Christian Okoye: a dynamic performance against Seattle in '89 vaulted the powerful Kansas City running back into the NFL's elite circle - The Game I'll Never Forget

Football Digest, August, 2002 by Chuck O'Donnell

I ALWAYS LIKED SEATTLE. WHEN we would come in from Kansas City to play the Seahawks--our AFC West rivals--I would get a chance to see a little bit of the city. Every time I went there, I liked it ... except for two things:

* The artificial turf in the Kingdome. It was like playing on concrete. The turf was especially hard on a running back like me, who got tackled down to the ground on almost every play.

* We always lost there. Going into our matchup against the Seahawks in Seattle in Week 5 of the 1989 season--the game I'll never forget--we had lost six straight in Seattle.

I don't know why we couldn't win there. When you play a team in your own division, your opponent seems to do some extra studying and scouting. Therefore, those divisional games are always the toughest ones to play. You obviously want to beat all the teams in your division, so you put in a little more time and effort into your preparation. It almost feels like a playoff game.

The 1989 season turned out to be a big one for me, as I led the entire league in rushing yards with 1,480. I had been in the league a few years and had had some success--some big games--but 1989 was my breakout year.

People ask me, "Why did you suddenly have such a big year?" The main reason was that Marry Schottenheimer came in as coach of the Chiefs that season. He was the type of coach who was prepared to run the ball a lot, and for me, that was good news. If you were a big back, as I was, that meant the work would be there for you if you wanted it.

Carrying the ball is the one way you can do that. You can talk to any big back who has played in the league, and he'll say that catching the ball is OK but running it is what he likes to do. In 1989, I was given the ball a lot. I received the opportunities, and I made the most of them. I wanted to perform.

I remember one time Marty came up to me and asked, "Hey, how do you feel about all this work I'm giving you?" I guess some people were calling him and saying, "You're working Christian Okoye too hard." I told him, "I am perfectly fine with it."

Although I led the league in carries with 370, we actually had a pretty balanced offense. Steve DeBerg had a good year at quarterback, and some of our receivers, like Stephone Paige, had several big catches for us. That was the year we implemented the play-fake. It worked well; since I was running the ball a lot, we fooled the defense when we used the fake. Steve would look downfield and almost always find someone open to throw to. That was one of our biggest weapons.

But nothing, not even the play-fake, was working well against Seattle in that game in 1989. We fell behind early and were trailing 16-3 at halftime. It looked like we were on our way to yet another loss in Seattle.

In the second half, though, Marty decided we were going to control the ball. He gave me the ball more and more, and we began to move the chains and eat up the clock.

We got back into the game with a touchdown in the third quarter. I'll never forget this run--it might have been the best one of my career. We were 13 yards away from the goal line. It was noisy in the stadium--I mean, noisy. If you had been there, your ears would have been ringing.

Anyway, Ron Jaworski, who was playing QB for us that game, was changing the play at the line of scrimmage, and I couldn't hear him. The fans were just too loud. He would sometimes call a play and then, once he got up to the line of scrimmage, tell you which way it was going to go. When he got to the line for this play, I didn't know which way he had called.

I went one way, and everybody else went the other. I was like, "Uh-oh. I'm in trouble now. What should I do now?" I had to cut back. I broke one tackle, then I broke free from another guy. I think I broke about seven tackles on my way to the endzone. That's one play I have at home on tape. It was just a great run, especially when you consider that it started as a broken play.

We really poured it on in the second half, just wearing down the Seahawks with our running game. We kept running, running, running. By the end of the game, I had rushed for 156 yards. I didn't really have any long runs, so the game was a workout for me. But I enjoyed it.

Our defense also stepped it up in the second half, shutting out the Seahawks. They couldn't get anything going offensively. The crowd quieted down a little, which was a big advantage for us. Between our second-half defense and our commitment to the run, we wound up winning 20-16.

Not only was it important to beat a divisional opponent, but we also finally won on the road in a place that had given us a lot of problems. It also was a big game for me personally. I had had some success up to that point, but that game really catapulted my career to the next level. It gave me a lot of confidence, made me feel like I could be a star in this league.

A Big Man With a Bigger Heart

THE SIGHT OF CHRISTIAN OKOYE THUNDERING through a hole was enough to scare linebackers into retirement. With eyes of fire, legs of steel, and shoulders of granite, Okoye was one of the toughest running backs of the late 1980s and early 1990s.