NBCSports.com chose the top 5 best NFL running backs in history. If you think we got it wrong, then tell us! You can send in your own top 5 and tell us who should have made the list!
Who is the best NFL running back of all time?
Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:00 PM EDT
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I would agree with Gale Sayers being slighted, their are so many and they all have such different running styles, I would think top ten would be equally as difficult to define.
Absolutely on Sayers but way too many old time players are ignored in polls like this. Too many recent players with 16 games a year get consideration. Bottom line is Emmitt was awesome but is way overrated in this context. Certainly a top 20; maybe top 10. It's not how many yards you got but how you got them. Brown, Sanders, and Payton had crappy offensive lines most of thier career (Payton even played QB!) and are hard to pick between who was truely better. That said I tip my hat to Brown with only playing 12 games a year.
Earl Campbell was run into the ground by being used too much by his coaches. His speed and power was something to watch in his prime!
1. Jim Brown, 2. Barry Sanders, 3. Gayle Sayers, 4. Emmet Smith, 5. Eric Dickerson. I grew up in Cleveland and saw Jim Brown play what grace, what a style. It seems like he never used his hand to get up just his elbows. Both Jim And Barry retired with at their peaks. Gayle Sayers had the moves. Emmet Smith had a team around him. All were fine running backs. Oh then add L.T. because he's still active.
Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, O.J. Simpson, and Emmit Smith
No Barry Sanders?? You have to be kidding? Brown is without peer or doubt. Payton is another easy one. O.J. is a loathsome creature, but was one of the top five. Smith gets in ahead of Sayers based on Sayers short career. Brown, Sanders, Payton, Simpson, Smith.
Jim Brown - Barry Sanders - Sweetness - LT - Simpson. I think Barry would have had 20,000 yards rushing if he had played a few more years. Brown played in a different era but was a hard runner, hard to tackle, and just kept coming. Sweetness was well just sweet to watch. LT like Barry has had to make do with a sub par O-line but still gets it done. OJ might have been and still is an ass but he was also something to watch. I did not include Emmitt because he had an all world line that even one of the Dallas Cheerleaders could have run behind for massive yards.
Gayle Sayers was simply poetry in motion and deserves to be on the list. I hate to say it, but O.J. should also be in the top 5. His consistent stellar performances qualify him.
You left out some important facts! The NFL season was only 12 games for most of Jim Brown's nine seasons! All of the runners who rushed for more yards than Brown had 16 game seasons! Young people don't realize that the season was shorter back then.
barry sanders hands down. the guy lost yards to gain yards, throughout his career the offensive line he was running behind was never any good compared to all the other running backs regardless of the length of games in a season here and there. imagine as your being handed the ball off, 7 of the 11 defenders are already 3 ft. away from you like killa bees.
OJ was still one of the best running backs despite what he did. Don't forget he rushed for 2000 yards in 14 games. Don't thnk Emmit should be on this list(Had tremendous offensive line). What about Eric Dikerson; he was always a threat to go all the way.
Bo Jackson could have been right there if he didn't get hurt. He had it all
Earl Campbell was a terrific runner and far better than Emmit Smith. Are the people that write these columns older than 30?
There is no doubt that Jim Brown was the greatest running back ever..however how can you put Barry Sanders over Walter Payton and not mention O.J. Simpson. Sanders spent his entire career on astoturf, almost never playing in bad weather at best he's 4th on this list. O.J. Simpson could be argued as the best of all of them. Despite his personal problems, don't let that allow you to forget what he did while playing. He was the first to hit 2k and that was a 14 game season with fewer teams. He also holds the single season ypg avg at 143.1 and averaged 1540 for 5 years straight. Bad form not to include O.J. Simpson. Sweetness was well, Sweetness. Payton was from 1975-1982 on some horrible Bears teams, and while he was one of the best groups of the 80's from 82-87, he was at the end of his career. Payton rushed for 16726 yards AND caught 492 passes for 4538 and 15 TD's. And lets not forget, anyon know how many games Payton missed from 1975-1987...anyone, anyone? 1 in 13 years. An amazing acheivement. Try having more experienced people review these lists before rolling them out.
It took Payton 13 years to break a rushing record that Brown set in 9 years! Nuff Said!
Tom - You're not listening: Payton ran behind the worst blocking line in the league for the first 5 years of his career. He did it all on his own. NO-ONE disputes the poverty of blocking he suffered.
Emmit Smith and LT were durable and had longevity and played on good, great teams (O Lines), but they aren't in the class of OJ, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell to name three. If they had somehow been on the same team with any of those guys, they would have had to be a backup or go to another team to play. Tape don't lie.
All of the players mentioned are in the modern period of high-powered, high speed offensive systems that favor the offense, and in the period of free substitution. If it is athletic ability you're measuring, consider the backs of old that played in grind-it-out offenses, minimal protective gear or protective rules, and played 60 minutes on offense and defense, and remain legends to this day. Consider Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, Jim Thorpe to go way back, and later in the thirties and forties, dozens of backs who, in the context of their times, were truly great. And they were paid nickels and dimes, kept out of trouble, stayed out of jail, and were a credit to their sport. And I don't remember any asinine victory dance in those days
Your right eurigo09...the tape doesn't lie. And everytime I see the tape, I see Emmitt running, running, running. You say he had a team around him, but anyone that watched the Cowboys knows that the running game made the team...and Emmitt WAS the running game.
You make NO sense. Emmitt set state high school rushing records in Florida, then set more rushing records at Florida U in only 3 years (records that took 4 years to break). After all that...he OWNS all the major NFL rushing records (Yards, TD's, Carries), won multiple rushing titles, and an MVP. Oh yeah...he has 3 rings as well.
Backup...I don't think so. Doubt me...then watch the season finale against the Giants after the '92 season. One of the greatest performances in NFL history!!! Yes, he was durable...don't count that against him though...he endured in the single most difficult position to endure in...NFL running back...average shelf life of 4 years!!!
The numbers never lie... #1 All-Time
Emmit probably had one of the best offensive lines ever. So no Emmit wasnt the running game in Dallas he was lucky to have that talent blocking for him.... Walter never had that kind of line..... he made most of his own holes. Emmit ran through holes a truck could fit through....
Florida U? You mean...UF...the University of Florida.
How about some of the old timers. Most of you don't remember. How about Steve Van Buren, Bill Dudley, Eddie Price. They ran when 1000 yards per season was special.
I can't beleive you didn't have Eric Dickerson on the list. 2105 yards in a single season, Had he stayed healthy he would have owned all the records. No back has ever been so big and powerful as he was, not taking anthing away from the other backs, but Dickerson in his prime was the best hands down. NO he doesn't have a superbowl ring, and Payton and Smith do, but the stats don't lie. No back has ever had a better single season that Dickerson, and that is fact.
emmitt couldn't hold barry's jock strap. the only reason he was so durable is the line he had. barry was basically a one-man team. my boy, big P and i have been having the emmitt vs. barry debate for years and he hollers the same mess some of you holler "emmitt has all the records" he stuck around padding his stats. if he had played for the lowly lions and barry had his offensive line, this would not even be a discussion because with emmitts running style, he would have long been knocked out of the game due to injuries. if barry had his line, though, he might have had the game's first 3,000,000 yard season...(that's right, three million!!)
LeftWingLiberal, I like your name, but your reasoning is flawed. Emmitt may have had the better O line than Barry, but it shouldn't be taken from Smith his greatness. Mr. Ford is a lousy owner who can't find the right people to coach his team. That ain't Emmitt's fault. It takes a special player to play in the NFL. Emmitt's earned his stripes. Next thing people will do will say Barry would've had the rushing record if he had stayed a little longer. Oops! They are? Well, once again, THAT ain't Emmitt's fault, either. Barry got tired of being taken for granted (and he earned that right), and he just decided he had enough. He went out on his own terms. Yeah, Emmitt probably padded his stats, but it's also possible he just liked playing the game. At least HE got out instead of Farve, who'll be with another team next year in his quest to play for every NFL team before he finally retires...
1- Jim Brown 2- Jim Brown 3- Jim Brown 4- Jim Brown 5- Gayle Sayers ... then everybody else. Brown would have killed any of the others and Sayers was a gazelle on speed who made Barry Sanders look like petrified wood. Look at the tapes.