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NFL's Top 100 players in 100 years


The Gipper

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Apparently the NFL...with its broadcast partners, are going to name the 100 best players in the 100 years of the NFL.    As I understand it,  this week they are going to start to reveal these players, with the naming of  12 Running Backs tomorrow night. 

Not sure why they are going with 12 RBs.  Seems a disproportional amount....though skill players always get more run.

But, perhaps what they are doing is going with  something like:  12 RBs, 12 QBs, 12 WRs, 12 OL, 12 DL, 12 LB, 12 DB... which accounts for 84...and then maybe some TEs and a couple of ST players....and I would not be surprised if they pick 15 QBs. 

Nevertheless......let's speculate on who the 12 RBs will be...

A.

I think there will be 10 guys in there since 1960, and some of these certainly will be on it (while I give numbers, I am not really ranking them; it is just for ordinal purposes)

1. Jim Brown

2. Walter Payton

3. Emmit Smith

4. Barry Sanders

5. OJ Simpson    (unless they decide to blackball him)

6. LaDanian Tomlinson

7. Marshall Faulk

8. Adrian Peterson

9. Tony Dorsett

10.  ##

##  There are a number of guys who could fill the 10 spot here:  Thurman Thomas, Franco Harris, Jerome Bettis, Frank Gore, Curtis Martin, Marcus Allen, John Riggins.  Jim Taylor, Larry Csonka,  Earl Campbell.

I am going to say that it is between  Marcus Allen and Earl Campbell.....though, you know, Dorsett could be in danger of being replaced by one or both of these guys. 

B.

I also think they will reserve a couple of spots for "Old Timers"  among these names:

Red Grange, Joe Perry, Bronko Nagurski, Steve Van Buren, Marion Motley, Cliff Battle.

C

There IS a name missing from above, in case you didn't notice:   a guy named Gale Sayers.

They will designate Gale Sayers the one No Brainer  Special Teams/Utility player. 

So, who do you think makes it?  And did I miss someone?

 

 

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35 minutes ago, gumby73 said:

Eric Dickerson has to be in that mix..no? Jamal Lewis got 2000 yards in a season..still a crazy number  

Uhm, hell yes.  In fact, I had Dickerson written down when I made my list....but I forgot to type him in.  For Sure, thanks for catching my oops. 

Also,   as it should be, and as expected, and as it was...the No 1. guy they identified to be included in the Top 100 in 100:

Jim Brown.

giphy.gif

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Tonight they revealed who they chose as the Top 12 RBs of all time....and 2 of the Top Ten Coaches.  Here they are, and there are some surprises (again, the numbers are not rankings, just ordinals):

1. Jim Brown

2. Earl Campbell

3. Dutch Clark    (one I did not see coming)

4. Eric Dickerson

5. Lenny Moore  (another surprise)

6. Marion Motley

7. Barry Sanders

8. Gale Sayers

9. OJ Simpson

10 Emmit Smith

11. Steve Van Buren ( another surprise)

12. Walter Payton

They did NOT select:  LaDanian Tomlinson,   Adrian Peterson, Marshall Faulk, Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin, Bettis.  Fully half of all these players played  pretty much in the "pre-Super Bowl era"  or right at the very beginning...like Sayers

Also...the two coaches that they chose were:

Paul Brown

Bill Belichick.   BB was on the program...he stated that everything he teaches football wise he learned from Paul Brown. 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001079486/article/nfl-100-alltime-team-running-backs-revealed

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https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CampEa00.htm

Earl Campbell had three really good seasons - his first three seasons in the NFL - and a handful of mediocre ones. 

I'm sorry, but he's a tad overrated and somewhat of an example of "style over substance". 

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8 hours ago, The Gipper said:

3. Dutch Clark    (one I did not see coming)

Dutch Oven  Fkqt.gif    do you see it coming now? 🤩 I did not know the player or even such a guy exist   

  • Haha 2
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First you can't have only 12 RBs to fairly cover 100 years without a lot of omissions it just can't be done. That's like 1 RB for each 8.3 years or a RB of each decade.

But these lists are always quite subjective to begin with.

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16 minutes ago, gumby73 said:

Dutch Oven  Fkqt.gif    do you see it coming now? 🤩 I did not know the player or even such a guy exist   

Dutch Clark:

I knew about him....

But as an old timer, in that class,  I did not think he would get the nod over the likes of these RBs:  Ernie Nevers, Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski....or Jim Thorpe.   (I can't help but think that Thorpe will get on this list somewhere. 

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