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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 23, 2007

AN FRANCISCO - The seasons have grown longer. They've gone from 12 to 14 to now 16 games long. One thing that has stood still over the years is the running back's benchmark for greatness.

It is still 1,000 yards. Reach that in a season and everyone starts to look at you a little differently. Teammates respect you more; opponents fear you more; outsiders want you more.

Earnest Graham knows the feeling. Just in the last few weeks, as that 1,000-yard benchmark has come into sight for him, the Bucs' former third-string tailback has found himself more in demand.

Interview requests are up. Personal appearance requests are up. The quiet dinner out with his wife and kids is seldom quiet anymore. Autograph seekers, many of whom didn't even know who Graham was three months ago, interrupt it.

"It's not a bad deal," Graham said this past week as he prepared for today's game against the 49ers. "It comes with the territory. Really, it's good for me and for the organization. You just have to try to keep it in perspective."

Graham has kept it in perspective well.

Like the benchmark itself, he has remained the same. The approach to his craft that first made him an invaluable special teams contributor and now a near-elite-level back has not changed.

"You still have to hold on to what got you the recognition," he said. "That's me being a professional and coming to work every day and putting in my time and effort. You can never let that go."

If he can gain another 123 yards in the last two games of the season and reach that 1,000-yard plateau, history will never let Graham go. It will hold on to him like a precious jewel. And rightfully so.

They're a little more prevalent than they used to be, but 1,000-yard backs are still rare commodities. Of the more than 250 players who ran the ball for NFL teams last year, only 23 ran for 1,000 yards or more. The Bucs, meanwhile, have produced a 1,000-yard rusher about once every five years. They've had six in their history - only one (Cadillac Williams in 2005) since Jon Gruden took over as coach in 2002.

"I think it is the benchmark for greatness," Gruden said, "because it's normally going to take you 230 to 260 carries to get there, and unless you're a heck of a football player, no one's going to give you the ball that much.

"So I think if you get to a thousand yards, you've proved a lot to everybody. You've proved you're durable and you've proved you're pretty much the complete deal and a darned good football player."

Graham is proving all of that despite a late start. Though he has played in every game this season, he has started only 11 of them. As a result, he is averaging just 15 carries per game.

Of the 19 runners with a realistic shot at the 1,000-yard benchmark this year, only two - Dallas' Marion Barber (198) and St. Louis' Steven Jackson (207) - have run the ball fewer times than Graham (213).

Throw in the fact that Graham has caught 47 passes for 313 yards and scored 10 touchdowns - the seventh-most among running backs - and you arguably have one of the best all-around players in the game.

"He just might be the MVP of our football team," said Gruden, who admitted earlier this year that he may have made a mistake leaving Graham on the sidelines for more than three years.

Graham has never complained about his role. Even he wonders, though, where he'd be in his quest for 1,000 yards had he not spent nearly two months trying to regain the field vision and rhythm he lost sitting on the bench.

"That's the amazing thing to me," said Graham's lead blocking back, B.J. Askew. "This guy was our third running back. When you think of a third running back, you don't think of a guy who can carry a team. But that's exactly what Earnest has done. He's carried us. And it just shows you that throughout the NFL, you've got guys on every team, backups that are just waiting and are as good as any star anywhere.

"Everybody thinks that just because a guy is second or third on the depth chart, he's not that good. But that's just not true. If you're in the NFL you're in the NFL for a reason.

"He's the new poster boy for that."

The NFL's new poster boy wouldn't be approaching his benchmark without some help. A solid passing attack has deterred opposing defenses, and a beefy offensive line has helped to blaze the trail for him.

"They've fought hard for me all year," Graham said of his offensive line. "Backs in this league don't get 1,000 yards unless the guys up front are doing something right."

The captain of that line won't disagree. He has been around awhile now - 10 years, to be exact. During that time he has been a regular on a line that has paved the way for a 1,000-yard back just once, in 2005.

Not surprisingly, he's eager to see Graham reach that benchmark, too. After all, it doesn't mean that only Graham has had a good season; it means his line has had a good season, too.

"For an offensive line to have a 1,000-yard rusher, that's what you want to have," center John Wade said. "If you have a 1,000-yard rusher, you know you've had a pretty decent season. It would be huge for us."

Huge also might describe the financial windfall Graham might realize as a result of a 1,000-yard season. It could be awhile, though, before his big payoff comes.

At $510,000, the Bucs are getting a breakout season from Graham at a bargain-basement rate. His salary increases only slightly to $605,000 next season, but Graham seems hopeful a big year will lead to a big payoff.

"We'll see what happens when the offseason comes," he said. "But it does seem to sort of go with it, I think. You play better, you get paid better. It's pretty simple, really. I mean, you're value does go up."

Just like your stature.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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