The running back who loves chess

All the right moves

Priest Holmes may not talk much about his success in NFL, but his chess game speaks volumes

By JOE POSNANSKI
Kansas City Star

Priest loves bishops. They are his assassins. In chess, bishops rush diagonally across the board. Priest Holmes loves that. He hides his bishops in corners until the right moment. Then, he lets them slash in.

“Bishops,” he says, “are cold-blooded.”

Everybody in America, it seems, tries to get Priest Holmes to talk about himself these days. Why not? He is one incredible story. He ripped up his ACL in college. He watched Ricky Williams take his job. He didn’t get drafted by any NFL team. He finally earned his chance in Baltimore and rushed for 1,000 yards. He promptly was benched. He came to Kansas City. He became the best running back in football.
That’s some story.

Trouble is, you can’t get Priest Holmes to tell the story. He won’t talk about himself. Guys on the Chiefs will tell you: Holmes can go days without talking at all. You would need to put him in a dark room with one of those World War II interrogation lamps blazing in his eyes to get him to give much more than his name, rank and uniform number.

There is another way.

You can sit across the chess board from him.

“Come on,” Holmes says, “let’s see if you figure me out before I figure you out.”

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