Memories will last if Steelers' Parker doesn't
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Willie Parker's 75-yard touchdown run in Super Bowl XL was the longest in Super Bowl history.
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Some of Willie Parker's memories will probably be emblazoned forever in the minds of his teammates and fans.
The first of his 26 career 100-yard rushing performances in the 2004 season finale in Buffalo, the game that convinced Bill Cowher he needed to seriously consider Parker as a starter, not a reserve.
A 75-yard touchdown run on a play called Counter 34 Pike early in the second half of Super Bowl XL in Detroit -- the longest touchdown run in Super Bowl history.
Setting a franchise single-game record that had stood for 36 years when he rushed for 223 yards in a Dec. 12, 2007, game against the Cleveland Browns.
Leading the National Football League in rushing with two games remaining and breaking his leg in Week 15 in a Thursday night game in St. Louis in 2007.
"He won two Super Bowls with us," said wide receiver Hines Ward. "He'll always be a Steeler for life, in my opinion."
Even if he is no longer with the Steelers.
That possibility is creeping closer to reality because Parker, a former two-time Pro Bowl running back, is an unrestricted free agent who sounds as if he has played his last game with the Steelers.
After losing his starting job to Rashard Mendenhall in Week 4, Parker played sparingly the rest of the season, even though he might have gone out in grand style when he rushed for 74 of his 91 yards on the final game-preserving drive in Miami.
At age 29 and with an average of 244 carries in each of his past five seasons, he wants to, and thinks he still can, be a starting running back in the NFL. Even though his 5-foot-10, 209-pound frame has absorbed a lot of blows.
"I'm a starter always looked at myself as starter, that's what I want to be," said Parker, who was an undrafted free agent from North Carolina in 2004. "So, till I hang up pads, that's how I'm going to look at myself. Rashard is a great back and he had a great season and, hopefully, he'll carry it on.
First Published January 26, 2010 12:00 am
