Graham Carries The Day In Earnest For Bucs Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune, published 5 November 2007 A work whistle should have sounded when he was done. He should have punched a time clock as he left. The man with the perfect first name started with the same idea every play. "Run hard," Earnest Graham said. His teammates love him. His blockers lay it on the line for him. Bucs fans - they're wearing his No. 34 Bucs jersey a little more - have always related, though not one rushed for nearly 6,000 yards in high school and played at Florida. There's just something about Earnest ... "He's just a ballplayer," Ike Hilliard said. Run hard. Run through anyone, anything. "I can take it," Graham said. "I'm built for it." On Sunday, Graham, who plugged away for three seasons for this kind of day, had the kind he knew he had in him, the one in those childhood dreams. "Because as a kid you dream of ... you watch your favorite backs, you watch them be big in huge games, get a bunch of carries, make tough runs." The game was huge enough, one the Bucs had to win, and they did, 17-10 against the Arizona Cardinals. Earnest Graham was big. He ran for 124 yards, his first 100-yard day as a pro. More telling were those 34 carries. The Bucs set a team record by keeping the ball for 43 minutes, 7 seconds in regulation - and Graham owned it most of the time. Jon Gruden laid it out. "I felt at halftime, 'We have got to run the football and Earnest, you've got to do it.'" Gruden said. "And do it he did. He made some great traffic runs, he didn't fumble, he made a couple of really good receptions - one on third down. It's a credit to him. He's exhausted." Graham's feet hurt so much he left the stadium in red rubber clogs while holding his dress shoes. "My feet hurt a little," he said. They'd done their duty. Earnest Graham carried the day. There were more spectacular ground games Sunday - Adrian Peterson set an NFL record with 296 yards - but Graham's 124 made people smile. "He deserves every one of them," John Wade said. "I'm just so happy for E.G., I can't say it enough," Hilliard said. "Since I've been here, he's been a guy who works his butt off, who doesn't say a word. He's played his butt off on special teams, never complained or anything." He's a point of light to anyone buried deep on a roster, or anyone plugging away in any walk of life who wonders if anyone will ever notice. How many times had Graham sweated out one more drill at training camp waiting for a Sunday like Sunday? How many times had he charged downfield on kick coverage, his body a missile, waiting for his NFL blast-off? He wouldn't even have gotten this chance without all the injuries. The last man standing is an everyman. "I think my story, to the fans, they can kind of relate to me a little more than a lot of guys," Graham said. "They kind of rooted for me every preseason, have seen me go from point A to point Z. They've seen me try for everything, in the way I run, running for tough yards, in the way I fight." Run hard. He can take it. He's built for it. It's not just that the 225-pound Graham runs lower than low to the ground. "I'm short, man, hell, I'm barely 5-9," he said with a grin. It's the way he came up. Poor will do that, Graham said. "I had to fight for everything. I had to fight just to fight. I had one guy kick my butt for three years straight until I finally got to the point that I could beat him ... That's a typical story for anyone in the projects, growing up without, fighting for everything, finding a way to make it happen." So what's clinging to the NFL dream as an undrafted free agent? Or three years in the shadows, a preseason flash, nothing more? Sunday, Earnest Graham owned a football game. "Hell, 34 carries," he said. His team needed him. He wouldn't let go of one the Bucs had to have, and let us know, one more time, "Just that I'm a fighter." All in a day's work.