Ideally, the Chiefs would like to see some of the offensive load taken off the shoulders of Priest Holmes in 2005.

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He'll be 32 years old in October and he missed half of last season with a knee injury. Pro football history reveals very few running backs have much of a career beyond the age ofholmes 30, especially one that has had the ball in his hands as many times as Holmes over the last four seasons. The wear and tear eventually reduces their effectiveness. Click here for Kansas City Chiefs tickets. Plus, with an opportunity to play last year, Larry Johnson showed he has the skills to be productive in the league, as both a runner and receiver. With Derrick Blaylock gone in free agency, L.J. is the unquestioned backup and destined for more activity.

There’s only one problem: Priest Holmes isn’t buying. Not in any fashion. He wants no part of a lightened load. His age and recent injuries (hip and knee) are meaningless pieces of the puzzle right now in his view.

Holmes feels good and he wants the ball. He wants it a lot.

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“I don’t think I’ll have fewer opportunities,” Holmes said. “I like the idea of getting Larry more involved in the offense. I really like the idea of the two of us in the backfield together some of the time.

“But I don’t really see me getting fewer chances. Why would that happen?”

Well Priest, maybe because the Chiefs would like to see if they could extend your playing career maybe another year or two, rather than continue to pile up the runs and catches the way they have since you joined the team in 2001.

“I just don’t see that as a problem in this offense,” said Holmes. “We have a lot of weapons, a lot of ways to move the ball and score points. There have been plenty of opportunities for all of us in this offense and I don’t see why that’s going to change.” The fact is that Priest Holmes isn’t giving an inch and he believes that attitude will help make himself, the Chiefs and Larry Johnson better.

“I can pull some things out of Larry,” said Holmes. “He’s going to be very successful. We all saw that with the way he ran last year.

“If I can challenge him and show him that it’s not going to be easy, that I’m going to make every play, I’m going to take advantage of every play when I’m out there, that’s going tojohnson force him to take advantage of every play when he’s out there.

“That’s the way I love to play football. It goes back to my younger days, when I always wanted to play against the taller kids, the bigger kids. I loved to play against those guys because I got the ball all the time, because the other kids my size were afraid to run against the big kids.

“I’m going to make it very challenging for him to make sure he plays at his best for every game. I’m going to force him to make that big play, because if he doesn’t make it, I’m going to make it.”

Over the last three years when the Chiefs offense has been at the top of the league in yards and points produced, Holmes has been on top of that production. In an average game during the 2002-04 seasons, he averaged 41 percent of the touches, 37 percent of the yards and 50 percent of the touchdowns. He has been the offensive engine and he does not feel like there’s any reason that can’t continue.

“You don’t really know what the human body can do, until you ask it to do something,” said Holmes. “It’s like you don’t know if you can carry the ball 30 times in a game, but then you get a chance and you find out you can do it.”

Count Holmes as one who doesn’t buy into the theory that running backs have only a certain number of carries in them before it becomes a war of attrition on their bodies.

“No, I don’t believe that, don’t believe that at all,” Holmes said emphatically. “Absolutely not.”

His reply came in the same manner that he carries the football: with burst and with power. Great running backs tend to be this way. Marcus Allen’s hackles would rise every time the conversation turned to his age and how much football he could still play. “What does a man’s age have to do with it?” he once asked me. “It’s about what you can produce on the field, not what it says on a calendar.”

That attitude was one of the reasons that Allen was able to play until he was 37 years old. In the history of the league, the number of effective running backs at that age is a very small fraternity.

Priest Holmes is still a good many years away from joining that group and he doesn’t talk like membership with them is a long-term goal. He very simply doesn’t see why he needs any less action in 2005 than he was getting in 2004 before he was hurt, or what he got in 2003 when he set the NFL record for touchdowns in a season.

“The wear and tear is going to be there,” said Holmes. “That’s what goes with the game of football. Throughout my career I’ve always bounced back from injuries. I don’t know why it would be any different now.

“I feel great, I’m ready and I want the ball.”