OT: NFL 100 greatest players

[ajcardfan]

Jim Brown is going to be #1. He's the closest thing to Babe Ruth football has. He not only set records, he crushed them and redefined how football was played.

As for Warner and Namath being overrated.....

IMO, this list should not be based on stats alone, but also how they impacted the league. No one can deny that Namath was HUGE, the first mega-star of the NFL and produced the most memorable, or important, Super Bowl victory. And, Warner's rags-to-riches story is the stuff of legends. Guys like Ken Anderson stack up with them statistically, but won't sniff this list because they didn't grab the public's attention in a special way.

Along those lines, Gale Sayers will be another player "overrated" statistically. But, IMO, will probably be in the top 25.

 

[jmt]

It'd be hard to name the best player. By position it's a little easier.

QB- Montana
RB - Payton/Sanders
WR- Rice
TE- Winslow Sr.
OL- Yary
DL - White
MLB- Lambert
OLB- Ham
CB- Blount or Mike Haynes
ST's- Hester
K- Stenerud
P- Guy

All modern era players - no way. Devon Hester - please! And how about Ray Guy for the HOF?

 

[jmt]

So, who's your vote for the best football player of all time?

My vote goes to Walter Payton.

I grew up in Chicago watching Sayers and Payton but Jim Brown gets my vote.

 

[FrustratedFan04]

Sad that 3 of those 4 guys spent more years on other teams than they did the Cards.

That's true but Lane and Matson were on the down slide when they left the Big Red ( I know Lane was "all pro" w/Lions but he had about 4/5 INT's per season with them and really slowed down). Let's not forget Charlie Trippi in the mix.

 

[ajcardfan]

BTW, in addition to Warner, #89 was Ernie Nevers. So, two Cardinals on that show.

 

[Darkside]

All modern era players - no way. Devon Hester - please! And how about Ray Guy for the HOF?

Totally with you. I think the older generations of players (talking black and white TV or plain old radio) had it tougher on offense (they could do anything to the offensive guy, no matter what position) and now they have it tougher on defense, so HOFer's in my opinion have to be judged accordingly. I give tons more credit to old offensive players than I do to today's offensive players, especially, especially, if that old player had similar stats to a modern offensive guy. By the same standards, defensive guys like Reggie White or Lawrence Taylor are phenomenal for what they were able to do given today's game. Much more so than guys like Nightrain Lane or Deacon Jones, who could pretty much get away with anything. Yeah, they were nasty, and fearsome, because they were allowed to be. You put LT or White back in those days and oh. my. god. They would destroy the league.