2002-03 seasons. He also reached the end zone 15 times in just eight games during an injury-shortened 2004 season.

As he told Cherry, Holmes learned just how valuable he was to fantasy-football players during a chance encounter while in Las Vegas to sign autographs.

“I was going to make my appearance and these guys were leaving the casino area,” he said. “I found out these guys had won over $325,000 and they said they had picked me, because of all the points I had for fantasy football. So that was the first time I had met some guys like that, where some guys made some incredible amounts of money because of playing with me in fantasy football.”

The Chiefs realized Holmes’ value, too. They gave him a new contract ahead of the 2003 season that included a signing bonus of around $10 million.

Shortly after that, he started the Priest Holmes Foundation, and the Tribune story notes it puts on annual fishing events for kids in Kansas City.

“My career took off with the Chiefs, and it put me in a different financial situation, where I could kind of give back in a different way, and I created the Priest Holmes Foundation,” Holmes said. “I decided right there that I wanted to be more educational, nonprofit, also help with health and wellness.”