Giants' O.J. Has The Juice -- After 3 Decades, Ottis Anderson Gets Title Shot

TAMPA, Fla. - Faced with the prospect of solving a Buffalo Bills defense that very much came in from the cold last week, Bill Parcells turned to his running back the other day and flipped one of those ego jabs that prompts a typical rookie into a motivational fury.

``I heard you can't run on grass,'' said Parcells, coach of the New York Giants.

``Bill,'' Ottis Anderson replied, ``I'm from Florida.''

Memory lapse, coach. At 33 and originally from West Palm Beach, Anderson not only has run on turf of Giants Stadium but also on the real stuff; and in Tampa Stadium; and for two clubs; and in the 1970s, the '80s and the '90s; and in the process, over a fair number of defensemen.

Without much of a passing game or high-scoring ability, Parcells looks to the oldest running back in the NFL to puncture a Buffalo defense Sunday that most recently allowed just a field goal to the Los Angeles Raiders. But at 33, Anderson can still psyche himself up.

After all, preparing to play before an international television audience of several hundred million is easy compared to running before 20,000 semi-reluctant University of Miami fans at the Orange Bowl. That's how old Anderson is: He was with the Hurricanes, the team of the '80s, when the school was considering cancellation of the program for lack of interest.

``I remember my freshman year (in 1976) when we were trying to get people in the stands and we just gave away tickets in the community,'' Anderson said. ``We had balloons passed out that said, `Come see O.J. run.'

``Now, I guess no one wants to play Miami anymore.''

On this Silver Anniversary of the Super Bowl, which league officials are using to promote the old (lost) glories of the game, Anderson is a veritable on-field link to past heroes. The team he broke into the league with, the St. Louis Cardinals, now plays in Phoenix and his best blocker then, Dan Dierdorf, has long since joined the ABC crew that will televise Sunday's game.

Anderson, with 10,101 career rushing yards, sneaked into the eighth spot on the NFL rushing list this season, nostalgically sandwiched by No. 7 O.J. Simpson (11,232 yards) and No. 9 Earl Campbell (9,407).

``I always wanted to be the featured back on a team that plays in the Super Bowl,'' said Anderson, a reserve behind Joe Morris in the Giants' title run four years ago. ``I was with New York the last time they were here, but it was different then. I was sitting at an (interview) table and only two or three of you came over to talk to me.

``In '87, I sat and watched Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor and Mark Bavaro, with the crowds gathered around them, and I wondered what it must be like to get all that attention.

``Now,'' he said, gesturing to the ring of reporters around him, ``it's great to be one of the main ingredients on a Super Bowl team. I never thought that this would happen to me, and I appreciate all of you guys - and ladies, too - coming to talk to me. I really do.''

In terms of an ordinary person, Anderson is quite a young one, of course. There are even older players in the NFL, folks such as K.C. quarterback Steve DeBerg in the heyday of their careers. But as a starting running back, here at his league's crowning event, Anderson rates as the NFL equivalent of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Featured backs just don't often last past 30. Their bodies crumble as Gale Sayers' did after seven seasons, and Campbell's did after eight years. Former Seattle Seahawk Curt Warner, at 29, was cut by the Los Angeles Rams this season after his career was slowed by knee problems.

Though carrying and catching the ball more than 3,000 times in his 12-year NFL career, Anderson has out-lasted Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson and Jim Taylor, as well as Sayers and Campbell. And if he plays next season, as he expects to, he will have stayed as long as his mentor in career-extension strategy, Franco Harris.

At a game between Pittsburgh and St. Louis in '79, Harris passed on to the rookie the old advice that a good offense is the best defense, especially for a runner.

``Instead of absorbing the blow, give it back,'' Anderson said. ``Franco told me to take care of myself.''

The Giants' leading rusher with 784 yards, Anderson was counted on to carry the offense less this season than last year, when he made Parcells a prophet by getting his first 1,000-yard season in five years. Parcells traded for him in '86 after assorted injuries caused the Cardinals to give up on him.

``He should go to Canton,'' said Parcells, of the Hall of Fame. ``He's got too many pellets on the wall. We wouldn't be here without him.''

A Floridian by birth, Anderson has come full circle.

``If you wanted to end it here,'' he said, ``this would be the perfect final chapter.''

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O.J. gains ground.

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-- The top 10 rushers in National Football League history:.

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Yards Yrs.

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1. Walter Payton 16,726 13.

2. Tony Dorsett 12,739 13.

3. Jim Brown 12,312 9.

4. Franco Harris 12,120 13.

5. Eric Dickerson 11,903 8.

6. John Riggins 11,352 14.

7. O.J. Simpson 11,236 11.

8. O.J. Anderson 10,101 12.

9. Earl Campbell 9,407 8.

10. Jim Taylor 8,597 10.