I’ve always had a tendency to rally behind a mediocre out of market team that I could root for from rock bottom all the way to the top. I believe it started with the Chargers in the early 90s. Then, they made the Super Bowl in 1994, and although I grew up a 49ers fan, I would’ve been just as happy had Natrone Means and the Bolts pulled it off. They didn’t, but they had reached the point of contention, so it was time to find a new terrible team. Enter the New York Jets. For every poor NFL team I rally behind, there’s usually a Running Back at the center of it. For this mid-90s Jets squad, it was Adrian Murrell.
Murrell was drafted by the Jets in the 5th round of the 1993 draft. He started primarily as a kick returner, before becoming the primary back. His best season came in 1996, when my inexplicable Jets fandom was at its peak. Murrell rushed for 1,249 yards on 301 carries with 6 TDs. Unfortunately, the Jets went 1-15 with a roster loaded with guys like rookie Keyshawn Johnson, Frank Reich, Neil O’Donnell, Wayne Chrebet, Webster Slaughter, and Jeff Graham. Murrell went on to have two more 1,000+ yard seasons – 1997 and 1998, the latter as a member of the Arizona Cardinals – before starting his descent. He was out of football following the 2000 season, but then made a brief comeback attempt with the Cowboys in 2003. Murrell finished his career with 5,199 rushing yards and 23 TDs in 122 career games.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 pm
mceezy
They say in reality a good running back’s lifespan within the NFL on average is no more than three to five years at best. Any guy who can do more than that. Essentially you can they’ve had a moderate to great career dependent upon the stats attained. That’s all one ask for of these guys.
September 24th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Yeah, Adrian Murrell was your typical run of the mill 5 year RB….
September 24th, 2009 at 10:13 am
mceezy
Yep that’s the only way that one can look at it. There are some who’ve stood the test of time and continue to perform at a fairly high standard.
When I now look at id=TOM683150″>LT , I can see that it’s only a matter of time his career will be curtailed. The same can be said for Edgerrin James also. Two great backs whose careers are almost at end.
Alan Parkins aka abrtishman
September 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Hey mceezy,
My name is Grayson. I created RFPoftheDay. “Random” turn of events but RFPoftheDay is actually coming back.
Three weeks ago we started preparation of launching a new RFPoftheDay blog. I decided to google RFPoftheDay today for fun and your site came up. I couldn’t believe someone actually enjoyed the RFPoftheDay idea.
Basically, the website became too time consuming and we had to shut it down. I have since wanted to bring the website back to life. We settled on the name KansasPlan for our new blog however, I am thinking it might be best to go with rfpoftheday though.
I have all the other answers you need.
Email me at kansasplan@gmail.com
If you have any ideas for the site let me know.
RFP is a great idea, I agree. “Genius” though? Not yet. It has a lot of potential.
January 16th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
[…] NFC, I can’t wait for this Jets-Steelers matchup next weekend. If you didn’t know from my Adrian Murrell RFP of the Day a while back, I was a huge Jets fan from 1995-1997. Having said that, I’m really excited to […]