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Corey Dillon uses a straight arm against Cleveland's Corey Fuller last season. (Craig Ruttle photo) 600 | 800 | 1024

        When Bengals running back Corey Dillon was only 6, his oldest brother, Charley Dillon, who was 12, used to let him play in pick-up football games in the neighborhood.

        “He was big, a baby body builder,” Charley said Monday from his Seattle home. “At family gatherings, he'd pull off his shirt and pose like he was the Incredible Hulk.”

        But Corey was still much smaller than the other boys in the game. When Corey would try to tackle one of the bigger kids, he got a straight arm stuck in his face.

        “He'd always have a bloody nose,” Charley Dillon said of Corey.

        Twenty years later, Corey Dillon is a bruising 225 pounds and one of the NFL's premier running backs, one of only eight players to gain more than 1,000 yards rushing in his first four seasons.

        And one of the most effective parts of Dillon's game is the straight arm.

        The straight arm is a move used by a ball carrier to push away an oncoming tackler. The runner has the ball in one arm — for Dillon, usually his left — and he jams an open hand into the defender's chest or against the top of his helmet.

BIG BUCKS AHEAD

The Bengals' Corey Dillon figures to become one of the NFL's highest-paid running backs next season, whether in Cincinnati or elsewhere. He's a free agent after the season, but the Bengals can keep him by matching any offer.   Here are the current top-paid backs:   • Edgerrin James, Colts: 7 years, $49 million, $7 million per year   • Marshall Faulk, Rams: 7 years, $45 million, $6.428 million per year   • Jamal Anderson, Falcons: 5 years, $32 million, $6.4 million per year   • Eddie George, Titans: 7 years, $41.25 million, $6 million per year, plus $750,000 in incentives.

        The straight arm was commonly used by running backs a generation or two ago but isn't seen as much these days. Jim Brown and Walter Payton come to mind.

        “The way he learned the straight arm was he got the straight arm,” Charley Dillon said with a laugh. “I told him to use it on other people.”

        Good advice.

        On Sunday, after his second 200-yard rushing game of the season in the Bengals' 24-13 victory over Arizona, Corey Dillon gave his brother credit for teaching him the straight arm.

        “It's just a little weapon in my little arsenal,” he said.

        Dillon fired the weapon on the last of his 35 carries on the 216-yard afternoon.

        The Bengals were fourth down and and two yards to go from the Arizona 31-yard line and trying to run out the clock. It was too close to punt and too far to try a field goal. Quarterback Scott Mitchell handed the ball to Dillon, who ran left. He got away from a defender in the backfield, turned up field, gained the first down and ran across cornerback Aeneas Williams. Dillon stuck his right hand on Williams' helmet and drove him back another five yards.

        On Oct. 22, when he set the single-game NFL individual rushing record with 278 yards, Dillon used the straight arm on approaching defensive backs on both of his touchdown runs.

        On the second TD run, from 41 yards, Dillon pushed safety Eric Brown off with a straight arm before romping into the end zone.

        “I've got to ward off defenders left and right, so it's a good weapon to get a few extra yards,” Dillon said.

        Bengals special teams coach Al Roberts, who recommended Dillon to Cincinnati scouts, was the University of Washington running backs coach when Dillon rushed for 1,555 yards in his one season.

        “We didn't know he had the straight arm until the second or third game when it presented itself,” Roberts said. “We didn't know he had so many one-on-one open field moves. And we found out, although he's awfully good in space, he's better in traffic. And he's better when you touch him because he knows where you are and he feeds off it.

        “The closer you are, the better he loves it because it's "Now that I've got my hand on you, you're mine.'”

        After Pop Warner, Charley Dillon didn't see a lot of straight arms from his brother until the night of Dec. 4, 1997. That's when Corey Dillon established a rookie rushing record of 246 yards against the Oilers.

        “It was like he rediscovered it against Tennessee,” Charley Dillon said.

        Corey Dillon now has 4,737 yards in his three-plus professional seasons. He's on pace to gain more than 1,500 yards for the first time and go over the 5,000-yard mark for his career. The straight arm is always a threat, just as it was with Payton and Brown.

        “I've seen a lot of backs using the stiff arm during the early '70s and '80s, and that's pretty much when I was growing up and watching all the running backs,” Corey Dillon said. “It's just something I've been doing for a long time.”

        He learned the move on the street. He studied it by watching NFL Films on television and cassette tapes he'd buy or trade with teammates.

        “Jim Brown illustrated the stiff arm the best to me,” he said. “That's where I really got it from. I watched some film on him and he'd try to break your neck when he'd throw it out there.”

        Dillon sends a similar message y every time he locks that right arm on a potential tackler.

        “It tells a defensive back he is going to get every last drop of energy I have.”

        Dillon photos for wallpaper from Sunday's game

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