Posted on 09/14/2005 2:23:26 PM PDT by One Proud Son
QUARTERBACKS: (1) Johnny Unitas (2) Dan Marino (3) Joe Montana RUNNING BACKS: (1) Jim Brown (2) Walter Payton (3) Barry Sanders WIDE RECEIVERS: (1) Jerry Rice (2) Don Maynard (3) Randy Moss DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: (1) Joe Greene (2) Howie Long (3) Randy White LINEBACKERS: (1) Dick Butkus (2) Jack Lambert (3) Mike Singletary DEFENSIVE BACKS: (1) Ronnie Lott (2) Paul Krause (3) Ken Houston
You could frequently tell by the direction Sanders started in the coach DID call that play, but then Sanders didn't like the size of the hole changed direction and started looking for something prettier. That's OK if there's a big defensive surge where your hole was supposed to be but frequently you could see the o-line did an OK job of making a hole he could have gotten 1 or 2 yards through only to see Sanders back off look elsewhere and get nailed for a loss of 4 or 5. Not his job on that down.
How can anyone leave off Lawrence Taylor who redefined the outside linebacker position. He is the best ever.
Squander his talent?
Uhhh yea
2000 Yards season
1000 yards every year
If he hadnt retired he'd have the rushing record so high it wouldnt be touched in our lifetime so yea he left too early but he didnt sqander it
Yeah he could move lines like heavy equipment. The record books don't pay enough attention to guys like him.
Former Cowboys kicker Toni Fritsch passes away VIENNA, Austria (AP) Toni Fritsch, a former soccer player for Austria's national team who was discovered overseas by the Dallas Cowboys and became a record-setting NFL place-kicker, died Tuesday. He was 60. Peter Klingelmueller, a spokesman for Rapid Vienna, the soccer club on which Fritsch played for 14 years, confirmed Fritsch's death. The Austria Press Agency reported that Fritsch collapsed and died of heart failure in Vienna after eating at a restaurant. Fritsch played in nine matches for the Austrian national soccer team and, in 1965, scored two goals in a 3-2 victory over England in London. Six years later, soccer-style kickers were becoming popular in the NFL and the Cowboys sent a group of people to Europe in search for strong-legged soccer players who could be taught to boot footballs. "The first place we went was Vienna, and the first player we tried out was Toni Fritsch," then-Cowboys personnel director Gil Brandt recalled Tuesday in Dallas. "He had a hard time speaking English at first, but he did master it." In an interview last year, Fritsch recalled how he had never seen a football before meeting with the Cowboys' recruiter. A translator followed him during the early days of practice to help him understand the game. Brandt recalled that Fritsch kicked the game-winning field goal in his NFL debut. It was a 26-yarder with 1:53 left that gave Dallas a 16-13 victory over the Cardinals in St. Louis. "It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen," Brandt said. "A linebacker for the Cardinals was hollering, 'Choke, Fritsch, choke!' and Dave Edwards, our upback on the protection team, said, 'He can't understand English.'" Fritsch, a gregarious guy who was popular with teammates, shared kicking duties in Dallas in 1971, then had the job pretty much to himself for the 1972, '73 and '75 seasons. He led the NFC with 22 field goals in 1975. The Cowboys beat Miami in the Super Bowl after the 1971 season and lost the title game to Pittsburgh after the '75 season. After kicking for San Diego for part of the 1976 season, Fritsch settled in with the Houston Oilers from 1977-81 and was part of their Luv Ya Blue heyday under Earl Campbell and coach Bum Phillips. He finished his NFL career kicking for Phillips on the New Orleans Saints in 1982. Fritsch still holds an NFL record by having kicked a field goal in 13 straight playoff games. New England's Adam Vinatieri has an ongoing streak of 12 in a row. He lived in Houston for many years after he retired. Brandt recalled Fritsch attending a Cowboys reunion in June 2004. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Marino has the stats, but not the rings. His QB rating was not that great either.
Jason Hansen of the gets my vote as the one of the best kickers of all time. Not because he stacks up well against other kickers, but because he's quite a remarkable character in addition to being a great kicker. One of the strongest legs in the NFL, and very accurate, too. Gave up a potential career in medicine when the Lions drafted him, and would have been a Pro Bowler as either a punter or kicker.
QB - Brett Favre
RB - Walter Payton
WR - Jerry Rice
Can't say Favre is the greatest, but he's definitely top 10. Payton did more with less, and practically carried the Bears for years, at least offensively. Jerry Rice re-wrote the record books for receivers, and that little crossing pattern of his is a thing of beauty, even when he was 40 years old.
I agree that Emmit had the good fortune to be behind a good OL, but to his credit, he was both patient enough to wait for those blocks to occur and nimble enough to squeeze between the big linemen. I don't think he was the greatest RB of all time, but he was good in his day.
Actually Archie Manning was probably the greatest of them all. He had the misfortune of playing for an awful team. He had no chance at all to succeed.
Y'all may get a kick (no pun intended!) out of this article about what else he could do when he was at Southern Mississippi:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040704/COL0504/407040324/1173/SPORTS
Too bad. Other than Dick Butkus, he was the toughest SOB ever to play on a football field.
Not even close.
Football is a physical game of intimidation. Nobody consistently delivered more violent, disruptive, game changing, intimidating collisions against their peers than Jim Brown on offense, and Lawrence Taylor on defense.
Other players made pretty highlights, but these guys just destroyed opponents at the most basic level.
Walter Payton-period
One of the greatest accomplishments of Campbell's career is one that doesn't get a lot of attention among football fans. He was unique in that he excelled at all levels while playing in Texas -- he was one of the top players in the nation at Tyler High School, won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Texas, and was a perennial all-pro early in his career with the Houston Oilers.
In 1981 the Texas legislature honored Campbell by naming him an Official State Hero of Texas -- an award that has been given to only three other figures in Texas history (Davy Crockett, Stephen F. Austin, and Sam Houston).
Ray Guy was the best. Incredibly, he never had a punt blocked.
Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson have won Super Bowls in the last few years. There are garbage dumpsters out there that would make better quarterbacks than either of those two.
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