Vikings iron man Marshall dies at 87
Will this revive his legacy and Hall of Fame candidacy?
Longtime Minnesota Vikings captain Jim Marshall, one of the most respected players in NFL history, has moved on, but memories of his career will be a hot topic for a while.
Marshall started 270 consecutive games including four Super Bowls at defensive end for the Vikings. The player known as Minnesota’s Ironman died Tuesday after a lengthy hospitalization. He was 87.
The natural response to this news will be to lament that he was not inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame while still alive. Indeed, Marshall is a great example of how damned hard it is to make it into the HOF, as it should be.
Marshall was at the height of his career when I first covered him in a 1969 playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams. He capped a career-high 14 sacks that season with an excellent game, including one sack. It was an emotional 23-20 win for quarterback Joe Kapp’s famous “40 for 60” Vikings, who went on to lose Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-7.
As the team celebrated the win over the Rams, Marshall patiently sat at his cubicle and answered questions from a young reporter covering his first NFL playoff, who didn’t know that the great lineman disliked talking after games. But Marshall did offer the shivering journalist advice on how to cope with the freezing weather, although I didn’t have the leather coat he suggested. (It was 11 degrees at kickoff in Minneapolis’ old outdoor Met Stadium).
Thanks for the thought anyway, Jim.
Deciding who makes the HOF isn’t easy. And despite inclinations to the contrary, it should not be personal.
Marshall had his chances. He was nominated almost every year he was eligible. He was a finalist in 2004. In 2008, NFL Network named Marshall the second-best player not in the Hall of Fame on the NFL Top 10 program, behind only Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Jerry Kramer, who was inducted in 2018. Marshall was a semifinalist in 2023 and 2024.
On one hand, he had credentials worthy of induction, including 19 years as a notable member of the famed Vikings’ Purple People Eaters defensive line. Even his journey to join the Vikings was hardly easy.
Marshall left Ohio State after his junior year to play for money with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League. He later noted that not only did he not know where Saskatchewan was, but he didn’t realize that Canadian dollars were worth only 75 percent of US dollars.
He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1960 but had a difficult time there, including a contentious season with coach Paul Brown, who was going to move Marshall to another position.
But Marshall contracted encephalitis during military training before the 1961 season and was so ill he was placed in an induced coma to save his life. Brown, concerned that his young lineman was losing too much weight, didn’t wait for Marshall to fully recover and traded him and five other players to the expansion Vikings in exchange for two picks in the 1962 NFL draft.
All that early history faded away for NFL fans, especially in Minnesota, as Marshall became a fixture in the Vikings franchise.
Though sacks did not become an official stat until 1982, Pro Football Reference analyzed game stats since 1960 and estimated Marshall had 130.5 sacks in his career, which would rank 22nd in NFL history.
Still, a hard-core reality check also shows Marshall had moments of infamy that stained his otherwise outstanding career.
Hard to forget was his 66-yard fumble return for an apparent touchdown in 1964 against the San Francisco 49ers. Alas, Marshall ran the wrong way. Upon arriving in his end zone, Marshall tossed the ball away or things could have been worse. San Francisco was awarded a two-point safety. If Marshall had dropped the ball in the end zone, a 49er could have recovered for a touchdown. The Vikings held on to win, 27-22, but it was a play that haunted him during his entire career.
Such a weird play can certainly be dismissed as an unimportant anamoly. But in Super Bowl XI, Marshall was specifically victimized by the left side of the Oakland Raiders’ outstanding offensive line, featuring guard Gene Upshaw and, especially, tackle Art Shell, both future Hall of Famers.
Shell and Co., which included fullback Mark van Eeghen’s lead blocking, pitched a perfect game against Marshall, who was stat-less: no sacks, tackles, assists. Zero, nada, nichts, zilch. His name isn’t even on the official stats sheet.
Adding further insult, the Raiders ran at Marshall (18 BOB) as halfback Clarence Davis gained 137 yards on 16 carries. Unlike the wrong-way run in 1964, this was difficult for Hall of Fame selectors to dismiss; big-game performances carry a lot of weight.
After that Vikings’ fourth Super Bowl loss in seven years, Marshall once again dutifully sat by his cubicle and reluctantly handled questions. The temperature was warmer this time, almost 60 degrees at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. This reporter was more experienced and ventured a tough question about the game and the Vikings’ four Super Bowl losses.
"We weren't as dominant in this game as we have been,” Marshall said. “We had a couple of chances early, but Oakland is talented and they really took it to us.”
And what of those Super Bowl losses to a murderer’s row of Kansas City, Miami, Pittsburgh and the Raiders?
“All great teams with great players, but at our best we could have beaten them,” Marshall said. “But we didn’t.”
That was Marshall’s last Super Bowl. After retiring following the 1979 season, Marshall reminisced about the famed Purple People Eaters — Marshall, Alan Page, Carl Eller and Gary Larsen.
The name refers to a popular song from 1958, the color of their uniforms and the voraciousness of the D-line’s pass rush. The motto of the Purple People Eaters was, "Meet at the quarterback."
“At our peak,” said Marshall, “we changed the game. Rules were passed to help teams adjust to us. The new holding rules, the outlawing of the head slap — that was because of the things we did. We were like a SWAT team, a strike task force — quick and agile. Apart, we were entirely different, but put us together and we clicked. It got to the point where I knew what the others were going to do the moment they started it. It was just understood.”
Per the Vikings, here is a list of Marshall’s quantifiable accomplishments:
Most seasons played by a defensive player: 20
Most complete seasons played by a defensive player: 20
Most consecutive games played by a defensive player: 289
Most consecutive regular-season games played by a defensive player: 282
Most consecutive game starts by a defensive player: 277
Most consecutive regular-season starts played by a defensive player: 270
Most consecutive regular-season starts played with one team: 270
Most opponent fumbles recovered: 29
Most fumble recoveries by a defensive end: 30
and, not to be forgotten,
Most yardage lost on a fumble recovery: 66
🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈
As a member of the Hall of Fame’s Seniors Abyss, Jim Marshall faces long odds to be inducted.
Last year, the Hall changed the selection process, re-forming the Seniors, Coach and Contributor committees and adding anonymous 11-person screening committees to review lists of nominees for Modern-Era Players, Seniors, Coach and Contributor categories separately.
Selectors had one shot to choose from a list that included three seniors, a coach and a contributor — head to head. Each selector voted for three from that group of five, and only candidates who received 80 percent would be inducted.
Last year we attempted to level the field for evaluation by rating senior prospects across eras by similar criteria — years as All-Pro, as Pro Bowl picks etc., including All-Decade.
On a list of the top 55 point-getters, Marshall rated No. 43. Surprised? Unless something changes, a strong trend toward recency bias will continue to bloat the seniors list. Last year three more prospects worthy of consideration fell into the Abyss after languishing 20 years on the Modern Era list but never officially discussed.
Here is a look at the best in the Abyss:
See any players for whom you would advocate? Do you think they could grab 80 percent of the votes when pitted against two other seniors, a coach and a contributor?
There are other factors. Last year the Vikings made a concerted, multimedia push for former Vikings running back Chuck Foreman, which certainly didn’t help Marshall. Based on recent results, Marshall’s death should generate renewed interest, right?
Stay tuned. We will be drilling into the people and process for the 2026 Hall of Fame Class.
Interesting piece that includes some info not cited in other (good) obits. As a Vikings fan going back to the latter end of their Super Bowl era, I wonder if, had Marshall retired after 13-14 seasons, he'd not been a better HOF candidate. SB11 against the Raiders concluded his 17th NFL season. Realistically, playing into his late 30s to early 40s, Marshall was a below average player for maybe the latter third of his career. 5, 6, 7 seasons is not a small sample size. So despite my inherent bias, I can understand the case against him.
OTOH, I've read that Marshall was likely underrated for his play during his early seasons toiling for the expansion Vikings, and if the wrong-way run, as epic as it was, is truly the sole justification for some selectors not considering him, that's insane.
It's tough putting Marshall's career into context because so much of it comes down to intangibles. Bud Grant, the Vikings HOF coach, was truly in awe of him. There's comments about that in this Missing Rings video, as well as comments from Marshall himself. He may not have liked talking after games, but Jim Marshall is great to listen to here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UMVy0-ZjPc
Enjoy your coverage, Frank. Thanks for writing this.