Rhodes returns to Colts

By Tom James
Tribune-Star Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS May 07, 2008 11:04 pm

— What a difference a week makes. A few days after the conclusion of the NFL Draft, Indianapolis Colts team president Bill Polian was asked if his team would have any interest in re-signing former Colts running back Dominic Rhodes.
Rhodes, who ran for a game-high 113 yards in 21 carries and had a one-yard touchdown run in leading Indianapolis to a 29-17 Super Bowl XLI win over the Chicago Bears, had been released after spending one up-and-down season with the Oakland Raiders.
In response to the question, Polian didn’t give the impression the Colts had an interest at that time. “I think we’re pretty full at the position to be truthful with you,” he said.
Whether it was unhappiness with Rhodes’ eventual replacement — running back Kenton Keith — or just a desire to better fortify the position, Indianapolis inked the former 1,000-yard rusher to a one-year deal on Wednesday.
Terms of the agreement were not immediately known, but it’s believed that he will receive approximately $650,000.
The decision to return to Indianapolis was something that Rhodes had been contemplating since his departure from Oakland. He had 302 yards rushing and one touchdown in limited playing time for the Raiders in 2007.
“Now that I went through what I went through in Oakland and I see what that’s all about it’s like they say, the grass ain’t always greener on the other side, you know?,” Rhodes said in an interview with Sirius NFL Radio last week.
“I’ll tell you what, man. I truly enjoy winning. I don’t like to lose and I really learned football when I was with the Colts. I know that there they love me and they have great fans. All my [former Colts] teammates have been like, ‘Come home, man. Just come home.’ They’ve been texting me, ‘Come home. Just come home, bro.’”
His time with the Raiders got off to a bad start after he was forced to miss game time due to an NFL-imposed suspension for violations of the team’s substance abuse policy. By the time he returned, Justin Fargas was securely in place as Oakland’s primary running back.
Rhodes’ job security with the Raiders didn’t get much better after the team selected former Arkansas running back Darren McFadden in the draft.
“When I restructured my [contract with Oakland] it was like, ‘Listen, I’ll restructure but it’s got to be to where if y’all draft him I can leave, you know. Y’all let me go.’ That’s kind of how it went,” he said.
“They kept their word and they let me get a chance to go somewhere else and get my opportunity. I know they like [former University of Louisville running back] Mike Bush. They just re-signed Justin and I didn’t want to have to deal with what I dealt with last year because I know I can play and I know somebody can use someone like me.”
That turned out to be Indianapolis, once again.
“The year out in Oakland was a tough one for me, man, especially coming from, like I said, the Colts which is a great organization. They put together their team in a way with not a bunch of guys that are supposed to be like Hollywood types. They go and get guys like myself who they know can play football and they put them on the field and they win with them, you know?,” he said.
“Out in Oakland it was tough, man. I got put into a bad situation. The first thing was my fault by getting the four-game suspension. But then, when I got back, they kind of held it against me, didn’t give me my shot to get on the field and do the things that they said they were going to do. That right there kind of let me know what was going on. I don’t see the reason why the Raiders needed to draft a running back. We had like a stable full of running backs that are capable, that ran for a hundred yards, every one of them and [Oakland[ went and drafted a guy that — he’s a great runner, don’t get me wrong — but I don’t understand the logic behind it.”