Roger Craig

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This article is about the football player. For the baseball pitcher, coach and manager, see: Roger Craig (baseball).

Roger Craig
Date of birth	July 10, 1960 (age 46)
Place of birth	Davenport, Iowa
Position(s)	Running back, Fullback
College	Nebraska
NFL Draft	1983 / Round 2/ Pick 49
Career Highlights
Pro Bowls	4
Awards	1988 AP Offensive Player of the Year 1988 UPI NFC Offensive Player of the Year
Honors	NFL 1980s All-Decade Team
Stats
Statistics	Pro Football Reference DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1983-1990 1991 1992-1993	San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Raiders Minnesota Vikings

Roger Craig (born July 10, 1960 in Davenport, Iowa) is a former NFL running back who won three Super Bowls (1985, 1989, 1990) while playing with the San Francisco 49ers with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.

[edit] Pro Football career

Drafted in the second round of the 1983 NFL draft from University of Nebraska, where he once held the record for longest run from scrimmage (94 yards, set during a 1981 game against Florida State University).

In his rookie year, he scored a combined 12 touchdowns rushing and receiving, as the 49ers reached the NFC Championship game that year.

On January 20, 1985, in Super Bowl XIX, Craig rushed for 58 yards, caught 7 passes for 77 yards, and became the first player ever to score three touchdowns in a Super Bowl during the 49ers' 38–16 victory over the Miami Dolphins.

In 1988, Craig was named NFL Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press. He went on to assist the 49ers to Super Bowl XXIII by amassing 262 combined rushing and receiving yards and 2 touchdowns in their 2 playoff games. In the 49ers' 20-16 win over Cincinnati in that Super Bowl, he rushed for 71 yards and caught 8 passes for 101 yards.

In the 1989 season, the 49ers advanced to the Super Bowl for the second year in a row, aided by Craig's 1,527 combined rushing/receiving yards and 7 touchdowns in the season, along with his 240 combined rushing/receiving yards and 2 touchdowns in their 2 playoff games. In San Francisco's 55-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV, Craig rushed for 69 yards, caught 5 passes for 34 yards, and scored a touchdown.

The San Francisco 49ers were 14–2 in the following regular season on their quest to become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls. In the NFC Championship Game (his last as a 49er), Craig fumbled late in the fourth quarter while his team was trying to hold on to a 13-12 lead over the New York Giants. The Giants recovered the ball and scored on a last-second field goal, winning the game 15–13.

Craig would play one season with the Los Angeles Raiders and two with the Minnesota Vikings before he retired after the 1993 season. When he retired, Craig had appeared in the NFL Playoffs every year of his professional career, and had made the Pro Bowl four times (1985, 1987-1989).

[edit] Honors

He was the first running back to gain more than 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in the same season (1985). Since then, only one other running back has achieved the same feat (Marshall Faulk in 1999). Craig also caught a then-record 92 passes in the 1985 campaign. In 1988, Craig set a then-franchise record 1,502 yards rushing (Garrison Hearst broke the record with 1,570 yards in 1998). The 1988 season was the second time Craig broke the 2,000 combined yardage mark in his career.

Craig finished his eleven NFL seasons with 8,189 rushing yards, 566 receptions for 4,911 receiving yards, and three kickoff returns for 43 yards. Overall, he amassed 13,143 total yards and scored 73 touchdowns (56 rushing and 17 receiving).

As of today, Roger Craig remains the only running back to lead the NFL in receptions for a single season, and the only one ever to record over 100 receiving yards in a Super Bowl.

in 1993, Peter King (in Inside the Helmet) reported that Craig was the only running back to be elected to the Pro Bowl at both fullback and halfback.

National Football League | NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team