Former Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall died Tuesday after a long hospitalization for an undisclosed illness. He was 87.
Marshall was one of the four members of the famed Purple People Eaters front that formed the backbone of four Super Bowl teams. The Vikings announced Marshall’s death on behalf of his wife, Susan. He played 19 of his 20 seasons in the NFL with Minnesota.
Our Darren ‘Doogie’ Wolfson spoke with Vikings legend and Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton on Wednesday about Marshall.
Tarkenton’s tenure with the Vikings spanned 13 non-consecutive seasons, all spent as a teammate of Marshall’s.
**_\*\*\*Click the video box above to watch our conversation with Tarkenton\*\*\*_**
Though sacks weren’t officially tracked by the NFL until 1982, Pro Football Reference recently completed a retroactive compilation of the primary pass-rushing statistic and credited Marshall with 130½ sacks, which is tied for 22nd all-time. Two other Purple People Eaters rank ahead of him: Alan Page (148½) is eighth, and Carl Eller (133½) is tied for 18th.
Marshall remains the NFL career record-holder, now tied with Jason Taylor, for opponent fumbles recovered with 29. One of those infamously came on Oct. 25, 1964, at San Francisco when, after the Vikings forced 49ers running back Billy Kilmer to cough up the ball, Marshall scooped it up and scampered 66 yards into the end zone — the wrong way.
After he tossed the ball in the air and turned toward the touchdown celebration with his teammates he was expecting, Marshall stopped in his tracks and put his hands on his hips in disbelief upon realizing he’d cost his team a safety. The Vikings went on to win 27-22.
“It took a lot of guts for me to go back on that field, because I took football very seriously and I had made the biggest mistake that you could probably make,” Marshall once said in an interview with NFL Films for a segment on the NFL’s worst plays.
Marshall took the gaffe in stride, a graciousness made easier by his stature on the team and within the league. Long a favorite of hard-nosed head coach Bud Grant, Marshall played through the 1979 season, his final game coming two weeks before his 42nd birthday.
“Maybe we’ve taken it for granted that Jim Marshall plays hurt,” Grant said after Marshall announced his retirement. “But durability is the most important ability you have. You can’t achieve greatness without durability, and that is personified in Jim Marshall. He has been hurt. But he doesn’t break. He bends. He heals. He has a high pain threshold. Jim not only plays hurt, he plays as well when he’s hurt as when he isn’t. That’s what’s important.”
After Favre broke Marshall’s record of 270 consecutive regular-season games started in 2009, the Vikings invited Marshall to their practice facility to speak to the players. He was asked then in an interview session with reporters what he thought about a quarterback overtaking his prized mark.
“He’s the guy we were trying to hurt,” Marshall said with a laugh. “Every defensive lineman that he plays against is trying to hurt him. That’s a tough way to earn a living.”
Marshall’s determination and longevity took its physical toll, like many of his peers from an era when player safety and injury prevention were minimal. In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2017, Marshall recounted his long list of post-career surgeries on his knees, ankles, hips, shoulders, back, neck, heart, eyes and ears.
“I didn’t quite accomplish all the things I wanted to, but I sure tried,” Marshall said. “I sacrificed. I gave it my best shot.”
_The Associated Press contributed to this report_