SAN DIEGO—In the Southern California summer sun, Melvin Gordon takes the football from Philip Rivers in his midsection and steps hard into the gap between center and left guard. An unimpeded linebacker reads the play perfectly and moves to the same hole. He has Gordon lined up squarely.
Then, with a flash to his left, Gordon is no longer where he was. The linebacker tries unsuccessfully to bring him down with a hand on a hip. Whoosh, Gordon is gone.
To the football aficionado, this is poetry in pads. You could watch a thousand running backs and not see one who can move like that, at least not as gracefully and forcefully as Gordon.