Not His Forte

No self-promoter, Matt Forte's game can no longer remain hidden.

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Forte has officially emerged.

Seven minutes into the second quarter of their recent loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago Bears offense suggested they were wholly committed to running the ball. On three consecutive downs Chicago's rookie running back Matt Forte slammed into the teeth of the Minnesota defensive line. Each time he was stopped at the line of scrimmage. On the final carry, he was body slammed to the Metrodome turf by a collective of Vikings linemen.

It was a fitting sequence of plays. Just two years removed from the Super Bowl, the 6-6 Bears are still struggling to define themselves. But the rookie back who carries the rock, and for all intents and purposes, a fair portion the team's future, is ahead of the curve even if the results don't always bear it out.

Forte plays for a team that has tried, largely unsuccessfully, to replace the irreplaceable, especially at the running back position. Since the late, great Walter Payton last high-stepped it out of Soldier Field, the Chicago Bears have handed the rock to Neal Anderson, Rashan Salaam, Anthony Thomas, Curtis Enis, Thomas Jones, and prior to Forte, the too-forgettable Cedric Benson. There has been marginal success, at least if success is measured by stats. But none has, nor will anyone ever replace Sweetness.

Matt Forte hears the comparisons. It's hard not to. "People will always compare you to other players," says Forte. "When I was in high school people were comparing me to Deuce Mcallister. I was flattered by that because he's a great player. But one day I hope that other players will be compared to me."

A thousand yards into his first season, there's evidence that will be the case.

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Forte keeps a low profile, but others are starting to sing his praises.

Later in the Minnesota game, about nine minutes into the third quarter, the Bears made it to the goal line. This time Forte was split wide as a receiver where he was fronted by Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway. On the snap, Forte ran a fade, but the ball was thrown purposely behind him, where only he could catch it. Like a seasoned receiver with superb feel, Forte adjusted his body, twisting his torso toward the sideline to gently cradle the ball for the score. The play was significant for two reasons. The first being that this was probably the final time we'll see Forte covered by a linebacker, and second: even as an accomplished a receiver and complete player, not even Walter Payton did such things.

Forte isn't all that concerned with living up to a legend. Since his youth in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he has toiled inconspicuously in shadows of varying size. Like every other guy who plays on Sunday, Forte was the star of his high school team. But he wasn't known outside the New Orleans area. Few colleges came calling. He had scholarship offers from McNeese Sate, a small, former I-AA school in Lake Charles, and Tulane. Forte chose Tulane, where his father Gene had once played. Asked if that made it hard to establish his own identity, Forte was ambivalent. "No," he says, "My father was a team captain like I was, so I just thought it was cool to play there."

But Forte plays in a time when garish self-promotion, especially for commercially-viable athletes, is slightly less important than breathing. The inherent danger of being a quiet, private person is that you may be perceived as someone who hides things. Yet the threat of having others define him doesn't seem to faze Forte. In response, he offers another cliche: "You just have to play well enough to establish a name for yourself."

Greg Davis Jr., Tulane's running back coach, also understands legacy. His Dad coached at Tulane, and his since become the offensive coordinator at Texas. If Davis passed on anything to his prized student, it was an unmovable sense of self, even in the face of history. "After the Bears drafted him, I told him, 'You can acknowledge Gayle Sayers, and Brian Piccolo, and Walter Payton," says Davis. "Its an honor to play in the same city, and wear the same uniform as they did. But in the end you have to be Matt Forte.'"

But that question still lingers. Who is Matt Forte, both personally, and in the context of Bears running backs? The first question, says Tulane Head coach Bob Toledo, is an easy one. "Matt Forte is the guy you want your son to be like and your daughter to marry."

"Matt Forte is the guy you want your son to be like and your daughter to marry."

Simple enough.

The second question is more complicated. Being a great running back is often a question of longevity, which leads to the question of how a running back stays healthy. Toledo insists that this too is a simple answer. "He has great vision," says Toledo. "I mean, he carried the ball 40 times a game for us but he never took a lot of hits. And that's because he sees everything."

That awareness was in full affect in the fourth quarter of a Week 2 game against the Carolina Panthers. Forte was trailing the left guard when a Panthers defensive lineman knifed through and cut off the hole. But before the defender got into position to make a tackle, Forte bent it back and made it around the right corner and down the sideline before being run out of bounds. It was done in the seamless motion of someone carried purely by instinct.

As part of coaching staffs at USC, UCLA, Oregon and Texas A&M, Toledo's point of reference is extensive. So when he speaks in superlatives, as he often does when the topic is Matt Forte, there's reason to ponder the words. "The first time I saw him I knew he was special," says Toledo. "I was at USC with Marcus Allen and Charles White. And I coached De Shaun Foster at UCLA. Matt Forte is in a class with all of them."

And you can force Matt Forte to acknowledge it, but only for a moment. Did he think Payton, I ask, when Chicago called?

"Of course I thought about it," he says. "But you know, I was just happy to get drafted."

Alan Grant played in the NFL for five years, and is a regular controbutor to the Magazine. Read more.

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