NFL...Priest will report to camp

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Priest Holmes has not played in a NFL game in nearly two years.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kansas City Chiefs running back Priest Holmes has informed the team that he intends to report to training camp Saturday.

Holmes told Chiefs President Carl Peterson on Wednesday that he wants to play for the Chiefs in 2007, said Brad Kuhbander, Chiefs spokesman. Holmes is under contract with the Chiefs through 2009.

"In my conversation with Priest, he was excited about playing," Peterson said in a news release.

Peterson said Holmes might be placed on the active physically unable to play list initially to gauge his conditioning and to see how he feels after noncontact drills. He has not played since Oct. 30, 2005, when he was injured by a hit by linebacker Shawne Merriman in a game at San Diego. The hit left him with head and neck trauma, diagnosed by three spinal specialists.

"I have said many times that I would never count this player out like so many did after his hip surgery," Peterson said, referring to an injury Holmes sustained in 2002 that prompted the Chiefs to take Larry Johnson with their first pick in the 2003 draft. "He's a very unique human being."

Peterson said the team would "take it slow" to see how well Holmes was doing, "but there's no question that if Priest Holmes is close to what he was before his injury, he'll make a significant impact on the offensive side of the football," Peterson said.

Holmes was cleared to play in 2007 after being examined by the team's orthopedic doctors in Miami, Kuhbander said.

The 5-foot-9, 213-pound Holmes ranks first in Chiefs history with 5,933 rushing yards, 1,275 rushing attempts, 76 rushing TDs and 83 total TDs in his first five seasons with the team, 2001-2005. He spent 2006 on the physically unable to perform list.

Since joining the Chiefs in 2001, Holmes also ranks first in the NFL by averaging 97.3 yards per game and 136 yards from scrimmage

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Associated Press.

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This is a interesting story considering he was injured very bad.