'Toughest position on the field:' Edgerrin James on his rise to Canton and the State of the NFL Running Back

One of the best players in NFL history hangs out with Go Long.

Feb 28, 2025

At the turn of the century, Edgerrin James entered the NFL and then changed the NFL as the do-it-all featured back in the Indianapolis Colts’ trailblazing offense.

Straight out of “The U,” the man in flowing dreads and gold teeth brought a different flair to the sport.

He left tacklers in the dust. He ran routes like a receiver. He stonewalled that blitzing linebacker in pass pro.

And in 2020, James was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It’s always a good time to chat with the four-time Pro Bowler who rushed for 12,246 yards, caught 433 balls for 3,364 yards and scored 91 total touchdowns through an 11-year career — especially with his position regaining some respect in the NFL last season.

Our full conversation this week is transcribed below.

We discuss…

His unique rise. South Florida is teeming with athletes. So, what separated James?
His secret in the pros. James knew he needed to train differently. He put himself through hell in the summer to bury opponents all fall.
How the Colts’ up-tempo, high-octane offense grew together “in real time” with Peyton Manning.
Running backs today. Is the position back? “Edge” loved seeing Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry force the masses to rethink preconceived beliefs. What makes running back unlike any other on the field?
James Cook. He’s been watching the Buffalo Bills starter since Cook was a little kid and offers thoughts on the back’s request for $15 million per year.
His son. He assures everyone will see “Jizzle James” in the NBA for 15, 20 years.

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I was just re-watching your speech. I love how you started it, too. Thanking your Mom. Raising five boys. “No manual, no blueprint, no man. I was your man.” Is that where it really begins, how you grew up with your Mom?

James: Yeah, it starts right there for me. When you look at the Hall of Fame speech, it was a timeline of everything that was important. It just flowed from the start of my journey all the way to the end. And so that was a beautiful time. It was a nice journey. I had a good time playing ball.

What were those breakthrough moments when you realized you’re different than your peers and that you could do something special as a football player?

James: When you play youth football, you only get a chance to play against people in your area. So you know where you stand. But once you get to college — and I got to the University of Miami — that’s when I was able to go against the best of the best or what was in the paper as the top linebacker, the top defensive line, top players. And that’s when you get a true measuring stick. Once I got there, I realized, “You know what? This thing is a piece of cake.” It’s not as hard as I probably thought it was. It’s not as hard as it may seem for some because now you’re here. This is the best of the best. And if I can dominate here, I know I belong.

Why do you think it came so easy for you?

James: I was made to be a football player. Tough. My size as a running back is probably bigger than the average size, but the toughness is something that you can’t really measure. And I grew up tough. I grew up being tough. I grew up around older players. Playing with the older guys and so when I got a chance to play with guys my age, it just made it easier. When you start playing ball and you’re playing sandlot football or you’re playing out in the streets or in the grass, whatever field — and you’re playing against guys three, four or five years older than you — it really matters when you’re young. As you get older, you start playing against people that are your age, it’s simple. It gets so simple and so easy because you had to do so much when you were playing against the older guys.

I hear that so often with NFL players — the best of the best like yourself. You play against guys who are three, four years older and it toughens you up. Callouses you. But it’s also different down in Florida, right? Imagine it’s not two-hand touch when you’re playing in the street.

James: It’s totally different. It’s almost rugby-type when it’s real tough, it’s real rough, it’s physical. But the people that get out of there, they’re competitive. They actually embrace it or they love the challenge because the thrill of being out there with somebody that’s bigger, faster, stronger and older than you — those things right there — it always drives you. Especially as a young person. You always want to be older. You always want to act older. You always want to do things older. You want to do what the older guys do and that’s a way that you can pretty much solidify yourself.

Was there a moment that you got your clock cleaned? It’s not all roses and sunshine when you’re playing kids older than you and it’s full tackle. Did you have those moments like “Shit, is this for me or not?” Because you kept getting up, right?

James: That’s part of it. That’s part of the measuring. You say, “OK, I got knocked around, I got hit pretty good.” But I got right back up. And you gain people’s respect. I think that’s one thing that we all fight for as a young individual. We want the respect of the older people.

When do you think you got that respect? Do you remember a specific game or day that happened?

James: I was always getting respect because I was doing it. But I remember when I was in the ninth grade and I had to go against some of the varsity guys when we were practicing during the spring practice and I went up against one of the top players, the top heavy-hitters, and I handled my business. And that day right there, I knew I gained a lot of respect of the seniors because you’re not supposed to do that. You’re not supposed to come in here and — not just play and do well — but dominate somebody that is a leader, somebody that’s one of the top figures of the team. And so it was moments like that that made it really stand out and then made it to where it was like, “Yeah, we got to respect this guy. We’ve got to keep this kid right here with us.”

Where do you think your toughness comes from most? Learned or genetics?

James: Family’s tough. Football is life. Everybody’s tough. Your uncles, your bigger cousins, everybody, they’re going to test you at an early age. It’s a big deal to be tough. It’s a big deal to show that I’m a “James.” The “James” name rings where I come from and the elders, they make sure that you go out and you represent the family name.

What goes into the James name in your hometown?

James: It’s a big deal. Because we were always good at sports. All my uncles were good at sports — cousins, our family big in sports and when you’re a James, you’ve got to go out and represent.

In the pros, when did you realize what you were doing offensively had never really been done before?

James: You really don’t. When you’re in the midst of it, you’re just out there doing what you do and — when you look back on it — that’s when you say, “Dang, we were actually doing things that had never been done before and we did it at a high level.” But then when you start breaking down the “why” and “how,” you start seeing that we put in a lot of work and you had a group of guys that were totally committed to the game. And that’s very rare. Because a lot of times on certain teams, you have people that worry about themselves or they’re so talented that they don’t put in that extra work and at some point it catches up with them. But for us, everybody was on the same page. Everybody wanted to practice. Everybody wanted the ball. Everybody wanted to actually be out there. And when you got guys fighting for the opportunity to get the ball or put the ball in your hands, that’s the type of guys I want because they’re going to value that possession.

Like Dallas Clark said — with Peyton — intellectually you’ve got to get to another level. You’re running plays at a speed that had never been done before. You’re changing stuff at the line of scrimmage. You’re reeling off 60 plays a game and scoring at will. What was the most difficult part of getting on Peyton’s level and playing at that speed? How were you able to do it almost right away?

James: We all grew together. We created it together. We all created that thing together and everybody fed off of each other. And then once you know what you’re doing, you know what you’ve got to do, you can only go as fast as the weakest link. And if your weakest link is up to speed? It’s all because it was created in real time. That’s what made it go so smooth because it wasn’t like, “Oh, this rookie has to come in or this person got to come in.” I came in, I was one year behind Peyton. They didn’t have a great year the previous year, so it was a learning process and everybody put in the work. “Marv” (Harrison) was there before us. And so, when you put a group of guys that’s on the same page and everybody has the things they’re good at and they want to be great at those things? Now things start to slow down and as the game slows down, the more you can do. The faster you can do things because you get an unconscious competence. You get to where you don’t even have to think about it, but you know exactly what you want to do. You know how to react. That’s what happened to us.

You came in a year after Peyton in ‘99 and you really did grow together and went through all the ups and downs as a group. And in the moment, you’re not thinking, “Man, we’re revolutionizing football. I’m revolutionizing the running back position.” But now that you’re removed, what do you think you personally did different than anybody before you at that position?

James: There’s guys that played the game and did certain things at a high level. I took pride in doing all three phases of the game at a high level. Running the ball, that was easy. Became natural. And then I could always pass pro. But then as you start learning the passing game and being involved in the passing game, now you’re separating yourself from the other guys because it’s hard to find somebody that could actually do all three at a high level and at the amount or the quantity that we were doing it. We would throw the ball 30, 40 times. And if you’re never leaving the field, that means you’ve got to do a lot of pass pro. And so within doing that, you’re doing it at a high level.

You had at least 300 carries in seven different seasons and at least 50 receptions in five. I don’t know how many backs we’ll see do that today with the specialization. The back who never comes off the field is so rare. How in the hell did you keep your stamina up to stay on the field through all of that?

James: It’s South Florida training. I always stuck to my University of Miami training. I always trained at the hottest point of the day and made sure I would go out there with a purpose and be intentional about why I’m getting these reps and why I’m doing it at this certain time of the day. And so you’re preparing yourself during the offseason for those in-season moments. If I’m in better shape than everybody else — it’s who goes the hardest, the longest. That’s what one coach used to always say. It’s who goes the hardest, the longest. So at some point you’re going to break another person’s will because they haven’t put it in that time, they haven’t put in that extra work and that’s where it comes from.

We watch football and we treat everybody like they’re names in a fantasy football lineup and we forget that everybody has a gas tank. If it’s the fourth quarter, three minutes left, a lot of guys aren’t going to be able to hack it. A lot of guys are just going to be surviving the down. And then there’s Edgerrin James who’s at or close to 100 percent. What is a training session really like for you in the offseason? It’s got to be 90-some degrees and you’re just doing sprints?

James: You’re doing everything. You’re doing full-body workouts. I never trained where, “OK, today I’m going to do legs. The next day I’m going to do arms, do upper.” For me, it was full body all the time. Every time. I would do full-body training and that’s the weight-room portion. And then of course you have the on-field portion. And once you put those in, the hours just roll into each other where you really don’t think about it. But at the University of Miami, you’ve got a bunch of guys that will come back and I always liked to work out with the younger guys also because those guys are going to push you harder than the pros are going to push you. Because they can’t wait to become a pro. They want to sit up there and try to size you up. They want to try to measure against you. So you’re going to get their best foot forward. As long as you’re around hungry people and then you still go out there and do what you’re supposed to do, it keeps you motivated. It keeps you in a space to where it’s like I enjoy training. And it was kind of cool because we’re in Miami. We trained. And I would always do my late night stuff when I needed. I always had a calendar knowing what I needed to do and I would put in that extra work all the time.

So that tight ends book that Dallas helped me out with, I also talked to Jeremy Shockey, too. One of a kind. Was he in that group? What Miami players were you training with when you went back?

James: Just look at my era. That was Reggie (Wayne), Santana (Moss), Frank Gore, Clinton Portis, all around that era. I would come back and so all the guys would be there and then plus you had a lot of pro guys that started buying into it and the University of Miami became an essential location for a lot of the NFL players to meet to get to work in and actually prepare themselves for training camp.

That was just a different crew. Don’t know if we’ll see a group of red-blooded, testosterone-fueled ass kickers like The U — that time period. What made that group different? Shockey would tell me fights broke out in practice all the time and the coaches are good with it because that’s the ecosystem that you had down there and it was going to be different than any other football team in the country.

James: Well, when you play against top guys and a lot of prideful guys — and you have the NFL at the end of the tunnel — you’re going to get the best of those guys. And then you have guys that actually play in the NFL that come back and give you insight on what it takes to be a pro and the things you have to do. When you put all that in one space and opportunities are limited because the next man is pretty good also.

It's a different world. Today if something isn’t going right, you’re not getting your opportunity, you can transfer. Right there, you better bust your ass or you’re just going to lose your job.

James: Yeah, it’s one of those things where your competition is sitting right next to you and it is not to where it’s the enemy is sitting next to you. This is somebody that’s actually pulling for you and pulling for themselves. And so if you do something good, they’re going to pat you on the back and then they’re going to add that to their game and everybody builds off each other’s game and that’s what made it even better.

How would you describe the state of the running back position today? You’re a Hall of Famer. You’re one of the best to ever do it — running the ball, catching the ball, changing the way the position itself is played. When you watch running backs today in the NFL, what is it to you?

James: I mean, the game is not as physical. So now it’s more about speed and more about availability. If you can catch and you can take part in the passing game, you can extend your career. The more you can do. But you don’t have to really block as much as you used to. Before, you had to do a lot more blocking. But now it is five-wide or the back is involved in the passing game and now it’s just about availability and understanding the whole game. But this year, I’m glad seeing Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry because those are two guys that traditionally people would push down or say, “Oh, you’re not good enough” or “You are not of value to us.” And they went on to have success. And so it’s showing the value of the running back position that if you can take care of your body and make sure that you’re available, you bring a lot of value to that offense.

Do you think that Saquon and Derrick Henry — and you can throw Josh Jacobs in there and even James Cook here in Buffalo — do they all knock some sense into teams into maybe valuing the position? Is it going to come back around?

James: At some point you’re going to realize the value of it. But as a running back, you have to understand your value lies in being able to take part in the passing game also. And so once you show that “Hey, not only can I run the ball and get those tough yards, I can move the chains from a receiving standpoint,” once you're able to do that, now it’s hard to deny it. And I think that’s where you have to really look at the running back and say, “Look, if you can do all three and move those chains and you’re always bringing value,” there’s no way you’re going to be able to deny it.

There was nobody doing it like you were at that time. It was different to see a back swinging out of the backfield, lining up in the slot, being used all over the place. Now if you can’t do that, you’re not going to last long. You must take some pride in that change.

James: It’s all part of it. It goes with the territory. But I was actually really good at all three of those. So it came pretty easy in the fact that as a person that’s on the field, you want the ball in your hands, you want to touch the ball. You’re a nobody if you don’t have the ball in your hands. So you want to step up and say “How can I make myself somebody to this game or this play or this situation?” And that’s where being able to actually do all three, it comes into play because I don’t have to come out. I don’t have to say, “OK, yeah, it’s second down or it’s third down and I have to come out.” No, there’s an opportunity right there for me. There’s two things that are going to happen. You’re going to run a draw or a screen. Or somebody else is going to get the ball. Out of those two things — the receiver’s getting the ball or you’re part of a draw or a screen — I like my chances of being in there on third and long. One thing can happen for me or the other thing, I just have to block for the rest of the guys.

You’ve got different linebackers in your era, too. Two decades ago, you’re picking up that pass pro, that linebacker coming through the hole, who were some of those guys you took a little pride in blocking back then?

James: Anybody that played. We had those Buffalo Bills guys. We had the Jets guys. We had New England Patriot guys. We played against the Dolphins when they had Zach Thomas, which is a Pro Football Hall of Famer. There’s a lot of guys that you had to go out and compete against and you gained their respect game by game, play by play. And so not one because every week there was somebody different that really could do damage to an offense.

Is there a running back that you really love watching today?

James: James Cook, I watched him when he was younger. He played football down in Miami. And so you know those guys, you just like seeing these guys be successful. Those boys in Detroit, those boys run the ball nice. And so there’s a lot of guys. So it’s not somebody in particular because I just pull for all running backs. I’m looking for guys that can represent the position and can’t wait to bring them into the Pro Football Hall of Fame — whichever one gets that nod at some point in time. We want to keep holding this down because we, as running backs, know that it is the toughest position on the field. And it’s backed by facts. You’re talking about somebody that deals with every single position on the defense? The running back. You’re talking about somebody that has the shortest career because it’s that tough? The running backs. The guy that gets hit by everybody and has to get up and the guy who’s trusted the most with the ball in his hand other than the quarterback throwing it.

And you just hope that the best of the very best gravitate toward the position still. In our era, that was the glory position. I’ve got a little boy right now and he’s running around and I’m imagining him playing running back.

James: With the way the game is going, you never know. You never know. Everybody’s going to do what’s best for them, but the ones that actually can do it? And are actually good at it? It’s not going to be a crowded space.

You’ve got to fill us in on James Cook. What makes him special? You’ve known him for a long time then? You’ve been watching him since he was a kid down there?

James: Yeah, that’s Dalvin’s brother. So you get a chance to watch them all the time. You watch them grow and you just watch them do their thing. He got a head start on people because he had a brother that was playing already. He has something to look up to and something to look forward to. He played down here at Miami Central to where football — they’ve been winning a lot of championships, they’ve been doing their thing in the state of Florida. So with him, it’s not a surprise to see him go out and flourish. Hopefully he’s able to sustain and have a long career and get compensated the right way and stay with the Buffalo Bills and that quarterback and hopefully they get a No. 1 receiver at some point and they can build their own trio and actually grow together.

So does he have that special something inside of him, too, being from your area and what it takes to survive and thrive? Whatever that “it” factor is, do you see it in James?

James: Well, it’s a mentality and a mindset. And that right there is instilled from an early age. Those things, I don’t worry about. You can see, that’s a South Florida kid. You can see football means something to them. And that’s the difference between guys that play the position from down south and the state of Florida and a lot of other places.

I’ve talked to guys down there and Carlton Davis, he’s another one. He’s like, “We’ve got youth football games and there’s people gambling thousands of dollars on our game and there might be gunfire if they lose a bet.” You don’t get that anywhere else in the country.

James: It’s totally different. Football is serious. It’s a serious sport and all the extracurricular activities that go on around it? It just makes it even more important.

Fifteen million a year for James Cook, that’s what he’s asking for. Should the Bills pay that number to him?

James: Well, they’re going to do what they do. But as a running back, I want him to get as much as he can possibly get because he deserves it. And I think all running backs should be paid, especially when you’re a difference-maker.

How is life today? Your son’s playing hoops. You’ve got to be a busy guy.

James: Yeah, my son played last night on ESPN. He plays for Cincinnati and we’re trying to get into this (NCAA) Tournament. Got to finish strong. We’ve got three games. I’m actually going to see him play Saturday against Houston and he’s got to just keep doing it. He has what it takes. He’ll be in the NBA, it's just a matter of when.

He’s got NBA gifts? We’re going to see him at that level?

James: Yeah, you’ll see him. That’s too easy. He’ll be there because he has what it takes and he can do it on all three levels. He plays defense. He checks every box that it takes to be a top draft pick and a player that can play in that league 15, 20 years. Easy.

He got off to a slow start. Now, he’s finally hitting his stride. He had to get comfortable. You’ll hear about him. I don’t even have to speak on him. You’ll hear about him, you’ll see him. He’s going to be one of those guys that you just gotta watch.

So people who haven’t seen him play yet, what kind of game does he have? What NBA player should we think of?

James: For me, he has a pretty unique game because he can do it on the offense side. But on defense, I like the way he plays like Jrue Holiday. He’s going to be right there. He’s going to be on his guy. Plays good defense. But he can pop that pill and do things offensively. So it’s hard to sit up there and say “this guy” or “that guy” right now because he’s showing so much. He has a crazy mid-range and of course he has that football body/build to the cup like he’s playing football.

He was Edgerrin Jr., and “Jizzle” happened organically?

James: We call him “Jizzle.” Yeah, he’s Edgerrin Jr., but Jizzle is what we’ve always called him. That’s always been his alter ego. When he turns into Jizzle, he turns into a totally different person.

Did you coin it?

James: Yeah, we’ve been calling him that since he was young.

Well, the name alone should be worth something. It rolls off the tongue.

James: Jizzle James. It’s Jizzle Time right now.