Best Running Back Of All Time....

[Skinflick]

D makes some great points about Barry Sanders.? Quarterback Scott Mitchell doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of opposing secondaries.? ?? Aikman actually would, and did.

I'd have to put Barry above Emmitt.

Jim Brown was so ahead of his time he was just a freak.? I put him on a level of 5 guys who nobody can touch in their respective sports.? Baseball-Babe Ruth, Basketball-Michael Jordan, Golf-Tiger Woods, Hockey-Wayne Gretzky, Cycling-Lance Armstrong.

EVERYBODY puts Barry above Emmitt....it is not even a matter of opinion....You know NOTHING ABOUT FOOTBALL or the running back position if you think otherwise....Not you specifically, just people who think they know football but they know nothing but their own team.

[Nightrain 87]

Walter Payton 

[C0ma]

As far as your excuses for the Green Bay game, he wasn't the first running back on a bad team that everyone knew was getting the ball (Walter Payton). ?Yes, the circumstances were understandable for having a bad game... but negative yardage?

His team was mediocre.. and got lit up in that game. You'll notice that he had only a few carries. That is because they got down and left the run for the pass to try and get back in the game.

[C0ma]

He still managed to dominate, I havent researched the stats and my mind is a little fuzzy but didnt he go for back to back 2,000 yard seasons or damn close to it?

Imagine what Barry would've done had he played behind Emmitt Smith's offensive line in Dallas.

Not to mention had he not prematurely retired the rushing records would be so high no one would ever challenge them.

He rushed for 1550 in 96 2053 in 97 and 1491 in 98.....
He never rushed for less than 1100 yards. He averaged 5 yards per carry for his entire career.

IMO if he played for Dallas (and not retired early) he would have had somewhere in the ballpark of 20,000+ career yards in the time that Emmitt played. Alot of Emmitt's yards came grinding out the clock.

[Mal Brossard]

In order, my top 5 from 1945 to the present...

1. Jim Brown
2. Barry Sanders
3. Walter Payton
4. Emmitt Smith
5. Eric Dickerson
6. O.J. Simpson
7. Earl Campbell
8. Steve Van Buren
9. Thurman Thomas
10. LaDainian Tomlinson

[sandman]

if i was starting an NFL team with players in their prime, i'd take e. smith over barry sanders. and i would guess that many GMs agree with me.

people blame sanders' inability to pick up short yardage on his offensive line. but the fact is the coaching staff felt there were other RBs on the team that BETTER at picking up short yards.

nfl games are won and lost on 3rd and short. and sanders got benched in those situations.

[Axl4Prez2004]

If I'm not mistaken, Barry often led the league in "runs for a loss," so I'm sure that didn't make coaches too confident on 3rd down with Barry in the backfield.

[sandman]

my top 5:

1. w. payton
2. j. brown
3. e. smith
4. l. tomlinson
5. b. sanders

[C0ma]

If I'm not mistaken, Barry often led the league in "runs for a loss," so I'm sure that didn't make coaches too confident on 3rd down with Barry in the backfield.

The seasons where Barry was the "sole" back for the Lions he rushed for 14 TD's (5.3 yards/carry) 13 TD's (5.1 yards/carry) 16 TD's (4.5 yards/carry)... Wayne Fonts made the decision to add a goal line back because he was affraid of injury more than anything.

That one playoff game is the only ammo anyone has against Barry for not producing, but he stopped getting the ball in the 1st quarter because they went down so quick (Due to bad Defense and a piss poor QB)... if given the opportunity to make up those yards I'm sure that would have been a 75-100 yard game and you would have been talking about how Scott Mitchell lost them the game.

[GeorgeSteele]

That one playoff game is the only ammo anyone has against Barry for not producing, but he stopped getting the ball in the 1st quarter because they went down so quick (Due to bad Defense and a piss poor QB)... if given the opportunity to make up those yards I'm sure that would have been a 75-100 yard game and you would have been talking about how Scott Mitchell lost them the game.

Did you see the game?? I did, and I recall the low number of carries being attributable to a lot of 3 and outs.? Also, the game was reasonably close throughout (because Detroit's defense played well), so they wouldn't have abandoned the running game.?

Look, Barry Sanders was an amazing back, but he played like shit that day.? To debate how much weight to put on that one game is one thing, but to deny it...

As far as Scott Mitchell goes, no doubt he was brutal, but to blame him for that game might be a little unfair, since Dave Krieg was the one behind center for Detroit that day.

[C0ma]

since Dave Krieg was the one behind center for Detroit that day.

You are correct, it was Dave Krieg.

http://www.packersnews.com/favre/articles/favre_24361407.shtml

But I stand by the fact that people are trying to build a case around a players entire career based on one playoff game.

It's hard to claim that someone with these stats (who played on the teams he did) is anything but one of the three best backs of all times:

15,269 yards, 5.0 yards per carry, 99 rushing touchdowns, 18,190 total yards, 109 total touchdowns

He set 34 NCAA records during his Heisman Campaign.

He holds the college single-season rushing record with 2,628 rushing yards in 1988 at Oklahoma State University.

As a receiver, Sanders made 352 receptions for 2,921 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Detroit Lions
 
Sanders led the NFL in rushing four times. 1990, 1994, 1996 and 1997.

He rushed for over 1,500 yards in a season for an NFL record five times.

In 1997, he set an NFL record by rushing for at least 100 yards in 14 consecutive games and became only the third player to reach 2,000 yards in a single season. He shared the NFL MVP award with Brett Favre.

During the final 14 games of the 1997 season Sanders rushed for exactly 2000 yards on 310 carries (6.5 yd./carry), a figure which bears comparison with O.J. Simpson's 14-game mark of 2003 yards on 332 carries (6.0 yd./carry).

Over his professional career, he rushed for at least 100 yards in 76 games, just short of Walter Payton's 77 games and Emmitt Smith's 78 games.

At the time of his retirement, Sanders' 15,269 career rushing yards placed him second behind Walter Payton's 16,726 yards. At Sanders' then-current yearly yardage pace, he would have eclipsed Payton within one or two years.

If Sanders had gained an additional 31 yards over the course of his 153 games, he would have been only the 2nd NFL runner to average 100 yards per game.

[Axl4Prez2004]

Yo COma, I was just pointing out a stat I remembered from back in the day.  Even with the stat about runs for losses, he still carried an amazing yards/carry number.  It's a back-handed compliment, but a compliment none the less.

Barry's a great running back, but nobody dominated a game in his time like Jim Brown.  He was a man amongst boys in his time.  Somebody mentioned Thomlinson, and yes, he's coming on strong in the "all-time" debates.  He's so much fun to watch.

One game doesn't make or break Sanders.  He's easily one of the all-time greats no doubt.      

[ibelieveinaxl]

are you fogetting a guy that did it ALL? run, catch, and block....marshall faulk