Pain Drives Mayes Out Of NFL -- Ex-WSU Runner Says Leg Injuries Force Hand

KIRKLAND - Rueben Mayes went home early from work yesterday, his football career ended.

Mayes was placed on injured-reserve for the rest of this season with nagging left calf and Achilles' tendon injuries. He said he won't play next year and will retire.

"I've just come to a point where I just don't want to push this tendon any longer," the Seahawk running back said. "I was just tired of having to deal with the pain all the time."

Mayes, 30, had been deactivated for four of the six Seahawk games this season and had only one carry - for 2 yards - in the Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Raiders.

Hours before last Sunday's game in Detroit, Mayes went on the field with running backs coach Clarence Shelmon and vigorously tested his left Achilles' tendon.

He struggled and finally told Shelmon, "I'm sorry, it just hurts too much."

In making the announcement about Mayes yesterday, Coach Tom Flores said:

"He never was able to show the qualities that we traded for, other than this year against the 49ers (a 101-yard exhibition performance). He wasn't at full strength for that game, either. It just hasn't worked out too well for him, unfortunately."

The Seahawks acquired Mayes in a trade with New Orleans in the spring of 1992 for a fourth-round draft spot.

Playing behind 1,000-yard rusher Chris Warren, Mayes gained only 74 yards on 28 carries last season and averaged 16.4 yards on 19 kickoff returns.

The back from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, was one of the greatest Northwest collegiate runners at Washington State. He set a since-broken NCAA record by gaining 357 yards against Oregon in 1984.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1986 draft by New Orleans and was twice selected for the Pro Bowl, although injuries prevented him from playing.

Mayes missed the 1989 season after undergoing surgery to thicken his Achilles' tendons, which had been thin from birth.

"My mom had the same problem," said Mayes. "My sister, who was a heptathlete in Canada, had it also.

"My Achilles' problem has been more of a genetics thing, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "I just felt my body was not meant to play 10 years in the NFL."

Mayes retired from football before the 1991 season because he wanted out of New Orleans.

"I just didn't feel comfortable down there," he said. He also had difficult contract negotiations with Saint management.

"I like to be a person of integrity - when you shake a man's hand and that's it," he said.

"But it doesn't work like that sometimes. I guess I learned that when I was down there."

Mayes returned to WSU in 1991 to complete his sociology degree and the Seahawks traded for him in April 1992.

Mayes and his wife, Marie, live in Lynnwood and have a 5-month-old son, Logan.

"He's going to be a golfer," Mayes joked. "And he's got thick Achilles. That's the first thing I saw when he came out."

Mayes, who will continue to receive his $600,000 salary on injured reserve, said he plans to "take it easy for the rest of the season" then try to get a job next spring in health-care administration.