#57

 

MARCUS ALLEN

Al Davis proved he knew football a long time ago. After gaining control of the Oakland Raiders in the mid-1960s, Davis not only built a winning team but he did it with a philosophy that would serve the team well for more than three decades. Davis did it by bringing in a group of marauding, athletic players who would attack first and then attack again. Aggressiveness was the key word to describe the Raiders philosophy, both on the field and in the front office.

One of the best moves Davis ever made was drafting Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen of USC with the 10th pick of the first round of the 1982 draft. Allen had proved to be a worthy successor to O. J. Simpson at USC, a dominant running back who could take over a game with his speed, power, and sense for the moment. Like Simpson, when the Trojans needed a big play Allen always delivered.

Davis figured Allen would be a great back for his team as well. His speed, explosiveness, and ability as a receiver would help the Raiders continue their run as one of the elite teams in the NFL. Everything went according to plan. Allen ran for more than 1,000 yards in three of his first four seasons, including 1,759 yards and a 4.6 yards per carry average in 1985. He also caught 67 passes for 555 yards and won the league’s MVP award that season. Two years earlier, he made the highlight-film play of Super Bowl XVIII when he reversed field, burst through the middle of the Washington Redskins line, and left everyone in his wake for a 74-yard touchdown that at the time was the longest run in Super Bowl history. He rushed for 191 yards—another record at the time—in the 38–9 rout of the Redskins.

Allen was one of the best running backs in the NFL, a Pro Bowl regular who was better than the sum of his considerable stats. By the end of his Hall of Fame career, he had amassed 12,243 rushing yards (10th all-time as of the writing of this book), 123 rushing touchdowns (third all-time), 145 total touchdowns (third all-time), and 17,654 yards from scrimmage (sixth all-time).

So how did it go bad for Allen and the Raiders?

For some unexplained reason, Davis fell out of love with Allen. First, he brought in former Navy running back Napoleon McCallum to share some of the running back responsibilities. And then came Bo. The Raiders had a chance to bring to bring in Heisman-winner Bo Jackson, one of the best athletes of the latter half of the 20th century. A star with the Kansas City Royals in baseball, Jackson was even more spectacular in his brief pro-football career because he was in many ways the best combination of speed and power since Simpson and perhaps Jim Brown.

It is understandable why Davis was enamored with Jackson. But he was injured in a 1990 playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals and never made it back to the NFL, Davis continued to ignore Allen and forget that he was still a Hall of Fame worthy running back.

The situation came to a head when Allen called Davis out on national television during the 1992 season for burying him. “I think he’s tried to ruin the latter part of my career,” Allen told ABC’s Al Michaels. “I think he’s tried to devalue me.”

The interview turned out to be one of the best moves of Allen’s career. It showed the rest of the NFL that he still had the kind of fire he had shown in his first five years in the league. Even though he was 33 years old, Allen was determined to show that he was still a great back.

The Raiders’ archrivals decided to give Allen an opportunity through free agency. The Kansas City Chiefs signed Allen as a free agent prior to the 1993 season and decided to build their offense around his running and receiving skills. He ran for 764 yards and 12 touchdowns and also caught 34 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns in his first season in Kansas City. He gave the Chiefs the ability to finish drives with touchdowns, something that had been missing before Allen arrived. More importantly, the Chiefs won the AFC West title with an 11–5 record and the combination of Allen in the backfield and former San Francisco 49er Joe Montana behind center led the Chiefs to two postseason wins and a spot in the AFC title game against Buffalo, where the Chiefs dropped a 30–13 decision to the Bills.

While Davis lost faith in Allen—a development that he never explained publicly—Allen’s teammates never stopped believing in him. Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long, who was drafted by the Raiders the year before Allen, saw the running back as one of the most dependable players in the history of the game.

“In my mind, Allen was the most complete football player that I played with,” Long said. “I would view Walter Payton as the most complete halfback of my generation, and I would put Marcus right up there in that category. Like Walter, Marcus excelled in every aspect of the game. You could always count on him.

“And then at the end of my career, I’m playing against him. I have to say it was one of the strangest experiences I ever had. When I saw Marcus in that Kansas City uniform, I had a hard time comprehending it. It didn’t seem right to me.”

But the Raiders’ loss was the Chiefs’ gain, and his ability to find the hole and make key plays impressed his teammates. “Marcus was just the consummate pro,” Chiefs offensive guard Will Shields said. “He always made sure he took every play to the end zone during practice. He figured that was where the play was supposed to end, so that’s where he finished every rep. It was his way of conditioning, but it was a mental-focus thing, too. It was his way of remembering how it felt to reach the end zone.”

That ability impressed Kansas City head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who called Allen the best short-yardage runner in the history of the game. “I don’t think he really liked me calling him that because he felt it sold him short a little bit,” Schottenheimer explained. “But it was never meant to. He could do it all. But on those tough plays around the goal line or when you needed a yard and a half for a first down, Marcus is, was, and always will be the guy.”

No disrespect intended.