Inside the NFL

Shaping Up  

The Rams' Marshall Faulk works hard to prove he's not finished at 30

By Peter King

By one website's estimate, there are 27 million fantasy football players in the U.S. It's probable that 26 million of them will go to bed the night before their drafts this year wondering, Will the Rams' Marshall Faulk be the dynamic rushing-receiving-scoring threat that he was when he won league MVP honors in 2000 or the declining and injury-plagued player of the recent past?

Faulk has run into the record book, but he's been hounded by injuries in recent years. David E. Klutho

"We shall see," a particularly pensive Faulk said last Friday, after playing in coach Mike Martz's celebrity golf tournament near St. Louis. "I wish I could tell you I'm going to play 16 games at a high level. I'm certainly working harder than I've worked in the off-season in trying to make that happen."

Faulk hits two milestones this year -- he turned 30 in February, and he starts his 10th NFL season in September -- that usually mark the beginning of the end for an NFL running back. In Faulk's case, playing most of his games on artificial turf (five seasons in Indianapolis, four in St. Louis) has taken a toll. Knee and shoulder injuries dogged him in 2000 and 2001, causing him to miss four games, and a high ankle sprain last year limited him to 212 rushing attempts in 14 games (only 48 carries over the last seven). So for the first time since he joined the Rams in 1999, Faulk has been a regular in the team's off-season conditioning program. "I've put an emphasis on the upper body so I'll be able to take the pounding," he says. "I'm a lot stronger than I've been in the past in June, more well-rested. Nothing's nagging at me."

But more important, how good will Faulk be feeling by Thanksgiving? His team's first six games this season are on artificial turf, bad news for a man with an arthritic right knee. This season will be a four-month endurance test (or longer, if St. Louis makes the playoffs) during which Martz plans to preserve Faulk by resting him in training camp and during some regular-season practice weeks.

Whenever his career ends, Faulk will leave large footprints. He's the only player in NFL history to have four consecutive seasons with 2,000 yards rushing and receiving combined, and he's second to Jim Brown (125.5 yards) in combined yardage per game over a career (121.3). But personal statistics don't drive Faulk as much as his desire to win at least one more NFL championship. "I'm happy with what I've done in the game, but I'm not satisfied," he says. "I'm playing for Super Bowls. I've had my big days of yards and touchdowns -- that was the Marshall of my early years. When I took myself out of the center of things and thought only of the team, that's when my life became great. Someone will break the records I have, but no one will take away the Super Bowls. Those last forever."

Issue date: June 16, 2003

For more Inside the NFL see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, June 11. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

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