Steelers' Parker most unlikely 1,000-yard rusher

His speed is his greatest asset.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Thirteen NFL running backs have rushed for 1,000 yards this season, and four are fewer than 100 yards away. Most share a common bond of college stardom, getting enormous money before playing their first NFL game, being a big name and a big deal long before they were pros.
Nine were first-round draft picks. Two more went in the second round, one in the third, and one in the fourth.
Then there's Willie Parker, who needs 63 yards in his final two games to become only the sixth running back in the Pittsburgh Steelers' 73-season history with a 1,000-yard season.
First-round draft pick? He wasn't even the first back picked most Saturdays by his own college, spending all but a few games at North Carolina as a backup -- barely getting 1,000 yards in his career. He had speed and strength, often outlifting the other backs in the weight room, but for some reason he didn't have what the Tar Heels wanted.
The discovery
Dan Rooney Jr., the son of the Steelers' chairman and a team scout, remembered Parker from his days at Clinton (N.C.) High School and recommended signing him as an undrafted free agent.
Parker was as raw as could be in his first training camp in 2004, but his speed made such an impression on coach Bill Cowher that he made it through the roster cuts. The first time he got more than a few carries in a game, he ran for 102 yards against the Bills in the season finale.
When Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley got hurt in training camp this summer, Parker stepped in and gained 272 yards in the first two games. He's had only one 100-yard game since, but has never given back his job to two backs who have a combined 11 1,000-yard seasons between them.
All season, Parker has deflected credit for his success to the offensive line, the coaches' game plan or to Bettis and Staley for showing him the way. But now that 1,000 yards are so close, Parker acknowledges it would mean a lot personally.
"I can't say a lie and say it's not so," he said. "It's because of how I got here and the fact I haven't rushed for 1,000 yards since high school. Being in the elite role of runners like Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Edgerrin James, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jerome, it would be real good for me to get over the mark."
Parker has always had the kind of turn-the-corner speed the Steelers have lacked at running back; as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said, "It's a lot of fun to just give him the ball and watch him run."
What Parker is showing is that he also possesses perseverance, motivation and mental toughness, qualities not always found among first-round draft picks who have generally known little adversity in their pre-NFL careers.
Resilience
Parker showed it again Sunday when, after getting benched the week before for fumbling for the third time in two games, he came back with a solid 81-yard game against the Vikings.
"Because of my parents, 'I can't' wasn't allowed to be part of my dictionary," Parker said. "I'd be saying at North Carolina, 'I can't take any more of this,' and some parents would have been like, 'Give it up, you don't have to take this.' But they wouldn't let me leave, and I stuck it out. Now, if I'm ever a father, I'm going to tell my kids they can never use the words, 'I can't.' You can do anything the next man can do."
What's surprising about Parker's near-accomplishment is that, for a franchise long known for its power running game, the only Steelers running backs with 1,000-yard seasons are Bettis, Franco Harris, John Henry Johnson, Rocky Bleier and Barry Foster. Bleier and Foster did it only once each.
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