Matt Forte
Matthew Garrett Forte is an American former professional football player who was a running back for ten seasons in the National Football League. He played college football for the Tulane Green Wave and was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the second round of the 2008 NFL draft. Forte established himself as a dual-threat running back capable of earning yards as a rusher and receiver. He is one of only three players to record at least 1,000 rushing yards and 100 receptions in a single season. Forte spent eight seasons with the Bears before playing for the New York Jets for two seasons.
Early life
Forte grew up in Slidell, Louisiana, and graduated from Slidell High School in 2004, where he was a letterman in football and track & field. As a junior, he rushed for 1,057 rushing yards with eight rushing touchdowns, and caught 30 passes for 365 yards and three receiving touchdowns. As a senior, he was named the St. Tammany Parish Player of the Year, District 5-5A Offensive MVP and received All-Metro selection accolades, as he gained 1,375 yards with 23 touchdowns and caught 18 passes for 253 yards and two receiving touchdowns. He totaled 2,432 rushing yards and 31 rushing touchdowns in his career, while also catching 48 passes for 618 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns.As a standout sprinter, Forte competed in track and had some of the better 100m and 200m times in the New Orleans area in 2003, with personal-bests of 10.68 seconds in the 100 meters and 22.10 seconds in the 200 meters.
College career
Forte played NCAA Division I college football at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, a member of Conference USA. He played from 2004 to 2006 under head coach Chris Scelfo and in 2007 under Bob Toledo.2004 season
As a freshman, Forte split a bulk of the carries with junior Jovon Jackson. On October 23, against UAB, he scored his first collegiate touchdown on a six-yard rush in the 59–55 victory. His major breakout game came against Army on November 13. In the 45–31 victory, he totaled 34 carries for 216 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns to go along with three receptions for 67 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown. He had 624 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns to go along with 20 receptions for 180 yards and two receiving touchdowns during Tulane's 5–6 season.2005 season
As a sophomore, Forte continued to share the backfield with Jovon Jackson. However, Forte got a majority of the carries for the season. He crossed the 100-yard rushing mark once in 2005, against Southern Miss on November 26. Overall, he had 169 carries for 655 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns to go along with 23 receptions for 163 yards and one receiving touchdown during Tulane's tumultuous 2–9 season, which saw the Green Wave forced to play all of their games on the road and at neutral sites due to Hurricane Katrina.2006 season
Forte started his junior season in the lead role in the backfield. He got a majority of the carries, sharing the bulk of the total rushing attack with Ray Boudreaux and Ade Tuyo after going down to injury in early November. In the Green Wave's second game of the season, he had 29 carries for 170 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in a victory over Mississippi State. Starting on October 7 against Rice, Forte totaled four consecutive games going over the 100-rushing yard mark. He scored six total touchdowns in the span, which had victories over Rice and Army but losses to UTEP and Auburn. His junior year was cut short when he suffered an injury in the game against Marshall on November 4. He finished his junior season with 859 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns to go along with 28 receptions for 360 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns during Tulane's 4–8 season.2007 season
Forte returned from his injury to have a standout season under new head coach Bob Toledo. He got a wide majority of the Green Wave offense's total carries in their 4–8 season. Forte set several Tulane school records, including rushing for 2,127 rushing yards and 23 rushing touchdowns. He had five games with at least 200 rushing yards games, two games with at least 300 rushing yards games, and three games with at least four rushing touchdowns during the 2007 season. He finished second in the NCAA in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in 2007, trailing only Kevin Smith of Central Florida. Forte was the only BCS non-AQ conference athlete to be a semifinalist for both the Maxwell and Doak Walker Awards and to make the Walter Camp Player of the Year List, and one of just three players nationally to be named to all three lists.Forte garnered the most attention at the 2008 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, and walked away with the Overall MVP award. He led with 59 yards rushing on eight carries; four receptions for 38 yards and a tackle on special teams.
College statistics
Awards and honors
- Conference USA All-Freshman
- 2× All-Conference USA
- Third-team AP All-American
- Doak Walker Award semifinalist
- Maxwell Award semifinalist
- Senior Bowl MVP
Professional career
Chicago Bears
2008 season
The Chicago Bears selected Forte in the second round of the 2008 NFL draft as the 44th overall selection, the sixth running back taken that year. He was originally drafted to compete with Cedric Benson for the team's starting running back position. However, Benson was released from the Bears after legal complications, and Forte out-competed Adrian Peterson and second-year running back Garrett Wolfe and started all 16 games. In the regular season debut on September 7, 2008, against the Indianapolis Colts, he carried the ball 23 times for 123 yards and scored his first career touchdown on a 50-yard run en route to a 29–13 victory over the Colts.File:BearsPanthers.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Forte takes a handoff from Kyle Orton while playing against the Carolina Panthers in September 2008
He had two more 100+ yard rushing games on the season, once against the Detroit Lions and the other against the St. Louis Rams. In Week 13, against the Minnesota Vikings, he became the first Bears rookie to rush for over 1,000 yards since Anthony Thomas in 2001. At the time, he finished with franchise rookie records of 316 carries for 1,238 rushing yards. His 1,715 yards from scrimmage was third in the NFL, and broke Hall of Famer Gale Sayers's team record of 1,374 in 1965. Forte led all rookie running backs in total yards and receptions, those 61 receptions also breaking Mike Ditka's 1961 franchise rookie record. He received one vote for the National Football League Rookie of the Year Award, finishing behind Ryan Clady, Chris Johnson, and Matt Ryan.
2009 season
Forte recorded 150 total rushing yards over the first three games of the season before his first big game in Week 4 against the Detroit Lions, during which he rushed 12 times for 121 yards and scored his first touchdown.He averaged 50.6 yards per game over the next 11 games with three rushing touchdowns, before a 101-yard finale in the second divisional game against the Detroit Lions in Week 17. He finished the 2009 season with 258 carries for 929 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns to go along with 57 receptions for 471 receiving yards. Despite the decrease in production, Forte dominated the carries in the Bears' backfield for the 2009 season, recording over 200 more attempts than Kahlil Bell.
2010 season
In the regular season opener, Forte had a career-best 151 receiving yards including two receiving touchdowns, one for 89 yards and one for 28 yards, that put the Bears ahead late in the fourth quarter. In addition, he had 17 carries for 50 yards to give him his first game going over 200 scrimmage yards. He was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for that performance in the 19–14 victory. In Week 5 against the Carolina Panthers, Forte had touchdown runs of 18 and 68 yards, the latter a career long, on the way to 166 total rushing yards on the day in the 23–6 victory. Forte was named FedEx Ground Player of the Week for this week. In Week 11 at the Miami Dolphins, the season's first Thursday Night Football game, Forte rushed for 97 yards on 25 carries and scored the game's only touchdown on a two-yard run in the fourth quarter as the Bears shutout the Dolphins, 16–0. Over the last seven games of the season, Forte had at least 90 rushing yards in five of them. His 1,616 yards from scrimmage ranked tenth in the NFL.The Chicago Bears finished with an 11–5 record and made the playoffs. In the Divisional Round, Forte recorded 80 yards rushing and 54 yards receiving in a victory over the Seattle Seahawks. In the next round, he became the only player in Bears post-season history with at least ten receptions in the 21–14 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship.