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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Terrel Davis over 2000 yds in 1 season, 2 SUPERBOWLS BACK TO BACK. COME ON NOW BE SERIOUS WHAT OTHER BACK CAN SAY THAT? if healthy he would have racked up many more yards.
LT IS JUST A WHINER, THE OTHERS ON YOUR LIST ARE WORTHY.
Smith didn't get the 2000 yards (not that he needed to), but he DID help his team win 3 in 4 years (and if Jones didn't fall to his already-huge ego and fire Johnson, Smith would've won 4 SB's in a row).
If any of you who read these post can describe with you glorious sintax what Barry Sanders did on the field then you already own the Nobel Prize Literature 'cause we ain't heard it yet. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best is Jim Brown without a doubt. Teams stacked defense to stop him just about every down and he still averaged 5.2 yds per carry. Like to see list include Campbell who I thought was unstoppable in his prime and Sayers who was just beautiful to watch. OJ and Payton complete the top 5.
If you're at the goal line to win the game, who do you give the ball to? The only answer is Jim Brown with Earl Campbell as his backup. 5.2 yds per carry by Brown. Only stat needed. Other picks are Payton, OJ, and Sayers.
OJ, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders and Walter Payton and should be on this list with Jim Brown number one and all the rest in a toss up..
I feel that Gale Sayers and OJ,( football talent only), should be on the list. Earl Campbell should also be included. There will continue to be difficulty determining the all time top 5 in any category in any sport, although in this case, Jim Brown is and always should be the all time number running back
1. Jim Brown
2. Barry Sanders
3. Gale Sayers
4. O.J. Simpson
5. Eric Dickerson
The 2000 club
Only 5 players in the history of the NFL have rushed for over 2000 yards in a season; Eric Dickerson, Jamal Lewis, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis, and OJ Simpson.
BTW, when hash marks were wider only 2 men ran for 1000 yards a season, Jim Brown and Jim Taylor.
spytheweb - So, how did you manage to watch so much ball, and never catch a glimpse of a guy named Walter Payton? One day, go to Netflix and pick up a Walter Payton highlight reel. Your mouth will hang open for a while. Unless you watched Payton get hit 3 times in the backfield (because his blockers sucked more than anyone else on your list by a factor of 10) and spin on a dime, defy gravity for a second, then reverse field for a 20 yard gain, you just haven't seen football. I'll match your Barry "Best blockers a Texan can buy" Sanders highlight reel against my Sweetness highlights any day.
O.J. definitely deserves to be in the top 5, as does Sayers. And if Bo Jackson had stayed healthy he would have made #1.
Barry.
The O-Line was so bad, Barry lost yardage on a ridiculous number of plays. His career ypc is still 5.0! Everytime he touched the ball, he was a threat to break one. I don't know how many times he would get tackled for a loss, and I'd shake my head and say "damn, that was one of the best runs I've ever seen"...
Class act, too...toss the ball to the ref after scoring, "act like you've been there before". Also, read a story that the last game of his rookie season, a publicist ran down to the field to inform Barry and Coach Wayne Fontes that Barry only needed 3 yards to finish the season as NFL leading rusher. As the Lions were winning big, Fontes tried to put Barry in for one play, Barry just took his shoes off and said "Coach, it's not that big a deal, as long as we win"...Okoye won the rushing title, but the Lions won that game.
Jim Brown played before they moved the hash marks. !00 yards was rare before that
Ya might not like O.J., but if you purport to know football, how could you possibly not have him on your list? BTW I think below #3 is crap shoot with so many great ones who should get honorable mention (Emmitt, Sayers, Campbell, L.T. etc.) it's a matter fan favorite issue from there.
Walter Payton, Hands down. Look at what he played with early in his career. He had no QB, no front line, no receivers. And what about the coaching staff. Let's see, Abe (time to eat more chicken) Gibron, Jack pardee, Neil Armstrong. And his Quarterbacks, Bob (I can't throw to save my life) Avelini, Mike Phipps. He didn't have a supporting cast till Ditka. At least Finks had the you know what to draft McManhon, Roland Harper, Matt Suey. Plus all those years he played on artificial turff in the middle of winter. So yes, Emit was flashier, but his heart and desire doesn't come close to SWEETNESS.
All Great Running Backs - really hard to pick the one greatest because of the different conditions under which they played (# games per season; type of fields; quality of team, etc.) So, if statistics alone don't quantity and qualify, then its sort of why horses race (difference of opinion). If on statistics alone, then no question - eighteen thousand yards and one hundred sixty-four touchdowns, no matter how many seasons and games or quality of team - stand alone for Emmit. If not on just statistics, then many subjectives can come into play - opinions, we all have. Not being astute on nor even following statistics, my favorite - whether considered No. 1 or not, has to be "Sweetness", Walter Payton. For his size and willing agressiveness as a runner he outstips all in pure "take it to 'em" performance. And, next as poetry in motion, Barry Sanders. All of the others are Great running backs, and if not based on statistics - then any one of them could be No. 1 in the eye of the beholder. And even the others also mentioned: Gayle Sayers, Earl Campbell (none of the others could have stood up as long, maybe not half as long, under the same punishment - not even Jim Brown, Great in his own right in his time); Jim Taylor, Bo Jackson (so promising, cut so short by injury); and even Franco Harris. OJ - dispicable, but a great running back nevertheless. Marcus Allen, always a contender. So, I rejoice in and respect all of their amazing running back accomplishments. And, let the horses race - its all about entertainment anyway.
O.J. Before I knew anything about the game I was watching O.J. follow his half back threw the line on T.V. in black and white. It wasn't pretty. He was beaten and crushed and smothered every play, but popped back up and did it again and again. The bills at times had no passing game.
Earl Campbell - You just could believe he was doing what he was doing. Your imagination would project the possibility, and this guy would actually do it. I remember tuning in to saturday playoff games just to watch the guy. And screaming to noone home when he'd do what he did. He would just carry the team up the field. Unstoppable. You would pity the opponant. He had the most explosive speed coming of the line. Bum Phillips' line cleared it out pretty good, but Campbell could move in a staight line for ten yards better than anyone you can imagine.
Marcus Allen - Best cerebral utility player. Do anything with confidence and success. My father, who still knows nothing about any sport, particularly pro football, summed it up pretty well. He turned on the super bowl one year and saw this: "There was a guy, and he was runnin', and he was all alone, and... HE HAD THE BALL!"
Larry Zonka - man oh man, when he'd get to motorin' his legs would look just like a whirlwind drawn on to the lower torso of a cartoon character chasin the roadrunner.
Walter Payton - except for a few brief Jim McMahon seasons, and even then, there wasn't much team around him.
These men were, of course, stronger earlier in their careers than later for the obvious reasons. And I forgot someone surely.
1. Barry Sanders 2. Jim Brown 3. Walter Peyton 4. Emmit Smith 5. Eric Dickerson
Sanders had the most spectacular talent of any runnning back ever. Gale Sayers was perhaps equally as gifted, but his career was truncated.
On December 31, 1994, Barry Sanders ran for -1 (yep, negative yardage) on 13 attempts in a playoff game against the Packers. In 6 playoff games, he only scored ONE touchdown, and he only managed to surpass 100 yards in one of his six playoff games.
When the pressure was its highest and the spotlight was at its brightest, Sanders just simply melted. He had a great career, but a series of highlight reel runs in the regular season does not make him one of the top 5 of all-time. In fact, posting negative yardage in a playoff game should be enough to exclude him from it.
Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Jim Taylor, even OJ Simpson, yes these were all exceptional men.
But they stood in the footprints of giants. Clarke Hinkle, Red Grange, Tony Canadeo. Paul Hornung scored more points per game than Mr. Tomlinson ever has (his single-season 1960 record was 176, in 12 games.)
JIM FRIGGIN THORPE, HELLO? Yeah, let's ignore the grandpappy of them all, shall we? I can go on, Johnny "Blood" McNally, Curley Lambeau, Bronko Nigurski, Don "The Alabama Antelope" Hutson? George "Papa Bear" Halas?
Please, for the love of god, do some research before you post another "top 5 all time" list. "All Time" is not circumscribed by your own viewing lifespan.
I played 8 years in the NFL in the 1980's......Jim Brown is the baddest ass who ever SUITED UP.... PERIOD- IN THE ENTIRE GAME... NO QUESTION!!!!!
I played 8 years in the NFL... 3 with Dickerson (ungodly)..against Payton and Campbell...both tough as nails.... JIM BROWN...was the baddest ass to ever suit up in the game period!!!!
sorry for the double post ... didn't think the 1st made it