Agree with the others that it should come down to Sanders/Payton/Brown, and as an old guy it shouldn't be a surprise that I would go with Brown. Maybe if Barry or Walter had made a movie with Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland they would move up on the list?
The thing that made Barry special is that he seemed to know what was going to happen ten steps ahead of everyone else. Like, he knew if he stutter-stepped left before cutting right and stopping, defender A would overrun him, then defender B would fall for the cut and block out defender C, etc. Curtis Martin may have had the best vision of any running back ever, but that's only because it would be unfair to call what Sanders saw simply "vision". But, Lawrence Taylor is the greatest overall player of all time, Jim Brown the greatest RB.
one of the greatest, without question. its a small thing, but i honestly feel players need to learn from him about ball position. it seems he always had a free hand on the side of the defender and switched hands just as often as he juked defenders. dude was sick.
The Dirty Dozen. One of my favorite movies of all time. I think "Sweetness" was one of the best ever to play the game. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAeo4ZqHC2c[/YOUTUBE]
Emmit was never as good as Barry Sanders. not even close, and yet he was still great. that is how great Sanders was, and Smith only broke the rushing record because Sanders retired, who was leading him at that time. not to mention Emmit put up less numbers playing for a better team, with a great O line, that also had the benefit of forcing defenses to plan against both the run and the pass. Barry played against defenses whose primary strategy was to stop him, and they still couldn't. there just is no comparison. remember in the old Maddens on the Genesis, when all you had to do to keep from getting tackled with great RB's like Smith, Thurman Thomas or Sanders, was just to hit the spin button and they could never take you down. that's what Barry Sanders was like in real life too.
Barry Sanders is the greatest because he did it against 8 and 8 men in the box and no OL to help him.
Yeah I keep remembering he would get stopped behind the LOS all the time, but then he'd break a 70yd TD run. If only didn't have the negative yardage, he would be the perfect football player. Not saying he isn't too far off from perfect. I still think Jim Brown was closer to perfect though.
Barry Sanders is my favorite football player of all time.....No doubt!!!! I would try to catch as many Lion's games as possible to watch Sanders. Incredible talent!! Also, a humble person that didn't let football dominate his life. Had no ego and no me first attitude,....refreshing!!!
yeah but half of that was the ol. sucking,seemed like he had to make the first guy miss before he took the hand-off.btw he had the greatest t.d. celebration in the league
Rare players like him and Bo are such a treat to watch, I like others here actually hoped to see the Lions as a national game on CBS or NBC back in the day. He made Thanksgiving games fun to watch. Good memories.
Well, he didn't play for the Matt Millen Lions. The Detroit offensive line from 1989-98 wasn't shit. Lomas Brown and Kevin Glover were the LT and C, respectively, for the bulk of the Sanders era. Both were Pro Bowl level players. Hartings, Compton, Andolsek were others who played on the line at various points. Mike Utley was a very good player until he suffered the unfortunate injury. Bill Fralic finished his career with Detroit. The one year that Sanders did miss a big chunk of the season was 1993. He played in only 11 games and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. Derrick Moore started a few of the games when Sanders was out. Moore also averaged 4.6 yards per carry. (Moore would later lead the 1st-year Panthers in rushing in 1995 and then never again played in the NFL.) Certainly, Sanders is one of the all-time best RBs, but the idea that he played for a bad team with a shitty offensive line is not true.
Sanders makes whatever two guys are second and third best look like the same person. Brown, Payton, Dickerson, Juice, Sayers, Faulk, whoever. Sanders' talent was so over the top that in comparison to him, everyone else might as well be the same guy. Oh, and Emmitt Smith does not belong in this conversation. Please. He played on the best team with the best line, and was never touched in the backfield. In fact, he was never touched within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. I'll take Curtis Martin over him. Finally, regarding Eric Hipple... have you ever seen the movie Mr. Mom? Take a close look at the poster over the bed in the older boy's bedroom. lol. It never really comes into focus, but the last time I watched that movie, I paused it and studied the poster for a while. I'm 90% sure it's Hipple.
