After seven 1,000 yard rushing seasons, seven Pro Bowls and 38 100-yard games, your body starts thinking of other ways to better its time. At 33, Marshall Faulk is seriously contemplating retirement after 12 seasons in the NFL.
Faulk has decided to skip the Rams final minicamp this weekend in an effort to make a decision on whether or not his knees are strong enough to play this season.
Faulk had surgery on both of his knees this offseason in effort to clean out some of the cartilage that gets built up throughout the season. This isn’t the first time that he has done such a procedure, but new head coach Scott Linehan isn’t too optimistic that Faulk will return for another season.
“Guys that have played at such a high level for so many years and have taken so many hits, sometimes it starts to wear you down a little bit,” Linehan said. “He’s trying to figure out how he can manage it.”
Faulk, the 2000 NFL MVP, is ninth on the career rushing list with 12,279 yards, 34 yards behind Jim Brown. But he had a career-low 292 yards rushing last year and made only one start, in the season finale when Steven Jackson was out with a hip pointer.
It is always hard to watch a great player and one of the overall good guys in the NFL retire before he is ready. Of course at 33, Faulk is getting past his prime for a runningback, but he has given fans something to be in awe about for a very long time.
