By Brett Grassmuck

Staff Writer

The game itself may not be a memorable one, a 41-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final home game of a disappointing 2007 season for the Rams, but the halftime ceremonies will live in the memories of Rams fans forever.

All they have to do upon taking their seats in the Edward Jones Dome is look up.

That’s where, hanging alongside Super Bowl and NFC Championship banners, is the No. 28, immortalized not only in Rams history, but in NFL history by future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk.

“To get your number retired is an honor you don’t even think about,” Faulk said. “It doesn’t resonate to how and what you feel at that point in 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.”

Tonight, the Rams celebrated the accomplishments that were made by Faulk, who was pulling double duty calling the game for the NFL network, in his time as a St. Louis Ram. At halftime, the focus left the present, with the Rams down 24-17, and shifted to the past where Faulk’s storied past was celebrated.

Faulk was joined at midfield by the evening’s emcee, sports analyst Bob Costas, and several members of the St. Louis Rams including vice chairman/owner Stan Kroenke, team president John Shaw, president of football operations/general manager Jay Zygmunt as well as NFL commissioner Roger Goddell and Faulk’s mother and brothers.

After a brief introductory video, a white banner featuring a Faulk No. 28 jersey and St. Louis Rams logo was lowered from the rafters. Faulk then spoke to the crowd, thanking the organization, the fans and mostly his teammates for all of his accomplishments.

“My jersey is being retired not because of me, but because it takes 11 guys on one side of the ball and 11 on the other side to make what we did here special,” Faulk told the crowd. “Every one of those guys that played on those teams I played on share this with me.”

Faulk was especially proud that both wide receivers Torry Holt and Issac Bruce could be in attendance to share in the moment. Faulk received a hug from Holt heading out on to the field for the ceremonies and shot Bruce a thumbs up afterwards, not only in acknowledgement of his own accomplishments, but to recognize what Bruce has been able to do as well.

When Bruce caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter, he crossed his arms in the classic Faulk touchdown pose in a tribute to the running back.

“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,” Faulk said. “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.”

When Faulk joined the Rams in 1999, he was the catalyst that changed a franchise without a winning record in 11 years into a Super Bowl Champion. He joined a team that came together as a unit better than any team he’d ever been on.

Starting in 1999 and through the next four years, the Rams played football on a completely different level then they had since the move to St. Louis. The Greatest Show on Turf was the most dominant offense in the NFL and Faulk was at the heart of it, rushing, receiving, blocking, whatever role the team needed him to play, he accepted it and executed it as well as anyone in the history of the NFL.

Faulk was also a leader on the field, almost like a second quarterback to the offense. What made Faulk great was his knowledge and understanding of every aspect of every play he took part in. What made him a great leader was his ability to impart that knowledge on his teammates.

“To play the game and understand the chess match that goes on, it is so much fun,” Faulk said. “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. There was a bigger picture, whether that is for the game that we were playing or the game that we were going to play next week.”

The records eventually started to fall for Faulk, beginning in 1999 when he set the NFL record for yards from scrimmage with 2,429, an average of 151.8 yards per game that season.

Faulk finished his career with 6,875 receiving yards, the record for an NFL running back, and he is ninth all-time in rushing with 12,279 yards.  He was second among running backs with 767 receptions and tied for second with Emmitt Smith and Jim Brown for highest touchdown-per-game average. He is fourth in combined yards from scrimmage with 19,154 and points with 830 and sixth with 136 touchdowns.

In a combined 219 games as an NFL and collegiate player, Faulk ended up in the end zone 206 times. Sadly, the New Orleans native lost many of those touchdown balls when his family’s home was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

“It’s okay,” Faulk said. “The memories are still there.”

It was those memories that the St. Louis Rams fans hung on as Faulk’s No. 28 jersey was raised to the ceiling, and it’s those memories that will have Faulk standing in a gold jacket in Canton, Ohio as a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.