NEW YORK -- Going from third-string behind two 1,000-yard rushers to rookie of the year is a long shot. Then again, so is much of what Mike Anderson has achieved.
|  | | The Associated Press' voting panel saluted Mike Anderson as the NFL's offensive rookie of the year. |
Anderson was selected Monday as The Associated Press Offensive
Rookie of the Year in balloting by a nationwide panel of 50 sports
writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL.
The halfback rushed for 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns for the Denver Broncos after taking over for injured Terrell Davis and Olandis Gary.
"Oh, wow, I'm kind of speechless right now," Anderson said
when informed he beat Baltimore running back Jamal Lewis in the
balloting, 40 votes to 10. "That award, that just sums it up what
kind of season it has been."
The postseason was much kinder to Lewis, who rushed for 110
yards on 30 carries Sunday as Baltimore beat Denver. Anderson was
held to 40 yards on 15 carries by the Ravens' stingy defense. But
the rookie voting just covers the regular season.
Last year's winner was Indianapolis running back Edgerrin James.
Anderson is the first Broncos player to win the award.
Davis, like Anderson, was selected in the sixth round of the
draft, although Anderson's college career at Utah was slightly more
accomplished than Davis' at Georgia. And Gary, who replaced Davis
in 1999 when Davis tore up his knee, was a fourth-round choice who
gained 1,159 yards as a rookie. Anderson shattered that team record
this season.
Anderson, 27, quit his high school football team during
preseason drills his freshman year after a coach tried to convert
him into an offensive lineman. Instead, he played drums and marched
in the band in Fairfield, S.C.
After graduation, he spent four years in the Marines, where he
took up football again. Then came two years of junior college and
two years at Utah. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards all four
seasons.
"I was going against some great competition, and guys who were
much better known than I was," Anderson said. "They were being
talked about before the draft and I wasn't even really mentioned.
But that's OK, though, because it goes to show if you just dedicate
yourself to something and you put a lot of hard work into it, it
pays off in the end. It might not pay off when you want it to, but
it will pay off eventually down the road. It looks like it's paying
off for me now and for my teammates.
"I'm just happy right now. Wow, I'm so thankful. I'm still
shaking inside."
Anderson became the starter in Game 2 vs. Atlanta and ran for
187 yards against Oakland in the third game of the season.
He had 195 yards in a game against Seattle, then went for a
rookie-record 251 and scored four times the next week at New
Orleans. The Pro Football Hall of Fame requested Anderson's jersey
from the Saints game.
In all, he started 12 games behind one of the league's premier
lines, which he readily credited for his numbers.
"We do everything together as a team, on the offensive side of
the ball," he said. "Pulling together and making it one unit,
getting after it week in and week out."
Lewis had a major knee injury in 1998 at Tennessee, but the
Ravens made him the first rookie taken in the draft, fifth overall,
184 spots ahead of Anderson. After a slow start, he came on strong,
running for a Baltimore single-season record 1,364 yards in 13
starts.
"When you invest the fifth pick in a back, you have certain
expectations," Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "There were
things we saw in Jamal that I guess the rest of the world is now
seeing: his size, his speed, his power, his ability to catch the
ball out of the backfield."
Anderson looks forward to working with Davis and Gary in the
future.
"If all three of us are healthy, that would be great for us as
a team, as an organization," he said. "But you know, when you
wake up every morning, you never know what life will offer you."
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