After Jim Brown, best-ever RB debate gets interesting - NFL

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Sayers about more than numbers
Published 6/5/2008 at ESPN.com - NFL Nation - Blog
Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando Gale Sayers made our list of 10 greatest running backs despite playing in only 68 regular-season games. That tells you how different and how great he was as a runner.  Knee injuries cut short Sayers' career, but he was never going to be a guy who impressed on rushing numbers alone. I'll use another Hall of Fame back, Earl Campbell, as a reference point. Campbell finished with 9,407 yards and 74 touchdowns in 115 regular-season games. Projecting Sayers' numbers across 115 games leaves him with 8,381 yards and 66 touchdowns. Sayers scored an additional nine touchdowns as a receiver. His ...

Does Alexander have Hall credentials?
Published 6/5/2008 at ESPN.com - NFL Nation - Blog
Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando Shaun Alexander's near-inclusion on our list of 10 greatest running backs shows the flip side of the Gale Sayers candidacy. Sayers made the list because he was a special runner. He was so special that his injury-diminshed career rushing stats couldn't exclude him from the conversation. Alexander commands attention in spite of a running style that has drawn criticism as soft. He commands attention because he has done things statistically that no player in NFL history has accomplished, namely scoring at least 15 touchdowns in five consecutive seasons. He scored 98 touchdowns across ...

All Time Running Backs
Published 6/5/2008 by WCG at Windy City Gridiron: Front Page Posts
... ESPN back up  and with the help of Don Shula, Marv Levy, Emmitt Thomas, Jack Bushofsky, Dan Reeves, Jerry Richardson, Robert Smith and Floyd Reese they formulated a new list.  However this time Payton does not come in at #2, he fell to #3 behind Barry Sanders.  I know the Sanders/Payton arguement is a hot one here (though I haven't heard from Chad in some time, so it might not spark). ...

Brown Greatest Ever
Published 6/5/2008 by chrisslocombe at Dawg Pound Daily | A Blog For Cleveland Browns Fans
In a follow up to yesterday’s reported “top 64 running backs” ESPN has a new list out today, the best running backs of all time. Atop the list is Cleveland Browns great Jim Brown, who is still active with the club as an Executive Advisor . Now I don’t care if you call me a homer but his is something I have been advocating since I was 5 or 6, and even possibly earlier.  All I have to say that it is about time ESPN recognizes Brown because it seems that they don’t appreciate anyone who played before 1989, again I may be a bit biased for until recently they never gave more than 2 minuets ...

Dallas Cowboys random articles
Published 6/5/2008 by Dave Halprin (Grizz) at Blogging The Boys: Front Page Posts
... Those guys at ESPN are up to it again. A while back they produced a Top-10 WR’s of All-Time list. Now they’re doing the same with RB’s. Where does our man Emmitt rank? ...

Jim Brown still tops the all-time RB lists
Published 6/6/2008 by Mike at WaitingForNextYear
[image]  This week some experts over at ESPN decided to rank the top-10 running backs of all time and Jim Brown was placed at the top of the list. Considering that the guy has often been called the greatest player ever, this shouldn’t really be any surprise. However, it’s still kind of amazing if you think about it. The guy hasn’t played in over 40 years, the league has gotten bigger and faster, he’s fallen from first to eighth on the NFL’s all-time rushing list over the past two decades, and (thanks to longer schedules) the league’s yearly statistics have grown infinitely in comparison to Brown’s day and he’s still without a doubt the best ever. Period. Following Brown on the list are, ...

Current RB's Who Are Future H.O.F?
Published 6/6/2008 at End Zone Buzz
... As ESPN.com gave out their list of the 10 greatest running backs of all-time, it brought up the question: which active running backs could one day wind up in Canton? Let's take a look at some possibilities. ...

Best LBs ever (mini-version)
Published 6/10/2008 at ESPN.com - NFL Nation - Blog
Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas. Singing the praises of Derrick Brooks was easy. The guy's one of the best linebackers ever. But who's the best linebacker ever? I don't know and we'll save the definitive answer to that question for when we do that position in our occasional series on the best ever at different spots. I recently wrote the story on the top 10 running backs ever and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before one of my colleagues or I get assigned to break down the LBs. But let's do a mini-version here with several conditions. First, as I said in the column on Brooks, I ...