As a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Marshall Faulk looks forward to returning each year to honor the latest inductees.
This past weekend, he was in Canton, Ohio, for Hall of Fame weekend and said he had a great time, but felt something he’s never felt before.
“It was the first time I had been there and wanted to be somewhere else,” Faulk, the first-year running backs coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, said Monday after practice.
Hired earlier this year by CU head coach Deion Sanders to join the staff, Faulk had never been a coach. He’s all-in, though, as he tries to energize a CU run game that’s been on life support for two years.
CU opened preseason practices last Tuesday and Faulk had to be nudged by Sanders – also a Hall of Famer – to get out of town and go to Canton.
“I didn’t want to go,” Faulk said. “I’m like, ‘I agreed to do this (at CU), we’re two days into camp.’ And coach was like, ‘No, you’ve got to go. I cannot go. You have to go.’”
Faulk is certainly glad he did. A self-proclaimed “football nut,” Faulk grew up in New Orleans and got a job selling popcorn at the Superdome because he couldn’t afford a ticket, even to see “the sorriest team in the ’80s, the Saints,” he said.
“That’s what I did. I just love football,” he said.
Annual trips to Canton give Faulk the opportunity to talk to the greats who came before him. This year, he spent time with former Dallas Cowboys (and Denver Broncos) running back Tony Dorsett and former San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins guard Larry Little.
“I want to hear the highlights out of their mouths,” Faulk said. “You get to relive those moments. Their games aren’t YouTube-able. People can go look at my highlights. You don’t get to see (some of the old highlights of others). And I give them a chance to tell me about it, and really appreciate hearing their stories.”
CU’s players don’t have to go to Canton to hear the stories. The Buffs have three Hall of Famers – Faulk, Sanders and defensive line assistant Warren Sapp – on staff who are teaching the players every day.
The running backs are soaking up all they can from Faulk, who starred for the Indianapolis Colts from 1994-98 and the St. Louis Rams from 1999-2005. And, his highlights are YouTube-able.
“That same night (Faulk was hired), I went to go watch his highlights,” sophomore running back Micah Welch said. “I’ve learned a lot from coach Faulk this year. … It’s really been amazing for him coaching me.”
Junior Dallan Hayden, whose father, Aaron, played in the NFL, said Faulk has “been awesome” since joining the CU staff.
“He’s obviously one of the smartest players to ever play this game, so his addition to the room has just been nothing but great things,” Hayden said.
Hayden and Welch, who played at CU last year, are joined in the room by fellow scholarship backs Simeon Price and Dekalon Taylor, who transferred in this summer.
The only player in NFL history to record at least 12,000 rushing yards (12,279) and 6,000 receiving yards (6,875) in his career, Faulk is enjoying the opportunity to teach the group.
“I’m here to coach, so whoever they put in the room, I’m gonna coach,” he said. “The guys that we bring in, it’s my job to teach them how to get to where they want to go. So I talk to them about their goals and dreams and what they want to do, and then I make sure that that fits into what we’re doing here as a team.”
Faulk is one of the most well-rounded running backs in history and expects his players to develop all-around skills. But, a big part of what attracted him to CU, he said, was the opportunity to work with Sanders, a longtime friend who shares many of the same mentorship values as Faulk.
“Coming here not just to win games on the field,” Faulk said, “but to win the game off the field, which is to make sure that these young men in life become what they want to become, outside of football. That they become the father that they want to become, be the brother, be the husband; making sure that they do that, and that’s the important part. So that was attractive.”
As he does every year in Canton, Faulk shows up to the office ready to listen and learn, too. The CU staff is loaded with experienced coaches and Faulk is doing his part to add to it.
“It’s just that collection of talent and the respect that we have for one another,” he said. “When you’re around guys like that, I mean, they make me sharper. I know a lot of football, I’ve been around a lot of football, and I’ve had some (good) coaches. I walk into a room ready to learn and I just believe in life you’re sitting in one of two positions: you’re either teaching or you’re learning. That’s it.”