(from the archives)
You probably won't hear too much about it, but it looks like Curtis Martin's career is about through with the Jets.
We won't look at Martin's retirement in the same way we look at the retirements of Terrell Davis, Tiki Barber, Barry Sanders, or Emmitt Smith. Likely, we won't even care too much. That's a shame.
Whenever you thought about who the best running backs on the planet were, you never thought of Martin. None of us will be able to think of a defining play that Martin made that gave us that "wow" factor that other backs had. He wasn't a dual threat like Barber is; he wasn't as strong as Emmitt or Terrell or as quick as Barry.
However, it's not unreasonable to argue that Martin was more consistent and at least as valuable as any of these other running backs. Just because we don't have the inclination to watch the Jets play doesn't mean that they aren't playing on a given Sunday, and for a large portion of the last decade, the Jets played reasonably well (if non-descript).
While Barber struggled at times in the playoffs for the Giants, Martin was remarkably consistent; a showdown with Terrell Davis in 1998 was the only poor rushing effort that Martin turned in over the course of his playoff career. His yards per carry was always solid, and the Jets and Patriots generally did reasonably well in playoff games that he played in.
Martin was also exceedingly durable, and could will bad Jets teams into the playoffs. Perhaps the best example of this was in 2004, when a very mediocre Jets team snuck into the playoffs and won a game- which should have been two games except for some very bad place-kicking. Martin rushed for nearly 1700 yards that year, and seemingly cemented his place as one of the all-time greats.
Well, we use the word seemingly, because Martin tailed off in 2005 (after his 11th season in the league, a remarkable demonstration of durability) and is likely done for his career. Not a lot has been mentioned of this, and it deserves mention. After all, we've sure heard a lot about Tiki Barber retiring, but nobody cares as much about Curtis.
The tragedy for Martin is that he hasn't received that ten-minute Sportscenter feature, that curtain call, or that swan song. Taking three Chad Pennington teams to the playoffs should be a pretty big sign that you're an all-time great, but somehow we all missed the memo. Now we're at the end of the career of the fourth-leading rusher of all time. Let's hope that Canton doesn't forget him as quickly as we have.
We won't look at Martin's retirement in the same way we look at the retirements of Terrell Davis, Tiki Barber, Barry Sanders, or Emmitt Smith. Likely, we won't even care too much. That's a shame.
Whenever you thought about who the best running backs on the planet were, you never thought of Martin. None of us will be able to think of a defining play that Martin made that gave us that "wow" factor that other backs had. He wasn't a dual threat like Barber is; he wasn't as strong as Emmitt or Terrell or as quick as Barry.
However, it's not unreasonable to argue that Martin was more consistent and at least as valuable as any of these other running backs. Just because we don't have the inclination to watch the Jets play doesn't mean that they aren't playing on a given Sunday, and for a large portion of the last decade, the Jets played reasonably well (if non-descript).
While Barber struggled at times in the playoffs for the Giants, Martin was remarkably consistent; a showdown with Terrell Davis in 1998 was the only poor rushing effort that Martin turned in over the course of his playoff career. His yards per carry was always solid, and the Jets and Patriots generally did reasonably well in playoff games that he played in.
Martin was also exceedingly durable, and could will bad Jets teams into the playoffs. Perhaps the best example of this was in 2004, when a very mediocre Jets team snuck into the playoffs and won a game- which should have been two games except for some very bad place-kicking. Martin rushed for nearly 1700 yards that year, and seemingly cemented his place as one of the all-time greats.
Well, we use the word seemingly, because Martin tailed off in 2005 (after his 11th season in the league, a remarkable demonstration of durability) and is likely done for his career. Not a lot has been mentioned of this, and it deserves mention. After all, we've sure heard a lot about Tiki Barber retiring, but nobody cares as much about Curtis.
The tragedy for Martin is that he hasn't received that ten-minute Sportscenter feature, that curtain call, or that swan song. Taking three Chad Pennington teams to the playoffs should be a pretty big sign that you're an all-time great, but somehow we all missed the memo. Now we're at the end of the career of the fourth-leading rusher of all time. Let's hope that Canton doesn't forget him as quickly as we have.
posted by mike at 6:04 AM
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