Greatest RB Of All Time?

Originally posted by tondiman:

Originally posted by BobS:
With Sanders there were a lot of "How did he do that?" moments, where you had to watch the replay to see how he got away from 4 guys who had him surrounded. With Jim Brown it was no mystery, he just ran over them, with such a huge physical edge with an unreal combination of size and speed for his day he really didn't need to develop any vision or moves. Barry Sanders would be just as effective playing in any era, Jim Brown would not. Jim Brown was the only 4.5 forty 230 pounder on the field in his day, now he would have company, still would be a great back, but no way he averages 5.2 per carry if he played today.

good point. Barry put the shake n bake in the NFL

Not really because he'd be on the same peds that all the other players are on. Barry was great, but Brown was greater. Even Sanders dad agrees.

Originally posted by Memphis9er:

Originally posted by tondiman:

Originally posted by BobS:
With Sanders there were a lot of "How did he do that?" moments, where you had to watch the replay to see how he got away from 4 guys who had him surrounded. With Jim Brown it was no mystery, he just ran over them, with such a huge physical edge with an unreal combination of size and speed for his day he really didn't need to develop any vision or moves. Barry Sanders would be just as effective playing in any era, Jim Brown would not. Jim Brown was the only 4.5 forty 230 pounder on the field in his day, now he would have company, still would be a great back, but no way he averages 5.2 per carry if he played today.

good point. Barry put the shake n bake in the NFL

Not really because he'd be on the same peds that all the other players are on. Barry was great, but Brown was greater. Even Sanders dad agrees.

Uh, all due respect to the late Mr. Sanders, but having a kid who was arguably the greatest RB ever didn't make him an infallible expert. As I've said, Jim Brown would've been great in any era, but it's crazy to think he would have dominated today in the same way he did back when he played. He played in an era where he was bigger, stronger, and faster than nearly every other player on the field, i.e. he was a freak. Not so today.

Jim Brown played in an era where many players had to take real jobs in the offseason to make ends meet...with the money now, they train year-round honing their craft. He played when O-linemen, usually the biggest people on the field, weren't much more than 250-lbs, with DL and LBs being even smaller, and they didn't have too many safeties who can run & hit like many do today. His era was before the advent of hardcore weight training, specialized strength & conditioning, steroids/PEDs...and the D-Line rotations used so heavily today to keep guys fresh. He wouldn't have been able to just run people over as consistently as he was able to then. Again, he was great, no doubt would've been an All-Pro player today, probably even HOF, but do not think he would've been better than Barry Sanders.

Take emitt smith off of this list. ANYONE could have ran behind that line. He also had good receivers who were able to take the pressure off of him.

Eric Dickerson who ranked dead last should be VERY high on this list. He alone was the offense, and everyone on the defense knew it so they keyed on him. Yet he still got amazing yardage. Same thing goes for Barry Sanders, who ranked #1 according to this poll.

Barry

Barry Sanders hands down.I've never seen anyone do things like that ....ever.

Emmit had the heaviest oline known to man ...and was a phahggot.

Dickerson was Petersons' illegitimate dad.

Bo was roided to the max.

Jim Brown played against white dudes like Derek Smith.

Sweetness takes second but most have him 1st.

I chose Barry because of the wow factor.
Damn shame he quit too early

Barry Sanders' dad never gave him enough credit .
I guess that is what. drove him to be so great.

Sanders. Ive never seen that kind of running reproduced and have the same or as much success.

Yeah gotta say Barry Sanders..he did all that with one of the poorest run football organizations ,,

bo played long enough to show he was a man among boys.
sanders is clearly 2nd and ahead of 3rd by a lot, but bo was a once-in-a-century athlete who demonstrated it for all to see, if you bothered to look. bo wins by a mile.

Originally posted by xcfan:
bo played long enough to show he was a man among boys.
sanders is clearly 2nd and ahead of 3rd by a lot, but bo was a once-in-a-century athlete who demonstrated it for all to see, if you bothered to look. bo wins by a mile.

No way, his NFL career was 4 seasons 38 games averaging a little over 70 yards a game. He did have a high career YPC of 5.4. No way you can call someone greatest of all time playing the equivalent of about 2 1/2 seasons. He was an amazing athlete while his body held up.

Bo or Dickerson.They're 1a and 1b.

My pick was Barry Sanders. And it's not even close. Amazing to watch, put him behind the Cowboys line of that Era and he'd have shattered every rushing record ever. Was and will always be my favorite non-49er of all time.

The different generation things makes this a very tough call.

I saw Jim Brown play [not in person - on TV] He was fast and he would be gang tackled and often still break away an/or get good yards. The RULES were also different which weren't in his favor.

Gayle Sayers was my favorite but injuries removes his name from the list. No "but if he wasn't injured" crap

Then Barry Sanders seems to rise to the top.

It isn't a statistic BUT Walter Payton ran behind one of the worst NFL lines ever in his early years. But that still doesn't get put into the evaluation.

In the end Barry is the man. He also was one of the classiest guys in game.

Originally posted by xcfan:
bo played long enough to show he was a man among boys.
sanders is clearly 2nd and ahead of 3rd by a lot, but bo was a once-in-a-century athlete who demonstrated it for all to see, if you bothered to look. bo wins by a mile.

Bo Jackson #1? No way...he was obviously a phenomenal athlete whose career was cut short by injury, but he had a small handful of very good to great games, but the majority were average. His legend was built largely on his game for the ages in his rookie season vs Seahawks where he ran into the tunnel and then later in the game he trucked Bosworth...if it wouldn't have happened on MNF there's no way he gets so much run in these "all-time" lists. He definitely had potential to be a HOF-type player, but to put him ahead of guys who actually did it, like Dorsett, Thurman Thomas, Marcus Allen, Marshall Faulk--let alone Sanders and Payton--is ridiculous.

Travis Jervey