| |  Are Warner, Faulk the greatest QB/RB duo?
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com
NEW ORLEANS -- The wretched, scurrilous media always has an angle.
Marshall Faulk was asked Wednesday by one halting and tentative scribe if he would mind, uh, possibly talking about his relationship with Kurt Warner.
"I'll be glad to talk about our relationship -- the whole best player malarkey," the Rams running back said of his quarterback. "We appreciate each other and we respect each other. When Kurt wins the MVP, people figured that I'd be mad. I'm not mad -- he's on my team.
"We make each other better. We're exactly what people say. We're unique together."
Well, yes, exactly. So much for that scandalous, controversial angle.
When Warner won the Associated Press's Most Valuable Player award, as voted by 50 members of the media, it was three straight for Warner and Faulk, after Warner won the 1999 award and Faulk was last year's winner -- something no two teammates have ever done.
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Other terrific tandems
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If Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk are the best-ever quarterback-running back tandem ever -- and there are legitimate arguments to the contrary -- there is a pretty impressive line right behind them.
Consider, if you will, in no particular order:
Johnny Unitas and Lenny Moore, Colts: A pair of Hall of Famers, Unitas and Moore are two of the most distinguished players at their respective positions. Unitas led the Colts to two league titles and threw for 40,239 yards and an astounding 290 touchdown passes. He passed for a touchdown in an unapproachable 47 consecutive games. Moore produced a combined total of 12,451 yards in 12 seasons. He once scored at least a touchdown in 18 straight games.
Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, Cowboys: The future Hall of Famers carried the Cowboys to three NFL championships in a span of four seasons. Aikman didn't rack up ludicrous career numbers but he was one of the most accurate passers -- ever. Smith? He's still going with 16,000-plus yards. He should catch Walter Payton for No. 1 on the all-time list sometime next season.
Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett, Cowboys: Another Hall of Fame duo. Staubach won two Super Bowls and retired with the best passer rating at the time. Dorsett ran for more than 12,000 yards and caught 398 passes.
Otto Graham and Marion Motley, Browns: Another Hall of Fame pair who won a mess of games. Graham led the Browns to 10 division or league titles in 10 years, both in the old AAFC and the NFL. Motley was the AAFC's all-time leading rusher.
John Elway and Terrell Davis, Broncos: Elway is a first-ballot Hall of Fame lock. Davis may have some work to do. Together, they won back-to-back Super Bowls. Elway is No. 2 all-time to Miami's Dan Marino in career attempts, completions and yards. He is No. 3 in TDs with 300. Davis was the best runner in the league for several years, but he has been slowed by injuries lately.
Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris, Steelers: Between them, they won four Super Bowls in six years and three MVP awards in the ultimate game. They're both Hall of Famers, with Bradshaw passing for 212 TDs and Harris scoring 100 himself.
Bart Starr and Paul Hornung/Jim Taylor, Packers: Hall of Famers all. They were the offensive nucleus for those great Packers teams of Vince Lombardi. Starr led Green Bay to five league titles and was the MVP in Super Bowls I and II, while Hornung (760 points) and Taylor (558) points controlled the ground.
Joe Montana and Roger Craig, 49ers: Montana made the Hall of Fame two years ago on the first ballot. Craig, a tremendously versatile runner, will need more time -- and that may not even be enough. Montana was a three-time Super Bowl MVP and an eight-time Pro Bowler. Craig produced 1,000 yards in rushing and pass-receiving in a single season.
Jim Brown and Milt Plum, Browns: Sort of a Tommy and Hank Aaron deal here. Brown was the greatest runner ever, leading the league eight times. Plum handed him the ball.
— Greg Garber
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There is as broad consensus that the best two players in the league -- Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, who finished 12½ votes behind the second-place Faulk for MVP this year, is the only other possibility -- play for the same team. This begs the question: Are Warner and Faulk the best quarterback/running back combination ever?
"Whoa," Faulk said a few weeks ago when the subject was broached. "I think that one might be too early to call."
Fair enough, but after a few more years of piling up stratospheric numbers, the answer might be a definitive yes. A random, unscientific poll of people around the NFL suggests that Warner and Faulk are headed in the right direction. Even to be mentioned among the great tandems, as Faulk pointed out, is saying something.
What is the measuring stick?
How about these Hall of Fame couples? Johnny Unitas and Lenny Moore of the Baltimore Colts, Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers' Bart Starr and Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, Otto Graham and Marion Motley of the Cleveland Browns and the Dallas Cowboys' Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett. Don't forget future Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith of the Cowboys and perhaps even John Elway and Terrell Davis of the Denver Broncos.
"I don't know of anybody that's ever been in this situation," Rams head coach Mike Martz said. "We're in a special place and time, and we're there because of those special players."
Words to this effect have almost become a mantra for the Rams. Martz, Warner and Faulk all voice similar feelings. In a league where 500 points in the regular season is the benchmark of historic greatness, the Rams have averaged 523 points over the last three seasons, which works out to an incendiary 32.2 per game.
"It happens on the field sometimes," said Rams tight end Ernie Conwell. "I'll just stand there and think about how I'm in the huddle with two of the greatest players of all-time. Kurt will throw a pass, Marshall will make a run and the thought will just come into your mind: 'Unbelievable. These two guys are unbelievable.' "
Warner is the classic late bloomer. He didn't start until his fifth year at Northern Iowa and, as even the casual football fan knows, passed through the Arena Football League and NFL Europe and surfaced in 1998 as the backup to Steve Bono, of all people, in St. Louis.
Warner broke through in 1999 with a spectacular season; the only parallels in the history of sport to his unlikely rise were fictional characters. Here is what he has accomplished in, essentially, three seasons: 44 games, 1,403 attempts, 939 completions, 12,651 yards, 98 touchdowns and 53 interceptions.
"When we look at a quarterback, there are three things that we try to hold them to," Martz said. "Accuracy, intelligence and toughness. Kurt is outstanding in all three categories."
Outstanding may be an understatement, especially with respect to accuracy. Warner's current career completion percentage (better than 66 percent), would place him at the top of the all-time list, ahead of Steve Young and Joe Montana.
In 2002, Warner passed for the second-highest, single-season passing total ever with 4,830 yards. Looking for some context? The NFL's record for 300-yard games in a season is nine. Warner has accomplished it two of the four times it's been done, joining Dan Marino and Warren Moon.
Faulk, of course, has had a more conventional superstar career. He was the second overall pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 1994 and promptly won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award and was named to the Pro Bowl after running for 1,282 yards out of the box. He has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven of his eight seasons.
This year he cleared 2,000 yards from scrimmage for the fourth straight time, something no player -- not Walter Payton, not Eric Dickerson, not even Jim
Brown -- ever accomplished.
In 121 career games, Faulk has 2,155 carries, 9,442 yards rushing and 110 touchdowns. With 59 touchdowns in three seasons with Rams, Faulk is the all-time franchise leader, better than Dickerson (58), Isaac Bruce (56), Elroy Hirsch (55) and Henry Ellard (52).
It is absolutely fair to say that no tandem can match the statistical output of Warner and Faulk over the recent three-year period.
Certainly, the couplings of Bradshaw and Harris and Aikman and Smith, to name a few, piled up more championships than Warner and Faulk, but a win in Super Bowl XXXVI over the Patriots would give the Rams two in three years, with a third or fourth a distinct possibility.
For now, anyway, the two Rams are on target to destroy the record books. Will it happen, or will they have to be content to be the football equivalent to Sandy Koufax, who in his brief reign, was one of the best pitchers ever?
Injuries, probably, will determine that. Warner is 30, but with only three full NFL seasons. It would seem he'd be good for another seven to nine seasons. Faulk, 28, has eight seasons in the can and might produce another handful of peak seasons.
Before Warner won the MVP, Faulk was named the Rams' MVP for the third consecutive year. It has been said that Martz was happy Warner beat out Faulk for the league award, if only to pad his thin résum&eacture; when the Hall of Fame voters one day consider his candicay. Faulk, of course, is already a certified Hall of Famer.
"If that is what excellence is, that is what we are trying to achieve," Faulk said. "This is what we do. We hold to a standard of high achievement. We try to be perfect in everything we do.
"We don't think about making marks in history. We can't make those marks. We think about making every play. If we make playing hard and trying to be our best our goals, then those things will get attached to us."
Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com
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