Who Do You Think Is the Best Running Back Ever?

[BmoreBird22]

In watching the pregame for the Ravens, a commentator said they felt like Jim Brown was the best running back ever, which I disagree with.

Jim Brown played at like 240 pounds during a time that defensive lineman might weigh 230-240 pounds. He didn't have to face the bigger, faster, stronger defenses of the NFL today. Not to mention that he was listed as a fullback due to his size. 

If I had to pick my favorite and who I consider my best, it would be Barry Sanders. The only thing standing in the way of him having all the records that Emmitt Smith currently has was longevity. 

Fun fact: Barry Sanders holds the NFL record for negative rushing yards. He was always trying to make a play. Too bad the Lions were a sorry team.

[flynismo]

I say LaDanian Tomlinson. Certainly the most complete RB to ever play the game.

[BmoreBird22]

11 hours ago, flynismo said:

I say LaDanian Tomlinson. Certainly the most complete RB to ever play the game.

I can certainly get behind him being top 5 with how good he was.

Imagine if he had his 2006 rushing totals with his 2003 receiving totals... that'd be scary.

[52520Andrew]

I was always a big fan of Earl Campbell. I'd probably say Barry Sanders was better but man did Campbell dominate for those couple years he was healthy.

[berad]

But part of what made Brown great was how he stood out from players of his era. If you're going to bump up the size/speed of Brown's competition, wouldn't it make sense to do that for him too?

Tomlinson was the best RB I've ever seen. Walter Payton gets a lot of run, too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq15VkLfPgc

 

[usmccharles]

I think its easily Sanders.  The guy was the best player on his team for 10 years, the lions were garbage for most of his career.  He easily would of had every record if he just kept playing and imagine if he was on the cowboys, they had an all-star line, qb, wr...everything.  Lions offense was Sanders, never seen anyone like him. 

Bo Jackson should get mentioned as well. 

Walter Payton, LT, E. Smith, Jim Brown, Bo.  Also, gonna have to put AP in the list soon as well. 

[BmoreBird22]

6 hours ago, berad said:

But part of what made Brown great was how he stood out from players of his era. If you're going to bump up the size/speed of Brown's competition, wouldn't it make sense to do that for him too?

Tomlinson was the best RB I've ever seen. Walter Payton gets a lot of run, too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq15VkLfPgc

 

I'm not sure what you mean with regards to Brown. I'm saying what makes ot less impressive was he's probably the same size as most of the defensive players he went against. 

Payton, in my opinion, may be the most underrated up their with Gayle Sayers. You just never hear about either of them, but they're both top 10, easy

[berad]

10 hours ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I'm not sure what you mean with regards to Brown. I'm saying what makes ot less impressive was he's probably the same size as most of the defensive players he went against. 

Payton, in my opinion, may be the most underrated up their with Gayle Sayers. You just never hear about either of them, but they're both top 10, easy

But Brown being that big/strong/fast in that era was what made him so rare and dominating. I'm saying the fact that Brown had those athletic traits made him the greatest, especially when athletes in general were not up to those standards in those days.

[BmoreBird22]

10 minutes ago, berad said:

But Brown being that big/strong/fast in that era was what made him so rare and dominating. I'm saying the fact that Brown had those athletic traits made him the greatest, especially when athletes in general were not up to those standards in those days.

When I think about it, I look at who would be the best throughout any era? I don't think Brown would hold up in today's NFL. At least, not in the way he did back in the 60's and early 70's.

[flynismo]

10 hours ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I'm not sure what you mean with regards to Brown. I'm saying what makes ot less impressive was he's probably the same size as most of the defensive players he went against. 

Payton, in my opinion, may be the most underrated up their with Gayle Sayers. You just never hear about either of them, but they're both top 10, easy

I think his point is that size alone means very little. Look at guys like Curtis Enis (Bears RB; top 5 pick back in the late 90s), who was bigger than most LBers. He is one of the biggest RB busts in history.

[BmoreBird22]

Just now, flynismo said:

I think his point is that size alone means very little. Look at guys like Curtis Enis (Bears RB; top 5 pick back in the late 90s), who was bigger than most LBers. He is one of the biggest RB busts in history.

I think we would be talking about a great player, but not one of the best to ever play the game today if he were to play in the modern NFL, in my opinion. Obviously he had the speed and vision to be a good player, but he was a physical mismatch back then, but wouldn't be today. 

[flynismo]

6 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

When I think about it, I look at who would be the best throughout any era? I don't think Brown would hold up in today's NFL. At least, not in the way he did back in the 60's and early 70's.

I agree with that. I think in today's NFL, he'd have a similar career to Bettis, which isn't a bad thing obviously, but nowhere near the discussion of all time great.

On the other hand, you can only really compare players against their contemporaries. The game is always evolving.

Then again, there are guys like Barry Sanders, AP and LT, who would have been great in any era.

Edited September 20, 2016 by flynismo

[BmoreBird22]

9 minutes ago, flynismo said:

I agree with that. I think in today's NFL, he'd have a similar career to Bettis, which isn't a bad thing obviously, but nowhere near the discussion of all time great.

On the other hand, you can only really compare players against their contemporaries. The game is always evolving.

Then again, there are guys like Barry Sanders, AP and LT, who would have been great in any era.

Barry Sanders in the 60's and 70's wouldn't even be fair

[berad]

59 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

When I think about it, I look at who would be the best throughout any era? I don't think Brown would hold up in today's NFL. At least, not in the way he did back in the 60's and early 70's.

Of course not, but we could look back 40-50 years from today and declare AP would not hold up to the hyper athletes of that era, too. If you size up his competition, why would you also not size up Jim Brown? Similar concept to monetary inflation.

[Rav'n Maniac]

1 hour ago, BmoreBird22 said:

Barry Sanders in the 60's and 70's wouldn't even be fair

Considering he would have been playing against auto mechanics, truck drivers, ... To many before & during that time football was their part-time job.

[BmoreBird22]

27 minutes ago, berad said:

Of course not, but we could look back 40-50 years from today and declare AP would not hold up to the hyper athletes of that era, too. If you size up his competition, why would you also not size up Jim Brown? Similar concept to monetary inflation.

I think we're probably reaching a peak in athletics. I don't think we'll ever reach a point where we have 400 pound big men running 4.80 40's or anything insane. I think most of what we'll see in the NFL from here on out will be men comparing relatively well to the ones today. I mean, we can look back at the 90's and I'd say those players were probably at least similar and that's 20-30 years ago, almost.

And just to be fair; America probably easily had guys of comparable size today who were that athletic back then as well. Just back then, I don't think the money was as good and most of those athletes had side jobs in the offseason, so I'm not sure that people put a huge want into playing. Just a thought; don't know if it's true.

However, on the topic of sizing up Jim Brown, yeah, I cannot deny that he was big, fast, and had vision. Clearly an extremely good athlete because he also played lacrosse (fastest sport on foot). Clearly it was some God given gifts that helped him excel... in his era. I just think if you had put Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders back then, they'd have done just as much, easily more.

[BmoreBird22]

Just now, Rav'n Maniac said:

Considering he would have been playing against auto mechanics, truck drivers, ... To many before & during that time football was their part-time job.

Yep, you can see my reply on that above.

[berad]

3 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I think we're probably reaching a peak in athletics. I don't think we'll ever reach a point where we have 400 pound big men running 4.80 40's or anything insane. I think most of what we'll see in the NFL from here on out will be men comparing relatively well to the ones today. I mean, we can look back at the 90's and I'd say those players were probably at least similar and that's 20-30 years ago, almost.

And just to be fair; America probably easily had guys of comparable size today who were that athletic back then as well. Just back then, I don't think the money was as good and most of those athletes had side jobs in the offseason, so I'm not sure that people put a huge want into playing. Just a thought; don't know if it's true.

However, on the topic of sizing up Jim Brown, yeah, I cannot deny that he was big, fast, and had vision. Clearly an extremely good athlete because he also played lacrosse (fastest sport on foot). Clearly it was some God given gifts that helped him excel... in his era. I just think if you had put Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders back then, they'd have done just as much, easily more.

That's a good point, too. But you mention how athletes had side jobs and Jim Brown was not immune to that (LINK)

This could be the athletic peak but imagine if Brown had the same access, time, knowledge, and technology to train that current athletes do. That was my point.

[BmoreBird22]

Just now, berad said:

That's a good point, too. But you mention how athletes had side jobs and Jim Brown was not immune to that (LINK)

This could be the athletic peak but imagine if Brown had the same access, time, knowledge, and technology to train that current athletes do. That was my point.

Like I said, Brown was an incredible athlete and I think he could be successful in the NFL today. I don't think he'd be that much better of an athlete because he was already a very special one. Even now, he was a rare specimen.

I just don't think we're calling him arguably the best running back ever if he played in the modern NFL, but who knows.

[jdynamite]

The best overall Running back to me was Walter Payton, he did it all very well, rushing, receiving, blocking. Was really durable throughout his career. 

Barry Sanders was special as a runner I'm still mad he didn't play a few more years then enmitt wouldn't have the record. 

 

 

[Inqui]

On 20/09/2016 at 7:46 AM, usmccharles said:

I think its easily Sanders.  The guy was the best player on his team for 10 years, the lions were garbage for most of his career.  He easily would of had every record if he just kept playing and imagine if he was on the cowboys, they had an all-star line, qb, wr...everything.  Lions offense was Sanders, never seen anyone like him. 

Bo Jackson should get mentioned as well. 

Walter Payton, LT, E. Smith, Jim Brown, Bo.  Also, gonna have to put AP in the list soon as well. 

Barry Sanders can't do this.

 

[usmccharles]

@Inqui I hate to ask....is that a real game clip lol

[balfan23]

The greatest of all time is so hard. I really just think you go with eras and leave it at that. I don't like to have to project humans across the years and gauge the athletic evolution of the human species. To me, you have the chronological succession as follows:

Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Walter Payton, Emmit Smith and Barry Sanders, with Dickerson, LT and AP as honorable mentions.  

No one wants to remember O. J. for obvious reasons, but he was phenomenal. I think he has to be in the conversation.  

[FlocksGottaFeed]

22 hours ago, balfan23 said:

The greatest of all time is so hard. I really just think you go with eras and leave it at that. I don't like to have to project humans across the years and gauge the athletic evolution of the human species. To me, you have the chronological succession as follows:

Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Walter Payton, Emmit Smith and Barry Sanders, with Dickerson, LT and AP as honorable mentions.  

No one wants to remember O. J. for obvious reasons, but he was phenomenal. I think he has to be in the conversation.  

Really like your list. I would only put Barry before Emmit.

Plus, Jim Brown seems to be the only one on this list that revolutionize not one, but 2 sports (Football and Lacrosse) in a substantial way. That defines a legendary athlete.

Edited September 22, 2016 by jkm5bmore
typo - put Barry before Emmit

[Steve0x]

On September 21, 2016 at 7:18 PM, Inqui said:

Barry Sanders can't do this.

 

And cant do this nether 

 

[Militant X 1]

While saying this or that cat is the "best ever" running back is pure preference, there have been some great ones; Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Emmit Smith, Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson etc.  But my dude is Walter "SWEETNESS" Payton.....

 

[Steve0x]

I got another Question Who Is the Best Running Back Ever in Baltimore? It has to be this guy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9eClnXa5wQ

Edited September 23, 2016 by Steve0x

[Rav'n Maniac]

5 hours ago, Steve0x said:

I got another Question Who Is the Best Running Back Ever in Baltimore? It has to be this guy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9eClnXa5wQ

Lenny Moore was very good as well. Although he was never close to Jamal in rushing yards, he did have more rushing TD's. What set Lenny apart was his receiving abilities. 111 combined TD's almost doubled Jamal's output.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Rav'n Maniac

[redlobster]

Barry Sanders

[flynismo]

Jamal Lewis