Athletes You Miss - Page 2

This is completely wrong. Had Bo Jackson not been injured he would have been the greatest NFL back since Jim Brown. He was built like a linebacker, but was perhaps the fastest player in all of football at the same time. Most great running backs were either/or runners - they'd either run over you (Earl Campbell, Walter Payton) or they'd run past you (Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson). Bo Jackson would run over the D linemen and then blow away all of the d-backs on his way to the endzone. During his peak, he was one of the greatest players in NFL history.

Oh give me a break. Jim Brown is a bit of an overstatement Go look at his stats. Other than 1 year they are not even that impressive. Yes he played shortened seasons but look at his yards per game. In 87 about 80 yards per game. In 88 58 yards per game. In 89 he had a great season and 70 yards a game in his final season. While those are pretty good stats they are far from dominant and worthy of Jim Brown comparisons. Hell at that time it was arguable he was even the best RB on his own team. Marcus Allen was one year removed from thje NFL MVP and setting a yards from scrimmage record.Yes Bo had power yes he had speed but he was horrible running goal line and also he was horrible catching the ball out of the back field,there have been about 10 RB's since he has came into the league have been better than him.

Those stats you're posting are manipulative bullshit. In his worst season he averaged 4.3 YPC. And for his career averaged over 5 YPC. You're going to blame Bo because his coaches had too much loyalty to Marcus Allen to give their best player the most carries?

There have been more than 10 running backs since then who have had better careers than Bo Jackson. There haven't been 10 running backs who were better than Bo Jackson in the history of the NFL.

Yeah loyalty to a guy who was one year removed from up until that time had the greatest season in NFL history what a novel concept. There is really no point arguing with you, you can't even admit Jordan pushed off agaisnt Russel even though 95 percent of the free world can acknowledge it. Just for arguements sake though 10 RB 's who were better.

Jim Brown
O.J Simpson
Barry Sanders
Emmit Smith
Thurman Thomas
Eric Dickerson
Marshal Faulk
Tony Dorset
Gale Sayers
Walter Payton
Earl Cambell(at his peak)

Dont get me wrong Bo was a good if not great RB but to even somewhat compare him to Jim Brown is extreme hyperbole. Now if you compared him to Hershel Walker I could get on board with that.

95% of the free world is wrong on Jordan. It's much easier for everyone to believe he fouled Russell on that play. But please, be proud of the fact that you're in the blind majority.

Only a handful of those guys actually belong on that list. As I said before, lots of guys had better careers, but very few were better.

Only Brown, Simpson and Campbell actually had the combination of strength and speed which Jackson possessed.

Putting Emmitt Smith on that list is a joke. I do like that you didn't put Marcus Allen ahead of him , though.

Not that I want to be involved in the Bo argument but fuck Emmitt Smith, if Barry Sanders had that line there'd be no reason to discuss RB's anymore and everyone knows it. Smith was a good back blessed with a great O-line and that's the only reason he had the success he did. Have to agree with GFC on Smith, he doesn't even deserve being mentioned in the same breath as those other backs.

I didnt put Allen ahead of him because Allen was my favourite player. It's hard to judge him objectively. Plus in your definition of what make a great running back pure talent over production I figured what was the point. I mean hell Allen is the only guy with 10 000 yards rushing and 5000 receiving (Faulk may have done that now as well) oh and also when he retired had the most rushing TD's ever not to mention a superbowl MVP oh and a first ballot HOF'er. As opposed to Bo a couple of awesome run's on MNF not to mention he was a monster in Techmo Bowl. The fact of the matter is Bo Jackson did get injured so he should not even be mentioned in the same breath as all time greats. That would be like saying Terrell Davis was the greatest back ever he had way better peak years than Bo by the way. However fine if you want me to put Allen ahead of him I will. Again though dont misunderstand me I never said Bo wasnt good. If he played football fulltime and avoided his injury he probably would have had a great career and possibly been a HOF'er but he was no Jim Brown or Walter Payton for that matter.

As far as Emmitt Smith being a joke I hate the guy and I hate Dallas but to not mention the all time leading rusher in NFL history as one of the greatest backs ever is just extremely ignorant and stupid no matter how great his line was. Most great running backs have good O-lines. B_metal I agree Barry would have had even better numbers with the Dallas O-line but he didnt play for Dallas. Part of being good is taking advantage of your oppurtunities and surroundings.The guy was one of the two best back in the NFL for a 4-5 year period not many running backs have a long run of being the number 1 or number two guy in the league for that long. Basically I guess everything boils down to prefreance what do you like someone who makes dazzling runs or someone who just moves the chains keeps your D off the filed and puts the ball in the endzone.

I think it's fair to say that this officially destroys any credibility you thought you had.

This doesn't even make sense. Part of being good is having a good GM?

How so. Emmit and Barry were 1 and 2 back then some people thought Barry some thought Emmit. They are easily both in the top 10 RB's off all time top running backs usually dont have an extremely long shelf life. They dominate for 2 or 3 years usually then someone young guy always overtakes them. So to be one of the best for a 4-5 year period is pretty impressive.

How does it not make sense. Taking advantage of the oppurtunites given. Alot of guys over the years had all the talent in the world on good teams and never produced Emmit Smith did. yes he had an incredible line that made things easier for him but he was the one who still had to hit the hole hard and break into the secondary. Sure Barry was great and in my opinion is better but dismissing Emmit Smiths career because he had a good line is like dismissing David Ortiz because he always had Manny hitting behind him. he still had to make the plays.

Emmitt was never the best. He was good, he was an intelligent back who got the yards which were offered to him and had supurb balance. He was never the best, though.

And he kept all his touchdown footballs. What a douche.

Agreed on the keeping the ball thing. Someone should have blasted him and launched one into the stands.

If he wasnt the best of his era he was a close second which is still pretty damn good seeing the only guy you could put above him that he played with was Barry. Which added with his longevity puts him in top 10 all time in my opinion. Sure he hung on about 2 or 3 years too long then again most guys do.

If Bo was healthy, he'd have run circles around Emmitt. That's all I'm saying. He wasn't healthy tho, so his career didn't amount to more than dreams of greatness.

I have never seen any player do the things he did, though. Usually a guy who can bust through a group of D-linemen will get tripped up by a d-back. Bo would crush the big guys, and then have the burst of a world-class sprinter and leave the fastest DBs in the league running uphill through his wake.

Ok I will agree with you there he had amazing talent and skills. Just the greatest RB since Jim Brown comment kinda through me off.

Emmitt had a GREAT line not a good line. There is a huge difference, ask any running back and they'll admit that. A Great line makes a short gain into a 10-12 yard gain, Great lines have guys that block at the second level and usually block more than one guy at a time. When all you have to do is beat the secondary it's alot easier than you'd think. Barry had guys in the backfield with him at times and would still go off for 30-40 yards. Talent is not always reflected by numbers, If you gave Emmitt that Lions line I bet you most wouldn't even recall seeing him play. However Emmitt had a Great line, a decent to good QB and some receivers to throw to. Barry had Barry. /rant

I miss Vance Law.

Pretty cool name for a baseball player.

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