Marshall Faulk Comments

The Rams will retire number 28 for Marshall Faulk on Thursday

Marshall Faulk spoke to the media on Wednesday before he becomes the first "St. Louis" Ram to have his number retired.

(Opening Remarks) “It’s a pleasure being back. The question I get asked, other than how is retirement, is going to deal with having my jersey retired. I don’t even think about it. I get asked questions about accolades, when playing and even now, but I don’t really think about it. Sometimes you never know how things are going to affect you or how you’re going to think about them or how it’s going to be perceived by yourself.

“Yesterday in the meeting room we were sitting down and I was telling Deion (Sanders) that I have to do this and that. He said that not many people get their number retired. I was sitting up there and we were walking through the hall and I said to myself that that was kind of true. I’m sure leading up to tomorrow it will reflect on me more and more. I will probably have more to say about it. It’s a very special occasion for me. I am without a doubt honored that the Rams chose my number and chose me and our awarding me with the right to retire the No. 28.”

(On what it means to have his number retired) “It means a lot because as a kid playing football you think about winning a Super Bowl, scoring touchdowns or just playing in the NFL. To get your number retired is an honor you don’t even think about – while sitting in the meeting room with the guys, you think about that someday this number is not going to exist for anyone else and it will hang in the rafters. It doesn’t resonate to how and what you feel at that point and time. As I move on in my career of broadcasting, thinking about it, seeing it and hearing it, each year further away from the game, it will become more and more special.”

(On if his career is in broadcasting our running a franchise) “Right now my career is in broadcasting. The future for running a franchise, it exists. It’s a desire that I do have. It’s the right situation, the right time and right place. I’m fortunate that I don’t have to take a job or have to do certain things that I can make that decision based on how I see fit and what I want to do.”

(On his thoughts when his jersey is retired) “I don’t know. I have no idea what my thoughts will be. I have no idea what my emotions are going to be. I have no idea.”

(On if his days as a Ram went by fast) “I remember my rookie year in the NFL and I sat down next to Eugene Daniels. He’s from Louisiana, played at LSU, defensive back. We were probably in Week 10 and I looked at him and I was like, ‘man this is long.’ He said, ‘this will be the longest year. You’ll remember this year and in between this you won’t remember a lot.’ Eugene was right about that, but what he was wrong about was when I came here. That year separates that time. The time I spent here, although it seemed fast, for me it was long because it was so much fun and excitement. Often when you play sports or do a job, you don’t get an opportunity to do it how you want to do it. How I envisioned myself playing the game of football, having fun whether that be win or lose, I got an opportunity to do it here with a bunch of great guys. Guys who weren’t selfish, didn’t care who got the ball and we wanted to win and have fun. That time compared to my five years in Indy, it was long. It was drawn out because I made sure of that. I lived in the moment, I enjoyed it, I tried not to look back. Every time I reflect on being here, it’s always something good whether it’s the lost in the Super Bowl versus the win. I always remember getting there, how hard it was getting there, how we got there and how much fun it was.”

(On what it means to be honored with some former teammates playing on Thursday night) “Yes it is. In those guys, especially Torry (Holt) and Isaac (Bruce) because the three of us spent so much time in that huddle along with Orlando (Pace) looking at each other not questioning who was going to make the play, it was when the play was going to be made. It was not asking each other to step up but just making plays and doing things. Not riding each others back about preparing and making sure that our jobs were getting done, it just went without saying. We knew that we weren’t going to let each other down. To see them still here is good. It is good. To have them there tomorrow is special.”

(On how often he thinks about the Hall of Fame) “I hadn’t thought about up until last year when I was there. I think that every year when we go to do our show at the Hall of Fame it will definitely register. Being honest, the guys that are in the Hall of Fame, I can never see myself with those guys. I look at them and I think that they embody what football is all about especially when you look back in the day with what those guys went through, how the game was before you made the money that we make now, that they make now. You played this game because you loved it, you had a second job, you enjoyed it and that was what it was all about. I just don’t see myself, never have, with the likes of those guys. Until that day comes then I will think about it but outside of that, there is not much thought that is given because the only thing I know is that it is out of my control. I had 13 years to have it in my control and now it is not.”

(On what he thinks was the greatest thing about his career) “It varies, there is on the field, there is off the field, there is maturing as a person. The one thing I probably never ever talk about was the fact that I had an opportunity that a lot of people don’t get and some do. As a young player there is a perception about you. Sometimes you create the perception and sometimes you create the perception and sometimes the perception creates itself. In Indianapolis I felt like it was ‘just me.’ That ‘just me’ mentality sometimes creates a selfishness as to you wanting the ball and you want to make sure it gets done because you want to win. I was fortunate enough to come here to the Rams where there were guys that were in the same year as me, Isaac (Bruce), Orlando (Pace), Grant (Wistrom), Keith Lyle. We all had the same agenda of just wanting to win and didn’t care who it was. I had an opportunity to kind of redefine who I was and let people know that wasn’t me. It was the hunger and the desire and the thirst to want to win that created that beast. Coming here it was an opportunity for me to have people see it in the way that it really is, even if back then I expressed it in the wrong way by coming off bad. My focus was definitely on playing and winning it wasn’t on addressing the media always. That is why most of the time I really didn’t have much to say. That opportunity without a doubt, redefining myself within the same game with the same job just with a different team and making that outlook on how people viewed me much, much different was probably the thing that I am most proud of.”

(On what went through his mind when Deion Sanders talked to him about not many players numbers being retired) “When he said it to me, because I can multitask, we walked out of the room and walked down the hall into Keely’s (Fimbres) office and I was thinking about it and thinking about it until I came down here that ‘That is true.’ That is true, it is special, it is something special. It is not that I don’t think that it is special it’s just sometimes hard for me to accept things like having your jersey retired and stuff like that because the game of football isn’t won by one guy and isn’t played by one guy.”

(On if praises by coaches and players mean the same or more than his statistical achievements) “They mean more to me. Being that kind of player required work that goes beyond what is asked of you. We sit in the meeting room back there and it is easy to watch the run game and understand why it works but it is a whole other ballgame. You go into a whole other realm when you understand force and who has to make the tackle and where is he coming from and not just ‘how are they going to stop you’ but how we as an offense are going to attack them, why and what there plan is to stop us. To play the game and understand the chess match that goes on, it is so much fun. It is so much fun to figure that out. It made the game easier for me and at times when I could share that information with my teammates it made the game easy for them. Coaches whether it be Mike (Martz) or Dick (Vermeil) or whomever, they can appreciate that because for me I understood in the game when the ball wasn’t coming to me, why. So there was no fuss. There was no fuss when I didn’t get the ball 20 times, when I didn’t get 20 carries even if the five or six or eight that I did get I gained positive yards because there was a bigger picture whether that be for the game that we were playing or that game that we were going to play next week.”

(On if it took long to grasp the reality of retirement and if he enjoys observing the entire league as a broadcaster) “Actually, I think if we had won the Super Bowl (in 2001) I probably would have retired after that year, but we didn’t and I felt like we still had it, so I came back. I was prepared to retire way before I did. All the time beyond then was bonus time for me. It was time to just continue to enjoy the game. Say last year, when I wasn’t playing, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to work in broadcasting and I wasn’t sure if I was going to come back or not, it really didn’t bother me either way. What the broadcasting did do was it gave me and showed me that there’s another team out there. Although this is a team, we have a team. Just as much as there’s competition here, in the TV business there’s competition, too. We strive and want to be the best just like we did when we sat in this meeting room. With that, I’d say it made the transition a little bit easier. Now having an opportunity to watch the inner workings and watch film on all the teams and comment on why they work, why they don’t work, why things are like this, why things are like so – it’s fun. I can probably speak for Deion (Sanders) here, too. It’s a great experience to get the inner workings of how things work. I guarantee you if we would have known what we know now, it would have been amazing to play this game.”

(On if he can ever see himself coaching) “I don’t see myself coaching. There are a couple of things. I don’t know if I could deal with what’s being asked of coaches today in the league – to babysit, the hours they have to put in, the time frame in which you have to win. Some of those things are just unrealistic what’s being asked. Probably the number one thing that I can’t deal with is the player that feels like he can’t when he hasn’t tried. I wouldn’t know how to relate to that player. I don’t even know if I would know how to relate to every player in here. That’s the thing; great coaches appeal and relate to every player on the staff and everyone that sits in these chairs. I don’t know if I have that in me. I just don’t know. I don’t even know if I have the patience to deal with that.”

(On what he thinks the Rams needs to do to improve the franchise as a whole) “That’s an easy question to answer right now because they’re 3-11. There’s a whole lot of things that you can comment on and say, ‘They need to do this and they need to do that,’ but the one thing is, and I think they’ll agree, is that within drafting players things must get better. You have to make sure you’re drafting not just the best player, but the best player for your team and what you need. I believe that is the road they’re going to head down. That’s the road they started to head down last year. It’s hard to see that when they’ve had the injuries they’ve had. Right now, when you look at it, at every position you can say they need something there. Like I said, at 3-11, you can pick it apart you dissect it as much as you want. You can’t go wrong half of the time when you make a pick at 3-11.”

(On if it’s disappointing that the team is struggling as his jersey is being retired) “I work in the media and every time the Rams lose when I walk into work it’s noted. I’m like, ‘I watch TV, too.’ It does bother me because I’m considered a face for this organization. People look at me and they associate me with the Rams and I’m proud of that. Although this has been a rough year, you have to take your lumps. I’ve been on the other end of playing teams that were 3-11 and understand that you want to keep them down. It goes in cycles. It doesn’t take away from what’s being done if that’s what you want to know. The honor is still an honor. It doesn’t take away from that. Yeah it would be great if they were going to the playoffs and it was a winning season. There would probably be less Steelers fans in the house, but all in all it doesn’t take away from what it is and the honor that it is.”

(On how many touchdown balls he has) “Not many anymore. They were all in the house down in New Orleans, but it’s okay. It’s alright. The memories are still there.”