With the QB of my all time NFL team selected (Joe Montana for those of you who did not read a couple days ago), we move to the backfield. Yes, I need at least 1 RB; still haven’t decided on a fullback or not, but at the very minimum, yeah, we need a guy. Well, I got a guy. There may be a few of these type of selections on my all time team, but this one… it’s definitely a no brainer.
Look, there have been a lot of great RBs over the years. There’s Jim Brown. I actually met him in a coffee shop in LA when I lived out there; I was this close to sharing my feelings with him regarding who I thought was the greatest RB of all time, but that would have been rude, no? Not seeing him play makes it rough to select him; unfortunately, this will apply a lot during this process. I’m not going to say exclusively, because there will be some guys that make my team that I have never seen play. This isn’t the only reason Brown isn’t that guy. There are a lot of guys that I DID see play. Emmitt Smith was a great running back; Barry Sanders… my God, one of the greatest, no doubt about it. Eric Dickerson had a nice little run there. LT… there may be one LT on this team, but it’s not Ladainian Tomlinson. How about another throwback RB who may be better known to some of us for that ride he took on the 405 in a White Bronco, the Juice? He wasn’t too shabby in his playing days. Earl Campbell comes to mind; Gale Sayers may have been higher on peoples’ lists if he hadn’t got hurt. Some may say Marcus Allen, Franco Harris, Adrian Peterson, or even Marshall Faulk. Any one of these guys that I have mentioned are very worthy, no doubt. Yet, when it comes to my #1 RB of all time, it is the same guy that is the greatest football player ever IMHO. Being a die hard Bears fan, seeing him play every game the last part of his career, there may be some bias, but oh well. For my money, it doesn’t get any better than Walter Payton.
I’ve wrote plenty about him over the years; here are a couple if interested:
The guy could do it all. Run, catch, block, and even pass, Walter Payton was a football player. How many RBs nowadays make it through a full season? Walter Payton missed 1 game… in his whole career! And oh yeah, it wasn’t because he was dipping out of bounds every chance he got; he delivered just as much punishment as he took, choosing to take that route more times than not vs the easy step to the sidelines. And he wasn’t even the biggest guy either… I’m not sure how much I can say about him that I haven’t already said. He’d play sick too, bringing us the original flu game. The guy WAS football; he was the Chicago Bears. He was a Super Bowl champion.
So QB Montana, RB Payton; how am I doing so far? I’ll still be thinking on that 2nd RB, but may go for a 3 wideout set instead; tbd… While I decide that, I might as well pick one of my WRs. Speaking of no brainers… You may go another route at QB and/or RB, but I’d like to think that this guy would be on every single person’s all time list at WR. Let’s keep building…
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