Just when I thought I had seen one of the best sports
documentaries in a long time after viewing the ESPN 30 for 30 piece on Bo
Jackson this past weekend, the NFL Network premiered “Marcus Allen: A Football Life” last night.
While I’m still savoring the delightful film on Bo, for my
taste, the Marcus Allen film was equally well done and moving. Ironically, football fans will forever
link the two men because they shared the running back position for parts of
four seasons (1987-1990) with the Los Angeles Raiders.
As the film revealed, it was possible for a player to be
Rookie of the Year; a Super Bowl MVP; and finish his career with more than
12,000 yards rushing and still not accomplish everything he could have due to
the actions of a vindictive team owner.
This was the football life lived by Marcus Allen.
However, the hour-long program was just as much the late Al
Davis’ story, because he was the owner who denied Marcus Allen and his own team
from being all they could be by personally seeing to it that Allen was kept off
the field for a significant chunk of his career. The fact that Allen still had much to give was the nine
victories he led the rival Kansas City Chiefs over the Raiders in 10 heated
contests after leaving behind the silver and black.
Indeed, Marcus Allen’s football life was stranger than
fiction but he never lost the respect and support of his teammates, and Allen’s
journey finished in a sweet place in Canton, Ohio at the NFL Football Hall of
Fame.
The sledding for the Raiders has not been as sweet. Not only have they not won a
championship since Allen’s departure following the 1992 season, but also an argument can be made that
they have replaced my beloved Detroit Lions as the least-respected franchise in
professional football. Evidently
the football gods don’t like ugly and there is still a price the Raiders must
pay for management’s mistreatment of the classy Marcus Allen.
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