Welcome to the NFL 100, The Athletic’s endeavor to identify the 100 best players in football history. You can order the book version here. Every day until the season begins, we’ll unveil new members of the list, with the No. 1 player to be crowned on Wednesday, Sept. 8.
Marshall Faulk was almost too talented for his own good.
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As a senior at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans, he was so proficient on the football field, coach Wayne Reese employed him like a latter-day Taysom Hill. Faulk played cornerback, running back, quarterback and receiver. He also punted, returned punts and kickoffs, and was the place holder on extra points and field goals. His teammates called him “The 48-Minute Man” because he never came off the field.
Faulk’s multi-dimensionality helped the Rams to respectability on the field. But it undermined his own cause off it. He was left off the Times-Picayune’s 1990 All-Metro team as a senior largely because he failed to amass enough statistics in any one area to distinguish himself against the competition. (The oversight was so egregious the paper’s sports editor felt compelled to write an impassioned mea culpa to Faulk in 2011.)
College coaches also were unsure about Faulk’s best fit as a prospect. They knew he could play. They just weren’t sure where. Because of his athleticism and relatively slight 5-10, 180-pound frame, most major schools recruited him to play cornerback. But San Diego State, which had St. Rose, La., native Curtis Johnson on its staff as lead recruiter, liked him as a running back. So Faulk turned down blue bloods such as LSU, Miami, Nebraska and Texas A&M to head across the country and join Coach Al Luginbill’s high-flying offense.
For a teenager from the Desire Housing Complex in New Orleans’ impoverished Ninth Ward, it was a bold move. Faulk worked odd jobs to help his mother make ends meet for her six children. He sold popcorn at the Superdome as a teenager to get into Saints home games for free. When he left for San Diego State, it was the first time he’d ever been out of Louisiana or flown on a plane.
“It was easy to underestimate Marshall,” said Johnson, who coached the Aztecs wide receivers at the time. “He was this little, short, dumpy kid with narrow shoulders, coming out of Carver High School, which didn’t have a very good team at the time. But when you watched the film, you realized he could play. Marshall was a phenomenal athlete, and he could do everything. And he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He was smart and confident in his abilities.”
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It didn’t take long for Faulk to make an impact at San Diego State. In the second game of his college career, starter T.C. Wright bruised his thigh late in the first quarter against Pacific. The backup – Wayne Pittman – couldn’t find his helmet on the sideline. So Faulk, who had fumbled twice in his college debut against Long Beach State, got the call. He answered by rushing for a then-NCAA-record 386 yards and seven touchdowns on 37 carries.
Faulk’s first carry came with less than four minutes left in the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, he had three carries for 12 yards. But he carried 13 times for 117 yards in the second quarter, 11 times for 194 yards in the third and 10 times for 63 yards in the fourth.
“No one expected something like that,” Johnson said. “The rest was history.”
Faulk was on everyone’s radar. And no one questioned his ability to play running back.
He went on to record one of the most impressive freshman seasons in college football history. He rushed for 1,429 yards and a 7.1-yards-per-carry average, while finishing ninth in the Heisman Trophy race. He rushed for 1,630 yards as a sophomore and finished second in the Heisman race to Miami quarterback Gino Torretta. As a junior, he rushed for 1,530 yards, while adding 47 receptions for 644 yards. The Indianapolis Colts made him the No. 2 pick in the 1994 NFL Draft.
“Marshall was one of the smartest players I’ve ever coached,” said New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, who served as Faulk’s position coach during his sophomore and junior seasons at SDSU. “And he knew not only offensive football, but also the defensive protections. He knew the quarterback play. He studied it hard.”
In the NFL, Faulk’s versatility, once a hindrance, became his calling card.
During his 12-year NFL career with the Colts and St. Louis Rams, Faulk redefined the running back position and became the archetype for modern-day backs such as Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey. With his cat-quick elusiveness and sprinter’s speed, Faulk routinely made defenders look silly in the open field. Yet, he also had the power and toughness to run between the tackles, as evidenced by his 91 career red-zone touchdowns. He caught passes out of the backfield long before it became the norm for NFL backs. And he could pass protect like a sixth lineman.
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“I don’t think there was anyone better in the all-around game,” said longtime NFL personnel executive Gil Brandt. “Marshall is a Hall of Fame running back. But if you had lined him up at wide receiver for his career, he would have caught 1,000 passes. He would have been a Hall of Fame wide receiver.”
Faulk was so smart, the Colts considered him a coach on the field. When Indianapolis selected Peyton Manning with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 draft, Faulk helped ease the rookie’s transition to the NFL by teaching him the playbook.
“Marshall’s ability to read defenses was as good as any quarterback,” Manning said. “He was a tremendous presence for me, and I always will be grateful to him for helping me that year. I loved watching him play, and there will never be another like him.”
Faulk’s career went to another level after the Colts traded him to St. Louis in 1999. With the Rams, he joined forces with quarterback Kurt Warner, receivers Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt and offensive coordinator Mike Martz to form the “Greatest Show on Turf” offense, which took the league by storm in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The results were incredible: an NFL record three straight seasons with 500-plus points, two Super Bowl appearances in three seasons and an improbable Super Bowl title in Faulk’s first season in St. Louis. Warner and Faulk combined to win the league’s MVP award three consecutive years: Warner in 1999 and 2001; Faulk in 2000.
But opponents would tell you that Faulk was the guy they worried about the most.
Before facing the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick called Faulk “the hardest player to match up against” in the NFL.
“When I think back to when he was in Indianapolis, they would split him out a lot, and I thought he was better than their other receivers,” Belichick said. “For him to be the best wide receiver and the best running back really puts you in a bind defensively.”
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In an effort to try to combat Faulk, opponents would regularly change their defensive game plans and personnel when they played the Rams.
“Once you found out what the matchups were, you could make an adjustment on the sideline with Marshall and he could take care of that immediately,” Martz said. “In fact, he’d come to the sideline and understand it and say, `Hey, here’s what they’re doing. How about this?’ Pretty unusual.”
Warner calls Faulk “the most complete player I’ve ever been around.” Faulk was so smart and so talented Warner believes he could have played quarterback in the NFL if given the chance.
“He was a highlight waiting to happen,” Warner said. “He could do everything. Mentally, he was the sharpest player that I’ve ever been around.”
Faulk will go down in history as one of the most multi-talented players in league history. He is the only NFL player with at least 12,000 yards rushing and 6,000 yards receiving. He caught more passes in his career (767) than 19 Hall of Fame wide receivers.
“He could block, he could run inside, he could run outside, and he could catch the football,” Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy said. “He was a versatile, talented player and a very cerebral guy, as well. Marshall did everything. He just was a complete football player.”
Faulk retired in 2007 and was a first-ballot inductee to the Hall of Fame in 2011. His career accomplishments speak to his multi-dimensional game:
- Faulk and Jim Brown are the only backs in NFL history to average more than 5 yards a carry over three consecutive seasons.
- Among backs, Faulk has the most receiving yards (6,875) in NFL history and the second-most receptions (767).
- Faulk and Roger Craig are the only backs in NFL history to have 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season.
- Only four players in NFL history produced more yards from scrimmage than Faulk.
Not bad for a kid from New Orleans’ Ninth Ward who couldn’t even make the All-Metro team in high school.
“My father told me this: If you are ever traveling on a road and there are no speed bumps, you are headed for a dead end,” Faulk said. “I didn’t make the All-Metro team, so I went all the way to San Diego State to become the best player in the country and the No. 2 pick in the draft. Life is a challenge. God gave me talent. Football gave me an opportunity. I made the commitment.”
(Illustration: Wes McCabe / The Athletic; photo: Focus on Sport / Getty Images)