Just announced on NFL Network.
Press Conference to be held Monday.
As always, Faulk knew what he had to do
By Adam Schefter
NFL Analyst
(March 22, 2007) -- For 12 NFL seasons, all the way up until his retirement from the game became official today, running back Marshall Faulk had all the right moves.
We watched feet that moved as if he were dancing with the stars. We watched hands so dependable, it was as if they were drenched with stick-um. We watched plays that no other running back in the game could make.
Yet for all the yards he gained, for all the passes he caught, for all the touchdowns he scored, what fans couldn't see was one of the primary reasons -- maybe the primary reason -- Faulk should be taking up residence in Canton four years from now.
It was what was under the helmet.
Faulk didn't just have a beautiful mind, he had a football mind.
Outside of quarterbacks, and maybe even including quarterbacks, there weren't any players any smarter than Faulk. He was the proverbial Smartest Guy in the Room. To this day, his former head coach Mike Martz thinks Faulk might just be the smartest player he has ever coached.
With his vision and awareness, Faulk understood the game in a way others did not. He knew where each player was supposed to be on each play.
Especially himself. Faulk knew when it was safe to leave the backfield to go out for a pass, and he knew when he had to step behind to pick up a blitzing safety, as he did in Super Bowl XXXIV, on the play in which Kurt Warner threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to
Torry Holt to give the Rams a 16-0 lead.
Of all his attributes, this was Faulk's greatest: the centerpiece of the Greatest Show on Turf could beat you with his brawn or his brains.
The same brains that made him so effective on the football field made him a great analyst in his rookie season at NFL Network. He saw things other analysts did not. He made comments few others could. Few have ever started their TV careers with as much success as Faulk had over the past year. He was, unquestionably, the TV Rookie of the Year.
And now, Faulk has used that same brain to make his latest and last intelligent football decision. Instead of taking another hit, Faulk has dished one out himself. He has informed the Rams, and the football world, that he's retiring.
Faulk, who grew up on the streets of New Orleans before going on to star in Indianapolis and St. Louis, is smart enough to recognize that this is the right time to go.
One more time, Faulk is scampering away, unable to be brought down.
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