Just looking for articles on Peyton when I found this one in the Buffalo News.
<h1 ="story-title">Obscure back finds his place with Browns</h1>
<h2 ="deck">Peyton Hillis wins hearts in Cleveland.</h2>
Updated:</span> December 10, 2010, 12:43 AM
Peyton who?
No doubt that was the response from Cleveland
Browns players and fans when the team traded quarterback Brady Quinn to
the Denver Broncos for an unheralded running back named Peyton Hillis.
But if Hillis ran for mayor of Cleveland today, he'd win in a landslide.
The
third-year pro has made the remarkable rise from obscurity to folk hero
because of a highly productive season.
He has rushed for 962 yards
(10th in the NFL) and leads the Browns with 53 receptions, second-most
in the league among running backs.
He also is third in the NFL
with 13 touchdowns and joined Hall of Famers Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly
as the only Browns with at least 11 rushing touchdowns in a season.
Being in the same company as two all-time greats is not something Hillis is comfortable with.
"Absurd," he said recently. "I'm nobody."
Hillis,
24, wouldn't mind if that was true. The small-town boy from Conway,
Ark., tries to avoid the spotlight. But his days of anonymity are over.
The
rise of No. 40 jerseys throughout Northeast Ohio speaks to Hillis'
popularity. He has given Cleveland a new sports hero to replace the
departed LeBron James. There is even league-wide talk of him earning an
invitation to the Pro Bowl.
Every team the Browns face is obsessed with one objective: Stopping Hillis.
That
has been easier said than done. The 6-foot-1, 240-pounder is a
punishing, downhill runner who breaks tackles and doesn't shy from
contact. He is agile enough to leap over defenders who go for his legs,
but he wants to deliver a blow instead of taking one.
"There's
always a mindset of being bigger than the next guy and more mentally
prepared and wanting to be tougher than the next guy," Hillis said this
week during a conference call with the Buffalo media. "When you do that,
good things tend to happen."
The Bills, who have struggled
stopping the run most of the season, are bracing for a heavy dose of
Hillis when the Browns come to town on Sunday.
"He's not going to
try and get on the edge and just outrun everybody," said Bills outside
linebacker/defensive end Chris Kelsay. "He's going to look for contact,
hit it up between the tackles as much as possible and try to run guys
over."
"You've got to surround him with a bunch of bodies," added
Bills coach Chan Gailey. "One guy has a hard time bringing him down.
You've got to try to get guys up near the line of scrimmage. That's all
you can do. Get him before he can get started. Once he gets going he's
hard to bring down."
Hillis is making the most of an opportunity that he has waited for years to get.
At
the University of Arkansas, he spent most of his career as a fullback,
tight end and H-back blocking for running backs Darren McFadden and
Felix Jones.
While McFadden and Jones went on to become
first-round picks in the 2008 draft, Hillis was drafted in the seventh
round by the Broncos.
He opened his rookie season as the starting
fullback, but injuries gave him a chance to be the Broncos' primary ball
carrier. He was playing well before a torn hamstring ended his season
after 12 games.
Hillis led Denver in rushing with 343 yards (5
yards per carry) and five touchdowns and expected to contend for the
starting job last season. But long-time coach Mike Shanahan was fired
and replaced by Josh McDaniels, who promptly added first-round draft
pick Knowshon Moreno and free agent Correll Buckhalter. It was Arkansas
all over again for Hillis, whose playing time diminished significantly.
Fortunately
for him, there was someone who appreciated his talents. Eric Mangini
was the coach of the New York Jets when Hillis ran for 129 yards and a
touchdown against them in a 24-17 road win by the Broncos.
Mangini never forgot it.
"We
knew what type of runner he was," Mangini said during his conference
call with the Buffalo media. "I tried to get him last year and this year
we were able to make it work out. Even when I talked to him the day we
traded for him, I said, 'You don't have to come here to be pigeon-holed
in any one area. It's really up to you what you do with this
opportunity. I think you've got a real skill set to do a lot of things,
and there's no reason you can't be a 1,000-yard rusher.'
"He's
come in, to his credit, and taken advantage of the opportunity and shown
to a lot of people what I think he's believed the whole time."
Hillis
wasn't an overnight success in Cleveland. It took an injury to Montario
Hardesty and a trade of Jerome Harrison for him to get the starting
job. But as in Denver, Hillis took the ball and ran with it.
In
his first start, he rushed for 144 yards against the usually stout
Baltimore Ravens' run defense. He would follow that with three other
100-yard performances, including a career-high 184 yards and two
touchdowns in a 34-14 win over the New England Patriots in Week Nine. In
a Week 12 win at Carolina, Hillis joined Marshall Faulk as the only
players in NFL history with 130 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns
and 60 yards receiving in the same game.
"Dude's a beast," Browns linebacker David Bowens said.
Hillis
is doing things that have rarely been accomplished by a Browns running
back.
There's another rarity he is about to achieve: With 38 yards
against the Bills, he'll become the first white running back to rush for
1,000 yards in a season since Craig James did it for New England in
1985.
Hillis' teammates would be the first to say his color
doesn't matter, but the fact that he's excelling at a position
historically dominated by African-Americans is noteworthy.
"It's
always been one of my dreams to do something like that," Hills said of
reaching 1,000 yards. "But since I've been on this team and I see the
team unity and that we have a bunch of great guys, I know it would mean a
lot to them too, especially our O-line. It's not for myself, it's for
them."
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/article280003.ece
