#48
MARSHALL FAULK
When Marshall Faulk came out of San Diego State and was taken with the second pick in the 1994 draft by the Indianapolis Colts, the scouts around the NFL were in near unanimity about his chances for success. His speed, ability to run with the football and talent as a pass catcher made him a can’t-miss player.
The numbers say that’s exactly what Faulk was as a rookie. He ran for 1,282 yards, scored 11 touchdowns and averaged 4.1 yards per carry while hauling in 52 receptions for 522 yards and a touchdown. Faulk quickly established himself as the dual threat he would prove to be throughout his career.
But he also got a reputation for being a selfish player. Some of it may have been jealousy from some of his teammates, but Faulk is the first to admit that he was concerned with his own numbers. “It wasn’t that I was selfish,” Faulk explained. “But I was always a very goal-oriented individual. Achieving things on the football field was important to me and some may have taken it the wrong way. I always wanted to win and that was my top priority, but I also wanted to hold up my end.”
Faulk had four seasons in which he rushed for 1,000 yards or more during his five years with the Indianapolis Colts. He was also a dominant receiver, catching 86 balls in 1998, his final year with the team. Faulk took pride in every aspect of the game and was a very good blocker.
But following a game against the Baltimore Ravens in 1998, Faulk realized he was playing with the wrong attitude. In the game, a 38-31 Raven win over the Colts, Faulk ran for 192 yards and caught seven passes for 75 yards. He caught a 34-yard TD pass from Peyton Manning in the first quarter and ran for a 68-yard touchdown on the Colts next possession. However, with the Colts on a late, fourth-quarter drive that would have allowed them to tie the game, Faulk made an error. He went out for a flare pass from Manning and lost concentration as the ball flew to him and it deflected off his hands. The ball was intercepted and the Ravens closed out the game.
After the game, Faulk was feeling pretty good because the 192 rushing yards was his career high. He had obviously had a monster statistical game, but that did not impress head coach Jim Mora. The deflected pass had turned into the game-losing play and Mora let Faulk hear it in front of the team.
Faulk used that moment as the turning point in his career. He realized he was not as team-oriented as he could be and vowed to change that. The Colts would trade Faulk to the St. Louis Rams in the offseason and he used his new environment to show both the Rams and himself that he had to do everything he could to help the team win and not just accumulate statistics.
“Jim Mora was right. I dropped the pass and it was my fault,” Faulk said. “There was more I could have done to help my team. I made it a point that everything I did from that point forward was going to help my team.”
That first season in St. Louis saw the Rams win the Super Bowl. Talk about instantaneous results. “We knew we were getting an outstanding football player,” said St. Louis head coach Dick Vermeil. “We knew Marshall was a great runner and a great receiver who could make a difference in every game. But we didn’t know how good he really was. The way he prepared himself and his dedication showed that he was going to do anything he could to make his team successful.”
That first season with the Rams saw Faulk rush for 1,381 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught 87 passes for 1,048 yards and became only the second player in NFL history (Roger Craig was the first) to run for 1,000 or more yards and catch at least 1,000 yards worth of passes in the same season.
Faulk would put his best numbers on the board in the 2000 season. He rushed for 1,359 yards and 18 touchdowns and caught 81 passes for 830 yards and eight touchdowns. It was one of the most remarkable seasons in league history and Rams head coach Mike Martz, who had taken over for Vermeil after the Super Bowl win, was amazed by Faulk’s knowledge of the game. “You hear the phrase ‘coach on the field,’” Martz explained. “That’s just what Marshall was for us. Not only could he tell you what happened on a play, he could come up with a fix almost immediately if the play went wrong.”
That’s the kind of attitude and determination with which Faulk would play the remaining years of his career. It was something that Faulk took a lot of pride in but few people outside the locker room ever knew about. “I always felt I got tagged with this attitude of being a natural athlete,” Faulk explained. “But I was a student of the game and nobody realized the kind of technical knowledge I had. I took a lot of pride in that.”
By the time he retired at the end of the 2005 season, the seven-time Pro Bowler had rushed for 12,279 yards and averaged 4.3 yards per carry. He also caught 767 passes for 6,875 yards, averaging 9.0 yards per reception. As of the writing of this book, Faulk’s 19,154 yards from scrimmage are fourth-best in league history and his 136 total touchdowns rank him sixth all-time. Those numbers were enough to satisfy a very “goal-oriented” performer, but he had become one of the most team-oriented players in the league throughout his run in St. Louis.
| MOST SEASONS WITH 2,000 COMBINED YARDS FROM SCRIMMAGE | ||
| Player | Team | Years |
| Eric Dickerson | RAMS-IND | 4 |
| Marshall Faulk | IND-STL | 4 |
| Walter Payton | CHI | 4 |
| Tiki Barber | NYG | 3 |
| Priest Holmes | KC | 3 |
| LaDainian Tomlinson | SD | 3 |