As I heard on a NFL show, at this point personal preference determines who a person picks as the best running back. Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith, and even Barry Sanders can all be disputed as the best, and there isn't really a for sure answer. In fact, I can't really pick. I lean towards Emmitt since he's got most rushing TD's, most rushes, most rushing yds, and I believe most consecutive 1,000 yd seasons. ( He may be tied with Barry. I can't remember. He is projected to get a 1000yds this season, though.) I also lean towards him since I've seen very little of Brown and Payton, unfortunately. I remember seeing some of a Sportscentury on Payton, but it was no where near enough. Basically, I'm trying to say the best running back ever can be disputed all night long and still not have an answer.
The hardest part about picking the best RB of all time is that so many RB's careers are cut short. It's a really tough position. Terrell Davis, Gale Sayers, Earl Campbell, and others could be "the best ever" if their careers lasted longer. Some say that if Campbell had the same O-line the Oilers had in the late 80's - early 90's (Mathews, Munchak, Steinkueler), he could have destroyed the single season rushing record.
Certainly if we didn't run the chuck and duck. I am a huge Emmitt and Cowboy fan but would not say he is the best running back ever. I would say Jim Brown is the clear cut best. 2nd is debatable, I would probably go with Payton. At the same time, I don't think Payton in his prime could dominate a game the way Earl could, or maybe even the really brief period of Sayers or Bo Jackson. If Bo had stuck to football and didn't have the freak hip killing injury--no telling where he would have ended up but maybe up there with Brown. Emmitt, OJ, Earl, Barry, Dickerson--maybe some others too--all have pretty good cases after Brown and Payton IMO. I mainly took exception with anyone questioning whether Emmitt is the rightful owner of the rushing record, we were not talking about Franco Harris or some puss like that.
here's what i wrote on 9/10/02: by and large, i've gotten into the games and i've really enjoyed watching the progression of david carr from week to week. this may sound somewhat self-serving, but i've been on his bandwagon since about january, refuting all the "you can't draft a qb in the first round because they always bust" and "joey harrington's better" rhetoric. so to see him deliver has been extremely satisfying. he's been almost perfect the last three weeks, and good god, can he throw a pass... still, it's just a weird, strange experience, rooting for an expansion team. i find it difficult to sit back and be OK with a team losing 12 or 13 games; i'm supposed to, of course, because they're new, and i understand all that, but i'm also competitive and i really didn't wait six years for this, only to wait another three. so it's been a difficult transition. but i watch every sunday, and i'm certainly into the games.
thanks for your response...i'm with you on the david carr development thing...so fun to see that guy progress...and it's fun because this team really seems to play like a team...they seem to enjoy playing together and they take a great deal of pride in this new franchise. i'm with you in that it's weird to be "ok" with them losing as long as they develop..however, there were a few rebuilding years for the Oilers where I felt the same way.
I'm not sure who the best running back ever is but I don't think that it's Barry Sanders. While I think that Barry was the most exciting running back that I ever saw and he was a threat to go all the way with every carry, he just had way too many runs for zero and negative yards. This put his team at a huge disadvantage having to face second and long and third and long so many times.
Anybody watch NFL films last night, the "blooper show'. Hilarious, they have apparently been using the same black woman's football reaction for every big play in NFL history. They just snip her in. She hasn't aged, but somehow seems to be at every single big game over the last 30 years. Too damn funny. I never thought about it until now, but she does show up quite a bit.
Barry Sanders averaged 99 yards a game. He may be the greatest RB ever. Personally I'll go with the historians and take Jim Brown.
No one ever broke as many tackles per rush as Jim Brown did. No one ever eluded as many tackles per rush as Barry Sanders did. No one ever broke and eluded as many tackles per rush as Walter Payton
