BEST EVER THREAD

[Down to Earth]

FIRST OFF, this thread isn't meant to start a debate back and forth about the differences of opinion, but rather just to get an idea of who everyone feels which players deserve to be called the best ever at their respective position. If you want to bias your favorite team that's fine go ahead. You have that right when you make your decision, please just don't make it the only reason. All I ask is you not just list 3 names. At least give a little bit of reasoning behind your decision. I'll keep this to Best QB< RB and WR only.

Here are my choices:

QB: John Elway: My Packer bias wants me to say Favre, but Elway ranks up in many of the passer stats with Favre, Marino, etc., but who can forget the moments like the drive in Cleveland. He was always fun to watch and was key to the Denver organization for a while.

Honorable Mention: Favre, Marino, Montana, Brady

RB: Barry Sanders Too bad he played on a crappy team. The only reason he doesn't have the rushing title is because he retired early. True de doesn't have the titles of Emmitt or the all around game as Payton, but I'm not going to hold that against him.

Honorable Mention: Emmitt, Payton, Dickerson

WR: Rice: To me this is a no brainer. Has all the records, has a bunch of rings, and came back after he tore his ACL when people wrote him off.

Honorable Mention: Largent

My picks are a little biased towards the more recent players as I'm only 32 and don't remember much of anything earlier than the late 70's football wise.

Let's hear some others.

[barebackjack]

I am by no means an expert when it comes to stats and such, I will base mine on who has given me the most joy of watching the game. First and foremost would be Favre, I think the guy has heart and a love for the game much like my second choice which is Brad Johnson. Those are my only choices based solely on nothing but who kept me wanting to to watch another game.

[Windy City Walleye Hunter]

Nice thread "Earth", I liked some of your picks and would put them all in top 3 catagory but for me the #1 Running Back of all time is and will always be Walter Payton. Great durability, did win the big one..once, great stats and there is no finer character. He was funny, stand up guy and was a great family man with a fine son and daughter and widow. While Barry was a great runner, Walter was a great man and a great all around football player. I would throw in Larry Csonka to the mix and would love to put Gale Sayers in there but his career was cut short by injury.

QB in my mind it was Dan Marino and as much as I hate to say the "F" word, I would have to put Brett in there. They were both field generals and their team just knew that they were going to pull it out every game. Kind of like Michael Jordan in basketball, you just knew he was going to make a steal or bury a jumper to win the game.

WR is not my specialty but I would put Lynn Swann in there somewhere but would agree on Mr. Rice. Steve Largent was a servicable player and is a great politician but I would not put him in my top three wide recievers.

Just a few more than two cents from a tired ole Monster of The Midway...BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS!

[196thDLR]

DTE: As a winning QB, Joe Montana is my choice. JM was not the best athlete on his team, but, I do think he was one of the more intelligent players that has played in the NFL to this date. Records say that Rice is the best WR of all time.

The best WR I ever saw play, was Bobby Moore. At the time he was drafted, that was his name. When he converted to Islam, he came to be known as Ahmad Rashad.

Man, on RB's, I am going to have a very difficult time choosing between Barry and Walter. Both as far as I know were Class men, as well as D*** good athletes. Just an opinion.

[mnvikingsfreak]

qb-montana all he did was win

rb-jim brown I wish I was alive to see him play he was unbeliveable and only played 9 years

wr-cris carter not bad for a $100 bucks,didnt fade away like jerry rice

[buzzsaw]

I'll just copy and paste what I stated on the other thread a day or two ago.

Best QB's: Marino, Fouts???, Young.. hows that for controversy?

RB's: Payton, Sanders, dunno....

WR's: Rice, Largent, Cris Carter... yep, great paws on that brotha!

TE's: Winslow, Tony Gonzales, dunno....

[otto_man]

i'm going with retired guys here.

qb-i'd have to go with terry bradshaw. just liked watching him play.

rb-marcus allen

wr-james loften, he was smooth.

[lawdog]

Good thread...

QB... Elway, Marino and Montana. They all did amazing things and never had years were they threw more INT's than TD's like #4 and not the playoff performances as attrocious as the last couple have been. He just doesn't have the head to rank with these guys.

RB...Barry. Walter second and why isn't anyone mentioning Emmitt? The guy's the all time rushing leader and was as consistent as any back ever. Barry really had ALL the moves though.

WR...Rice what needs to be said?? CC is #2 though. If Rice wasn't around CC would own ALL the records and I actually think CC had the better hands and could make more miraculous catches...

[muskybuck]

Bradshaw, Rice, and Riggins (sp)

[buzzsaw]

Just NOT this guy!!

[otto_man]

that looks like fran tarkenton...

[buzzsaw]

Thats your boy Otto!! The one you worship all geeked up on the sauce!

He's one goofy looking guy eh?

[otto_man]

worship, don't think so!

sauce, what kind? i might be looking like that sunday!!

busting the boat out saturday, going to slay the walleyes!!

[buzzsaw]

ahhh open water, that sounds great. Must be a river system.

[genegodawa]

Lots of great players, but I'll reminisce (sp?) and go old school based on who I really liked to watch years ago:

QB: Bart Starr (back when the QB called the game), John U, Ken the Snake Stabler, Len Dawson (I HATE running QB's)

RB: Gale Sayers, OJ, Mercury Morris, LeRoy Kelly, and any other good open field runner-I don't go for those bull forward guys but I do admit they grind it out real well and Csonka was one of the best

WR: Paul Warfield, Fred Bilitnekoff (sp?), Lynn Swann and

Rice - no doubt he has best stats ever but I'm sure he was glad to have Montana and Young throwing to him.