Oakland Raiders: Top Ten Running Backs In Team History
No. 9: Napoleon Kaufman
Al Davis brought Napoleon Kaufman on board as a small, strong, fast, freak athlete as Kaufman was only 5’9″, 185 pounds. But Kaufman was a spark plug as he was fast enough to run a 4.3 40 and strong enough to bench press 500 pounds.
He was also a jitterbug as he regularly made defenders look stupid while making them miss but still had power to break tackles.
Why he made the list
Kaufman was a regular on SportsCenter with his long, breakaway runs to showcase that speed he had. He should be higher, but the Lord came calling for him to preach and he stopped playing after six years at No. 4 on the Raiders’ all-time rushing list.
Kaufman also averaged an outstanding 4.9 yards per carry and he’s tied for fourth in postseason touchdowns.
Why he’s not higher
He quit too soon, as he would have been on the team that lost the “Tuck Rule” game at the end of the 2001 season. He may have changed that game and the Raiders’ blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl to end 2002.
He also didn’t have an impact on a team that won something and didn’t make a single Pro Bowl in his career.