Still Here, Against the Odds

Episcopal's Hightower and Cardinals Extend Season Beyond Expectations

Rookie running back Tim Hightower is relatively easy to dismiss and somewhat tempting to overlook. So, too, is the team for which he plays, the Arizona Cardinals.

Hightower was barely recruited by college football programs while at Episcopal High School in Alexandria. He ended up at the University of Richmond and was eye-catching there only during his final season. He wasn't invited to the NFL scouting combine.

When he was drafted, it was by a franchise not exactly known for success. The Cardinals have managed to reach the playoffs this season, but they suffered enough embarrassing losses along the way to provoke suspicions that they got to the postseason only by playing in the less-than-imposing NFC West and are overmatched against any quality opponent.

Yet here it is, two games from the Super Bowl, and Hightower and the Cardinals are still at work. They're readying for a conference semifinal Saturday night at Carolina against the highly regarded Panthers, and the Cardinals are hoping Hightower can continue to churn out touchdowns.

"That's not our concern, what other people think about us," Hightower said in a telephone interview this week. "In this building, we always had a lot of confidence. We knew what kind of team we have. What was important was what we think about ourselves, and we always knew we have a good team. It was just a matter of us needing to keep at it, needing to keep chipping away at it, and that's what we did."

It's what Hightower has done going back to his high school days. A foot injury during his senior year scared away almost all the college recruiters. Only Richmond remained interested, he said, although Army and Navy also came calling after he committed.

Hightower, 6 feet tall and 224 pounds, had a solid but unspectacular college career until his final season, when he ran for 1,924 yards and 20 touchdowns. He had envisioned himself as an NFL player, he said, from the moment he first put on a helmet and pads as a kid. But others didn't share that vision, and he wasn't among the more than 300 pro prospects invited to last year's scouting combine in Indianapolis.

Still, the Cardinals selected him in the fifth round in April, and he began the season as a backup to veteran Edgerrin James. The Cardinals would end up with quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin all being named Pro Bowl starters, and Steve Breaston joined Boldin and Fitzgerald as 1,000-yard receivers. But getting the running game going was another matter, and Hightower got a midseason chance as the club's centerpiece runner.

Hightower ran for 109 yards against the St. Louis Rams in his first NFL start, but his season results ended up being mixed. He ran for 10 touchdowns during the regular season and made seven starts. But he averaged only 2.8 yards per carry and finished with a modest 399 rushing yards. James has reclaimed the starting job.

"It's been kind of back and forth, kind of up and down," Hightower said. "I didn't really have any preconceived ideas coming in. I've been through it all. I've been through the good, the bad and the indifferent. I've gone from being a fifth-round guy who had to fight for a spot to being a backup to being a starter. I've been through it all in my first year. . . . I can't complain. I've been fortunate to be in a situation where I was given a chance, and I have to make the most of my opportunity."

James ran for 73 yards in last Saturday's 30-24 triumph over the Atlanta Falcons in the Cardinals' first home playoff game since 1947. Hightower added a four-yard touchdown run. Now the talk this week is of James's rejuvenation and the Cardinals' redemption.

The Cardinals said it is crucial that James, perhaps with help from Hightower, remains a factor in the offense against the Panthers, the conference's second seed. The passing game could be slowed a bit if Boldin is hindered or sidelined by a hamstring injury he suffered on a 71-yard catch and run for a touchdown during the victory over the Falcons.

"I think it's instrumental," Warner, talking about the importance of the running game, said during a conference call with reporters this week. "Most good teams and great teams that have been in this league have had the ability to take advantage of what a defense gives them. That becomes so important, especially at playoff time. I think it's extremely important for us."

The Cardinals continue to fight for respect. Going 9-7 during the regular season and winning the division title was offset by a series of poor performances against better teams, particularly when they had to travel east. The most feeble of those outings came in a 47-7 defeat to the Patriots on a snowy December day in New England.

Cardinals Coach Ken Whisenhunt said he hopes the victory over the Falcons was a confidence-builder for his players.

"It was exciting that, even though we have a young team that has never been in the playoffs, that we were able to focus and play well against a very good Atlanta team and win the game," Whisenhunt said during a conference call. "That gives us a lot of confidence that if we can stay focused and play well as a team that we can compete."

The Cardinals were competitive during a late-October game in Charlotte in which they lost to the Panthers, 27-23.

"The whole goal for us is to have the good team show up, the team that we've been a number of times this year, to bring that energy and play with that intensity that we have a number of times this year and the way we have the last couple of weeks," Warner said. "That's the biggest difference for us week to week. The problem throughout the year has been our consistency, having the ability to bring that energy and that intensity every week."