It All Falls Into Place for Faulk

Now that the votes have been counted and the trophy awarded, it must be said that there never was a doubt: Paul Edinger’s 54-yard field goal Sunday was the NFL kick of the year.

Edinger, a Chicago Bear rookie, packed some wallop with one swing of his leg--knocking the Detroit Lions out of the playoffs, granting the St. Louis Rams a last-second stay of elimination and delivering the league most-valuable-player award to Marshall Faulk.

Without that kick, the Rams’ Faulk would have been left with some impressive regular-season numbers--1,359 rushing yards, 830 receiving yards, a league-record 26 touchdowns--and a long winter to examine and reexamine them.

Without that kick, Faulk is nothing more than an outstanding running back on a team that missed the playoffs.

If the name of the award is to be taken literally, and it should, can any player, regardless of his statistical currency, be rightly considered most valuable if he belongs to a team that cannonballs from Super Bowl champion to out of the playoffs in 11 months?

Not in a season when Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb is the only thing separating the 10-6 playoff-bound Eagles from the New England Patriots.

Not in a season when Tennessee running back Eddie George becomes a living anatomy chart for everything a football player can injure yet still leads the league with 403 carries while lifting a flawed Titan team to the top of the league standings at 13-3.

But when Edinger took out the Lions, the Rams took their place as the sixth-seeded team in the NFC playoff field, giving Faulk the platform he needed to outdistance McNabb and George for the Associated Press’ NFL most-valuable-player award Wednesday. Faulk received 24 of 50 votes in a poll of sportswriters and broadcasters, followed by McNabb with 11 votes and George with eight.

Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon was fourth with five votes and Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning and Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis got one vote each.

Statistically, Faulk had one of the great all-purpose seasons in league history. He led the NFL in total yards with 2,189; he eclipsed Emmitt Smith’s single-season touchdown record by one; he set the league record for most four-touchdown games in a season with three; he scored eight more touchdowns than Edgerrin James, who was second in that category; and he led the league in scoring, with 25 more points than runner-up Matt Stover, the Baltimore Raven kicker.

But before the regular season’s final weekend, Faulk’s Rams were in danger of becoming the 10th Super Bowl champion not to make the playoffs the next season. They were 9-6 and on the short end of the wild-card playoff formula, needing not only to win at New Orleans but also an unlikely assist by the 4-11 Bears at Detroit.

Faulk saw that the Rams took care of their end, rushing for a career-best 220 yards, catching seven passes for 41 yards and scoring three touchdowns in a 26-21 victory over the Saints. Most impressively, Faulk did it with the Rams playing much of the game without quarterback Kurt Warner, the league’s 1999 MVP, who was out because of a mild concussion.

But the Rams didn’t know if their season was over until they walked off the field just as Edinger, in another dome hundreds of miles away, kicked and dealt his odd half-knuckleball, half-slider that barely cleared the crossbar.

Bears 23, Lions 20.

As the Rams heard the news, delirium broke out. Helmets were tossed, teammates were dogpiled and the Faulk-for-MVP lobby cranked into full gear.

“He’s unbelievable,” said Trent Green, who finished the game at quarterback for the Rams. “If he doesn’t win MVP, they are going to need some re-votes.”

Ram Coach Mike Martz added to the chorus: “Please, somebody find a better player in this universe than Marshall Faulk. Who deserves that MVP more than Faulk? He’s truly a great player.”

But “most valuable” is not the same as “most outstanding.” The difference is subtle, but it is a difference nonetheless--and a snag that periodically causes MVP elections to unravel.

Assessing a player’s value to his team is the most subjective of assignments. There is no universal litmus test. Some voters rule out any player whose team fails to make the playoffs. Others consider only players who contributed to division championship-winning teams.

The fairest gauge, however, is the most difficult to measure: If you took the player in question away from his team, how would that team fare without him?

McNabb led the Eagles in passing with 3,365 yards and rushing with 629 yards and had a personal hand--either running or throwing--in 162 of his team’s 351 points. He was the singular star of the Eagles’ season-long rendition of “Cast Away,” in which one man is stranded, abandoned and left to do everything by himself. Take McNabb out of the equation and the Eagles would be left with Koy Detmer handing the ball to Darnell Autry, which is a roundabout way of saying “5 and 11.”

George played through pain, sprain and strain, leading the league with a grueling 403-carry workload. He rushed for 1,509 yards and 14 touchdowns, and without him, the Titans would be no better than a wild card traveling to Miami this weekend instead of the winningest team in the league, owner of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Faulk?

The league actually got a glimpse of Ram life without Faulk during the middle of the season, when arthroscopic knee surgery sidelined the running back for two games and limited him to less than 10 carries in two more.

In their two games without Faulk, the Rams were 1-1, losing at home to Carolina on a last-second field goal and defeating the NFC East champion New York Giants at the Meadowlands. They then went 0-2 as Faulk eased his way back into shape--losing to Washington as Faulk was limited to nine carries and losing to New Orleans with Faulk rushing eight times.

Down the stretch, the Rams finished 2-2--managing only a field goal at Carolina despite 94 rushing yards by Faulk and losing a crazed Monday night affair at Tampa Bay when the Ram defense couldn’t keep up with Faulk’s four touchdowns.

The ineptitude of the Ram defense--St. Louis yielded a league-high 471 points, or 52 more than the Cleveland Browns--actually worked to Faulk’s advantage in the MVP balloting. The thinking: If Faulk can drag that defense into the playoffs. . . .

“This season was pretty high up there, a very special one just because of all the things we faced,” Faulk said after learning he had won the award. “But the thing that overshadows it for me and doesn’t allow me to harp on it is we were fighting for our lives to try to get into the playoffs.”

The Rams and Faulk got there, barely, and for that they can thank a Bear named Edinger, the MVP of the MVP race.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The MVP

Voting for the 2000 NFL most valuable player:

Marshall Faulk

St. Louis

24 votes

Donovan McNabb

Philadelphia

11 votes

Eddie George

Tennessee

8 votes

Rich Gannon

Oakland

5 votes

Ray Lewis

Baltimore

1 vote

Peyton Manning

Indianapolis

1 vote

PLAYOFFS

SATURDAY

Indianapolis

at Miami

9:30 a.m.

Channel 7

St. Louis at

New Orleans

1 p.m.

Channel 7

SUNDAY

Denver at Baltimore

9:30 a.m.

Channel 2

Tampa Bay at Philadelphia

1 p.m.

Channel 11