Marcus Allen remains best running back in Raiders history
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an occasional series acquainting fans with the Raiders’ illustrious 60-year history as the team moves to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.
Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen cemented his status as a legendary Raider with one play in Super Bowl XVIII.
Late in the third quarter, the Raiders faced first-and-10 on their own 26-yard line. Allen received a handoff to the left, but suddenly had Washington defenders in his face. So he reversed field, eluded a tackler and used his speed to dart 74 yards to the end zone.
The play gave the Raiders a 35-9 lead and put the exclamation point on their 1983 championship season.
Allen burst onto the NFL scene after starring at USC, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1981, amassing 2,342 yards rushing and scoring 22 touchdowns. The Raiders — then based in Los Angeles — selected him No. 10 overall in the 1982 NFL draft, and he was named offensive rookie of the year in the strike-shortened season. Despite the league playing only nine games that year, Allen’s 697 yards rushing remained a franchise rookie record until Josh Jacobs set a new mark in 2019.
The next season, Allen was instrumental in the Raiders’ championship run and ultimate victory over Washington in Super Bowl XVIII. He rushed for 1,014 yards and nine touchdowns in the regular season, adding 68 receptions for 590 yards and two receiving touchdowns. Then he powered the Raiders throughout the postseason, rushing for 121 and 154 yards in the team’s first two playoff games and 191 yards in the Super Bowl.
With the Raiders’38-9 victory over Washington, Allen was named Super Bowl MVP — making him the only player to win a Heisman Trophy, NCAA national championship, Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP.
While Allen was the league’s MVP in 1985 after posting a season with a league-leading 1,759 yards rushing and 2,314 yards from scrimmage, he never reached 1,000 yards rushing again. He often had to share the Raiders’ rushing load with other backs such as Bo Jackson and Roger Craig. In 1992 — Allen’s 11th and final year with the Raiders — he said then-owner Al Davis was attempting to “ruin my career” in a taped halftime interview for “Monday Night Football.”
“I think he has tried to ruin the latter part of my career, tried to devalue me and tried to stop me from going to the Hall of Fame,” Allen said at the time, via the Baltimore Sun. “It has been an outright joke to sit on the sidelines and not get an opportunity to play.”
Davis disputed the claim to ABC’s Al Michaels, saying Allen didn’t like the competition provided by the other running backs on the team. Davis also said then-head coach Art Shell made all decisions on playing time.
Allen would leave the Raiders for the division-rival Chiefs in free agency that offseason as the franchise’s all-time leading rusher with 8,545 yards — a mark that still stands today. He also has a huge lead in the Raiders’ record books with 79 rushing touchdowns.
Allen’s career wasn’t finished. He went on to play five seasons for Kansas City, racking up another 3,698 yards. Allen was named the NFL’s comeback player of the year after a 1993 season that saw him lead the league with 12 rushing touchdowns. He was one of the best goal-line rushers for the entirety of his career, still putting up 11 rushing scores in his final professional season in 1997.
But the feud between Allen and Davis kept the best running back in franchise history from being around the team until 2012 — when current owner Mark Davis invited Allen back to light the Al Davis memorial torch before a game at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. While Allen never played for the franchise in Oakland, he was still given a rousing ovation according to the Associated Press.
The Raiders may not have been playing in Oakland in 1983, but the fans surely still remembered Allen reversing field to rush for that iconic 74-yard touchdown.
Contact Myles Simmons at msimmons@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @MylesASimmons on Twitter.