BEREA —Jamal Lewis wasn’t just blowing off steam Sunday in the minutes after a 30-6 loss to Chicago.
He reiterated Wednesday that the final eight games of the 2009 season will be the last of his illustrious 10-year career. He’s going out on his terms.
“When I first came into this league, one of my main goals was to leave when I wanted to leave and not on somebody else’s discretion,” he said before the players dispersed for the bye week. “My plans pretty much worked out the way I planned them 10 years ago.
“I’m happy with my goals I set because I’ve reached those goals.”
Can anything change his mind and make him pull a Brett Favre?
“Naaah, I wouldn’t do that,” he said.
Lewis passed Eddie George and Tiki Barber on Sunday to move into 21st place on the all-time rushing list with 10,456 yards. For a guy whose final destination could be the Hall of Fame, averaging 3.6 yards and scoring no touchdowns for a 1-7 team that just fired its first-year general manager must qualify as a giant letdown.
“It didn’t sour me. I just expected better,” he said. “I expected to come out here and win with the way we work and went at this training camp and the things the coach instilled in us and put us through.
“I was excited to start off the season with the attitude (coach Eric) Mangini and his staff instilled in us. When you work as hard as we did, you want to see results. I’m still looking.”
Did he enter the season thinking it would be his last?
“I’d rather not answer that question,” he said. “But at the same time, I just wanted to come out here and give it a shot —check out the new system, the new coaches and give it another shot with my teammates.”
Lewis has been frustrated by the lack of wins, offensive production, carries (98 in six games) and what he sees as a lack of offensive identity. He said after the Bears game he couldn’t figure out the organization’s plan for winning, and has generally looked unhappy.
Maybe it was the four days off directly ahead, but he seemed at peace Wednesday.
“The decision I made had nothing to do with this season, how it’s going or whatever, it really didn’t,” he said. “My whole decision was based on my business and what I have going on outside of football and things that I want to be able to give 100 percent to. I can’t do that right now because I’m here, I’ve got to give 100 percent to this.”
Lewis, 30, is the owner and CEO of All American Xpress, a trucking company based in Atlanta. He said that’s just one of his business ventures. If they fare as well as he did on Sunday afternoons, they’ll be among the best in their fields.
Lewis set the single-game rushing record with 295 yards for Baltimore versus the Browns in September 2003. (Adrian Peterson eclipsed it in 2007). He finished the season with 2,006 yards and was named the Associated Press’ Offensive Player of the Year.
He won a Super Bowl in 2000, his rookie year, has averaged 4.2 yards a carry and scored 62 touchdowns. With 511 yards in the second half of the season (he had 349 yards in six games in the first half, missing two with a hamstring injury), he would be 18th on the all-time list, right behind O.J. Simpson.
“I’m not a big numbers guy,” Lewis said. “My agent has been the one to call me and say, ‘You’ve done this.’ I’ll say, ‘Great,’ and then just keep it moving.”
All that moving could earn him a bronze bust in Canton five years after his career ends.
“I don’t think about the Hall of Fame,” he said.
Does he think he’s a Hall of Famer?
“Uh, nah, not really,” he said. “I guess it takes a bunch of numbers and probably longevity and everything else that accounts for that. If I made it or had a shot to make it, it doesn’t really matter to me.
“As long as I can leave this game healthy and with the numbers I have and the stats that I have and the things that I’ve done. I have a Super Bowl ring and I’m happy.”
Lewis isn’t going to win another ring this season, but he’d like another chance as one of the owners of a team.
“That’s what I would love to do,” he said. “It will put you into a position to do some of the things you would have done or make some decisions that actually matter, when as a player your decisions don’t matter.”
Despite no playoff trips in his three seasons in Cleveland, Lewis said he doesn’t regret the decision to sign. And he still has eight weeks to write the final chapter.
“I want to go out fighting, winning and to just know that when I’m sitting at home next year I can be able to see this team start off where we left off and hopefully that’s winning,” he said.
Backup running back Jerome Harrison has been one of the many young players mentored by Lewis.
“He works hard and played every game hard,” Harrison said. “He played the game out of love. The stats speak for themselves.”
Lewis said he never discussed retirement plans with Browns legend Jim Brown, but always used him as a model of when and how to walk away. Brown retired after nine seasons and 12,312 yards.
“Nobody had to get rid of him, it wasn’t because of bad play,” Lewis said. “He made a decision on his own and I like that. I always wanted to follow in his footsteps in everything he did.
“I feel privileged to have played in two organizations that had some way, shape or form to do with the Cleveland Browns.”
Extra points
Mangini wouldn’t confirm a report that inside linebacker Eric Barton has a bulging disc in his neck and could miss the rest of the season. Barton didn’t practice the last two days.
“We’re just testing and evaluating, then we’ll make a decision,” Mangini said.
l Mangini didn’t have an update or timetable for hiring a new general manager but said he expected to have input with owner Randy Lerner.
“Randy and I talk a lot, so I’m sure we’ll be very engaged in that,” he said.
l Mangini mentioned Dawn Aponte, the vice president of football administration brought over from the Jets, as someone who can deal with agents and transactions in the absence of former GM George Kokinis.
l Mangini said he’ll pick a starting quarterback early next week.
Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com.
