Brandt had lots of entertaining stories when he was on Sirius NFL Network a few years ago. I think all of the cowboy picks are evidence of dementia.
All Defense!
Still butthurt over SB X and XIII, obviously...
Bettis does deserve top 20, IMO. Good call.
Uh, yeah. Zeke in the list and no Franco.
This was Franco's middle finger to Hollywood Henderson and now to Gil Brandt.
So running behind probably the best oline in football and all of a sudden you are the 26th best RB in the NFL. Not buying it. If Zeke was not a Cowgirl, he wouldn't be gettting all the hype he has gotten since he was drafted (part of that of course is he probably doesn't even lead the league in rushing on another team)
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Also Barry Sanders at no. 8 is laughably low
Three yards and out of bounds Franco.
I'm glad to see OJ so high on this list. He murdered defenses. His cuts were deadly. He knifed through holes. Uh... hmm... double homicide.
He's just waiting to put Franco on his fullback list.
Toward the end of his career, yes Franco ran out of bounds all the time to avoid hits. He could have stayed another year or two with the Steelers and broke Jim Brown's rushing record, but he went to Seattle instead.
I watched them both and Franco >> Bettis.
Franco was SB MVP and picked up the Immaculate Reception. Bettis almost fumbled away ring #5.
All Defense!
I always find these types of discussions interesting. Mainly because it's so difficult to really compare them. An average NFL RB today would destroy most defenses forty years ago because so much has changed in conditioning, body-size, diet, speed, etcetera. I don't remember if it on this site or the previous one, but somewhere I have a thread detailing speeds of athletes since the 60s (I think it was then) and the difference was tremendous. The same is true for size. Think about it. Today, we have lineman who are running as fast as RBs did back then (Franco, for instance, ran a 5.1+, although that was admittedly later in his career) at 75 to 80 pounds heavier.
So, put side by side, most of yesteryear's RBs wouldn't make it on a list like this. I think a better comparison would be a list of RBs based on their domination of the game when they played. That, to me, is a better comparison.
Joe Greene said they never won anything before Franco got there. Franco was the missing piece. After that, Bradshaw gradually got better and Rocky was able to be a great partner in the backfield.
this ....
when putting together a " greatest list " you sure as hell need a larger body of work ....
greatness is something that is achieved over time not in a flash ...............
he could be footballs 1 hit wonder and last I checked 1 hit wonders do not make it into the rock n roll hall of fame and the pro football HoF has far higher standards ..
see Bo Jackson
as a side note IMO that list sucks in many ways , several guys far to low and several far to high
Yep we all know that Brantd is a Dallas homer and, has always had a Steeler bias.
We had players from Miami's 17-0 team selling mobile homes and cars in the offseason. I remember when Larry Csonka got a new contract that paid him $50k per season and that was big money in those days. You could buy a brand new Camaro for $6k and a new house was $20k.
All Defense!
Not really...HOWEVER...
Really anyone you put behind Cleveland's O-Line during that era excelled at HB/FB. Very similar to what has gone on in Dallas the last few seasons.
Fred Morrison, Preston Carpenter, Bobby Mitchell, Leroy Kelly...all put up Brown-sequel numbers behind that Browns O-Line.
I forget where I saw it but there have been a few articles on it in the past.
For me Walter Payton is the best RB ever.
Barry Sanders is 2nd.
Last edited by BostonBlackie; 06-25-2017 at 07:32 PM.