American Football: Best runner ever

Originally posted by BirdstheBest
Wait a minute. Are you saying that just because blacks' and women's rights in the 1960's were not what they are today that we should excuse abusive behavior?

By TODAY'S standards. Then wasn't today. I'm not excusing anything but to gauge the private lives of athletes in the past by our standards is not fair. To them, most of what they did WAS acceptable at the time.

You WILL concede, won't you, that what you're saying doesn't apply to Jim Brown's innumerable alleged physical sins, since every one of them constituted a crime of violence--and most of them a major crime of violence--at the time.

Racist, sexist and homophobic language of 1962 should, I agree, be measured differently from notorious Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith's remarks in 1978, remarks which caused Rod Carew to leave for the California Angels because, as he said, he wasn't going to play on "Massa Calvin's plantation anymore." But crimes of violence have never been ok, and crimes of major violence have always been exactly that.

Jim Brown is either the unluckiest guy who ever lived, drawing allegations of CRIMES of major violence against women in totally unrelated situations from totally unrelated individuals over a period of many decades, or....

BHN

[Edited on 4/20/06 by BaseballHistoryNut]

We never did get the "definitive" answer to this thread...

The contestants so far...

Jim Brown
Barry Sanders
Eric Dickerson
Walter Payton
Earl Campbell
Gale Sayers
Rocky Blier
Mike Alstott
Marcus Allen
Eric Metcalf
Kevin Mack
Ahman Green
Bo Jackson


Amazing, wer'e onto page 2 of the thread, and not a single mention of the all time rushing leader...

We can tell that PA hasn't been on here much lately.

Originally posted by Gibbs Baby!!!
We can tell that PA hasn't been on here much lately.

Must be a Cowboy's fan.

Emmit deserves to on that list.

*did this Niners fan just say that*

Yeah, how did none of us even mention him? I mean, I hate the Cowboys as much as anyone does, BUT....

Quantity does not always equal quality. While Smith is the all-time leading rusher, his yards per carry is quite mundane, at only 4.2. True, he did play well past his prime, and his averages were poor in his last four seasons. However, he had two sub-4.0 seasons in his first 10 years in Dallas, and his career best was 5.3 (1993).

Consider, then, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, and Eric Dickerson, with Smith:

Career yards per carry: Brown 5.2, Sanders 5.0, Dickerson 4.4, Smith 4.2
# of seasons with less than 4.0: Brown 0, Sanders 0, Dickerson 3, Smith 6
# of seasons with 5.0 or better: Brown 5, Sanders 5, Dickerson 1, Smith 1
Career best yards per carry: Brown 6.4 (1963), Sanders 6.1 (1997), Dickerson 5.6 (1984), Smith 5.3 (1993)

It looks like its between Sanders and Brown. My vote goes to Sanders.

Great thread guys...

I havnt heard of alot of them players before so it was good reading for me. But why all this dwelling on the past? What i want to know is, who is the best RB in the NFL that is currently playing. Maybe someone can make a new thread?

Originally posted by TRD
Great thread guys...

I havnt heard of alot of them players before so it was good reading for me. But why all this dwelling on the past? What i want to know is, who is the best RB in the NFL that is currently playing. Maybe someone can make a new thread?

Let's see, the best active runner? That will bring up a lot of controversy, a ton of bias, I'm sure. I'd have to say that it would be a close draw between Clinton Portis, who does it all (run, catch, block) and Larry Johnson, who is nearly unstoppable, until someone tries to take off his head.

Knock me down, gentlemen!