gotta love Corey Dillon

Career has run its course

Dillon is tackling next phase of his life

By Mike Reiss | August 5, 2007

Corey Dillon had left the window open, ever so slightly.

Six months ago, he said he was planning to retire, barring an unexpected itch to play come football season. There have been no itches.

"Now the window is closed, there is no doubt in my mind," Dillon said last week. "I haven't announced it publicly, but I will not play football again."

Dillon is leaving the game, in many ways, on his own terms. After 10 hard-charging seasons, he believes he still has something left in his tank.

"If I really wanted to, I think I could run for 800, 900 yards. I'd share carries, or take the load if needed," he said. "But for me, the risk is way greater than the reward. I don't feel as if there is anything else for me to do. I hit the 10-year plateau. When I came into the league in '97, I said that if I was to play 10 years, that's where I wanted to be, and I'd call it quits and do something else.

"I won't name names, but I know people who have played 10, 12, 15 years, and they can barely walk. To me, I never wanted to envision myself like that."

That is why Dillon, who lives in California and has become a regular on the golf course, resisted interest from at least two NFL teams. The Bills attempted to fly him in for a free agent visit, as did the Titans.

"That was just talk," Dillon said. "I was never getting on an airplane. I don't even like to fly. You think I was going to blow off my tee time and fly somewhere?

"The only way I would ponder getting on a flight is if the Patriots were in the Super Bowl, it was fourth and 1 on the goal line, and they needed me to pound it in. That's the only thing that would get me to put the pads on."

Might he reconsider if the Patriots needed him before that point, perhaps if Laurence Maroney sustained an injury?

"As far as I'm concerned, that game in Indy [in the AFC Championship] was the last game I played. Period," Dillon responded. "But I'll tell you what, I would have loved to have played with Randy Moss. That would have been pretty nice. But it was a year too late."

Dillon has mostly fond memories of his three seasons with the Patriots, although he was puzzled with the way the 2006 season ended. Aided by a 35-yard rush early in the game, Dillon totaled seven carries for 48 yards in the AFC Championship game. Yet he had just one carry in the second half, while the Patriots totaled just five in the final 30 minutes.

"If those guys ran the ball in the second half, I truly believe we could have won the game," Dillon said. "I don't know what happened. It was nothing by my doing. I was standing there asking myself, 'What is going on? What is this?' But being in the position I was in, any time I might ask a question, I didn't want anyone to think I was selfish. So I wasn't going to say, 'Hey, give me the ball.' I dealt with it."

The game doesn't damper Dillon's overall feelings of his time in New England. When he thinks back on his career, a turning point came April 19, 2004, when the Patriots acquired him from the Bengals for a second-round draft choice.

"I played with Tom Brady and it was the best experience of my life," Dillon said. "Then there were the Bruschis, Vrabels, Seymours, Faulks, Maroneys. I had a blast. I look at the whole last three years and they were the best three years of my career. It was all that a guy could ask for. When I look back, that group helped me get where I needed to go.

"Am I a little upset? Yeah, because I think about those seven years in Cincinnati and wonder what it would have been like, what my stats would be, if I had been in New England from Day One."

Dillon's 11,241 rushing yards rank 14th all time. The player just ahead of him on that list, John Riggins, is in the Hall of Fame. So, too, is the player right behind him, O.J. Simpson.

Which leads to the question: Will Dillon be a Hall of Famer?

"I've thought about it real deeply," said Dillon. "The thing I would say is that I hope people separate the person and his work. Some people say I'm a bad guy. Ask the teammates I've played with and I think a lot of people would say I'm a great guy. Nobody is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But don't say yea or nay because of how you feel about a guy, look at the body of work. My numbers are better than O.J. Simpson's. If he's in, why can't I be in the Hall of Fame? I like my résumé. If I had to hand it over, I'd feel comfortable saying, 'Here you go.' "

Dillon must wait at least five seasons before he can be considered for the Hall of Fame.

At just 32, Dillon said he is transitioning to a new phase in his life. He and his wife, Desiree, recently welcomed their second child, Devin. Dillon is working on lowering his handicap and is dabbling in some real estate ventures.

Not once, he said, has football crossed his mind.

"I don't miss it at all," he said. "I'm doing the family thing, and it's quite relaxing."