The game had long since ended, and the locker room was nearly deserted. So Earnest Graham maneuvered past the laundry and quietly headed toward the door. With hardly anyone left to notice, he stopped to glance briefly in a mirror.

And the face staring back at him had not changed a bit.

If his two-touchdown game were to be life-altering, it would have to involve someone else's life. For Earnest Graham sacrificed enough to become the man he is, and he isn't about to let a stadium's worth of acclaim change him now.

So today he ignores the friends who tell him he should be the Buccaneers' starting tailback. And he pays no attention to the callers on the radio who say he is better than Cadillac Williams.

They mean well, but few of them understand what Graham has learned. They have no idea that, long ago, he stopped measuring his success by the size of his fame.

"I'm not going to let someone else's opinion define who I am," Graham said.

You see, Graham was once a celebrity. He was the state's Mr. Football as a high school senior in Fort Myers. He was a 1,000-yard rusher at the University of Florida. He had plans and he had dreams, and he assumed they were one and the same.

And then he ran a slower-than-expected time in the 40, and a sideline full of NFL scouts put their clipboards away. Graham was an undrafted free agent who couldn't make it out of training camp with the Bucs in 2003 and who had handed his finances over to an untrustworthy friend.

A year earlier, he had seen his name in a Heisman Trophy watch. And now Graham - with his wife, Alicia, and their baby daughter, Aiyana - sat in a dark apartment without electricity, waiting to be evicted.

"In college, everything is taken care of. You don't quite understand the real world," Graham said. "I left school, I thought I was set. I was going to be drafted, I was going to play, I was going to have money, I was going to have friends.

"And then we were on the streets. On the streets, literally. We were moving from cheap hotel to cheap hotel, borrowing money for a long time. That was the year I became a man. I started understanding life. It gave me the perspective I have today. I know now how fortunate I am to have this job."

For three months, Graham lived hand to mouth. A college acquaintance was living in some place with three other guys, and they let Earnest, Alicia and Aiyana crash in a back room. Eventually, defensive end Greg Spires loaned Graham enough money to pay the first month's rent and the deposit on an apartment.

Graham was signed to the Browns practice squad and was cut a week later. Then he signed with the Bucs practice squad and was cut a week later. When he signed again with the Bucs in the offseason, Graham was determined to hang on.

"You understand how fast things can go downhill for you," Graham said. "I can't say I was dedicated to football back then, but I learned how much I needed to be in control of my own life. I had my family to take care of, and they were all that mattered to me. So I started paying attention to guys like Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber. I learned how to come to work every day and pay attention and work hard."

The star tailback learned to play fullback. And he volunteered to play on special teams. He kept his mouth shut, and he gladly accepted the role of a mopup guy in preseason games.

And he hung on.

For four seasons, he has hung on. The Bucs have brought in younger guys with supposedly brighter futures. They have brought in veteran guys with clearly larger resumes. Somehow, Graham survived it all.

"He's a dream to have on a team," assistant head coach/running backs coach Art Valero said. "You could win an awful lot of games with a team full of Earnest Grahams. An awful lot of games. Not stars, but just good football players.

"There are not a lot of those type of guys in the league. There are big guys, strong guys, fast guys, guys with great arms, skill-specific guys. But there are very few real football players. ... Earnest Graham is one of those guys."

By the end of last season, the Bucs had finally decided to invest in Graham. He was given a two-year contract extension that, according to the NFL Players Association, is worth $510,000 this season and $605,000 in 2008. Not bad wages for a guy who once hogged the phone in Valero's office because he wasn't going to splurge on a cell phone.

Along the way, Graham became a favorite in the Bucs locker room. Maybe it was because he was so humble and selfless. Maybe it was because players could identify with his hardships.

Whatever the reason, when he entered late in Sunday's game against the Rams, Graham was supposed to play fullback and block for Michael Pittman on a running play. Except, upon reaching the huddle, Pittman insisted they swap positions. The ball would go to Graham, and Pittman would block for him.

The play picked up 4 yards.

Two plays later, they called Graham's name in the huddle and he gained 20 yards. The next play, he went 8 yards for his first NFL touchdown.

"Pitt has always been a good teammate. He just said, 'Go on, you take it,'" Graham said. "It kind of kick-started the whole thing for me. I'm definitely grateful to him for that."

Graham, 27, went on to carry eight times for 75 yards and two touchdowns. That's more yards than he has gained in entire seasons, and suddenly he is the flavor of the moment.

"People are calling me and saying, 'You're good, you're good, you're better than Cadillac, you should be starting,'" Graham said. "I'm like, 'Are you kidding me?' I did my part in one game. It was fun, but you have to keep it in perspective. It was one game, and now I'm back at work for another week."

See what I mean?

For Earnest Graham, nothing has changed.

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