Nick's Lists: Top 10 Running Backs in NFL History (5-1)

Had a little interruption as we examined the latest scandals brewing in college football this Fall.  Now, we get back to our countdown of the top running backs in the NFL.  We'll get to the top 5 in just a minute, but first some HM's

Marcus Allen (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders 1982-1992; Kansas City Chiefs 1993-1997)-Marcus makes this list pretty much for just one play in one game against one team.  If you're a Redskins fan, cover your eyes.

Franco Harris (Pittsburgh Steelers 1972-1983; Seattle Seahawks 1984)-Everybody remembers the Immaculate Reception, but Harris was a key cog in the offensive consistency (buoyed by defensive dominance) that helped the Steelers win 4 Super Bowls in the 70s.  He's also Italian, which always is a plus

John Riggins (New York Jets 1971-75; Washington Redskins 1976-85)-Riggo technically was a fullback on the roster, so he really should not be on a running back list...but A) It's my list (and he's only an HM) and B) anybody who decides to take a bow in a playoff game after scoring 3 times and rushing for 185 yards makes a top running backs list.  Oh yeah, there was also this (Skins fans, it's OK to watch this one :-))

Frank Gifford (New York Giants 1952-1964)-Alright, real quick, let's do some word association.  I say Frank Gifford, you say...Kathie Lee?  OK, now that we got that out of our system, we can talk about Frank Gifford the running back.  Gifford was the prototypical halfback of the 1950s and early 1960s: versatile, durable, and can take plenty of hits.  He won the NFL MVP in 1956, and led the Giants in the Greatest Game Ever Played (the 1958 NFL Championship against Baltimore).  The Giants lost in overtime, but Gifford did his part rushing 12 times for 60 yards and catching 3 passes for 15 yards and scored once.

Adrian Peterson (Minnesota Vikings 2008-) I know that I haven't shown a whole lot of love to the modern guys, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick AP.  Chris Johnson is a crybaby (he wants "playmaker" money), MJD is too inconsistent (and he gets hurt too much), and who else out there really is a standout back that should make a top 10 list? 

And here we go!  Time for the top 5 running backs in NFL history!

5) Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions 1989-98)



From profootballhof.com

 Believe it or not, there was a day and age when the Detroit Lions were actually pretty good.  For one magical season (1991), the Lions went 12-4 and earned the #2 seed in the NFC playoffs that year, earning a first round bye, the only time in the team's history that they have done that.  Unfortunately for them, the NFC Championship game was in DC, a place they have NEVER won.  Of course they lost 41-10 (following up a 45-0 whipping in week 1 that year).  Barry Sanders is why the Lions were good.  They had other players, Rodney Peete is usually mentioned, but the Lions of the 90s began and ended with #20.  The Lions made the playoffs 5 times in the 90s and won the division twice.  Take Barry out of that backfield, do you really think they do anything like that?  Come on...it's the LIONS!  They are still the Lions, but for one decade, Barry Sanders transcended the Lions.  The Lions weren't good, but Sanders was just so elusive, so slippery, so quick, he took a bad team, and actually made them decent.  In Detroit, that's not easy to do (nobody has done it since).  Sanders rushed for over 1,000 yards in every season in the league, including a 2,000 yard season in 1997.  After a 1998 season in which he rushed for over 1,400 yards, he abruptly retired.  I remember it.  We were on vacation in Myrtle Beach when he announced.  Nobody really knows why, but there are theories, such as he knew that as long as the Detroit Lions were his employer, he wasn't going anywhere (they made the playoffs in 1999, but have not been back since).  They wouldn't trade him to anybody else, but by the time his contracts expired and he became a free agent, his prime years would be behind him, so he got out while he was still healthy and at the top of his game.  Not many players can say that they did that.  Now, to be fair, I know it seems like I'm dogging the Lions a lot in this bit, but they really did take good care of Barry while he was there, and they built their teams around him.  They were smart to know what they had that worked, and they were regular playoff participants as a result. 

4) Red Grange (Chicago Bears 1925, 1929-34; New York Yankees 1926-28)



From espn.com

 I know it seems like this list is heavily favored toward old guys (and you'll see more of the same in the top 3), but the reason is pretty simple.  The old guys played in a day and age when running the football was the way to go.  Passing was just shunned (except of course for Sammy Baugh).  In the earliest history of the game, you would see pass run ratios along the lines of 10-1 or even higher.  Therefore, the running backs had to be versatile and durable (especially since many of them played both ways).  In the case of Red Grange, you don't get the nickname "the galloping ghost" if you were not pretty good, and in those days, you had to be REALLY good since EVERYBODY ran the football.  As a multisport athlete at Illinois, it was big news when Grange signed a contract with the Chicago Bears.  He was credited with beginning the legitimazation of pro football, which up until that point was vastly inferior to baseball (Babe Ruth in the Roaring 20s?).  As a back, Grange was pretty good too.  His numbers were mediocre by today's standards, but when you consider that they only played 8 or 9 games a year in those days, 800 yards was a huge total.  George Halas told Chris Berman in 1979 once that Grange could rush for 800 yards in that era.  When Berman challenged Halas that 800 yards wasn't that good, Halas came back and said that Grange was 75 years old!  What does that tell you?

3) Walter Payton (Chicago Bears 1975-87)



From profootballhof.com

 One of the greatest travesties in sports (according to some critics) was Mike Ditka letting William "Refrigerator" Perry score the final touchdown in Super Bowl XX and not Walter Payton.  Sweetness was one of the big reasons why the Bears were as good as they were in the 1985 season.  Say what you want about the 46 defense, but Walter Payton is who made the offense click, rushing for over 1,500 yards.  The quarterback position was a circus, but the one constant was Payton, who was the spark the Bears organization needed following the abrupt retirement of Gale Sayers.  By the end of his career, Payton had set the NFL career rushing record at 16,726 yards to go along with 110 touchdowns.  His signature high-stepping style successfully confused defenders into guessing where he would  go next.  Next thing you know, he slipped away like greased lightning and high-stepped into the endzone...only to give the ball to the back judge.  He played the game the right way, and didn't take much toward showing the other team up.  There's a reason they named the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award after...Walter Payton. 

2) Jim Thorpe (You want to figure out the teams that he played for...go to his wikipedia page)

When you enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH, the very first thing you see when you walk into the lobby is this.

Yes, that is in fact me standing on the staircase, but ignore my ugly mug for a minute.  The statue is a bronze of Jim Thorpe.  Everybody in the Pro Football Hall of Fame has a bust from the neck up.  Thorpe was so important to the development of the game of football, he didn't just get a bust.  He got a whole statue!  Makes you wonder who is #1 if Thorpe is only #2.  In any event, Thorpe is considered the first player to get paid to play the game of football, just beginning the era of professional football.  Thorpe was an amazing athlete, winning Olympic gold medals in the Decathlon and Pentathlon at the 1912 games in Stockholm.  The fact that he decided to play this bizarre game called football sent shockwaves through the athletic world.  Oddly enough, it was playing pro baseball that officially stripped him of his amateur status.  He decided to go into football, however, after the Canton Bulldogs decided to pay him $250 a game in 1915.  Thorpe's teams never did all that well, but as an all-around athlete and a pioneer of the game, he earns a very high rank on this list. 

1) Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns 1957-65)



From profootballhof.com

 All the accolades for Jim Thorpe aside, this is, after all, a top running backs list.  I know that there will be some argument over who ought to be in the #1 position, but in my opinion, it is Jim Brown, hands down, end of discussion.  By the end of his career, he had set career records for touchdowns, rushing yards, and all purpose yards.  Many of those records have since been broken, but if you consider Brown played in an era with only 12 and 14 games in a season, well, you do the math.  He was Rookie of the Year, 4-time league MVP, eight-time All-Pro, he just dominated defenses that used to get a really good look at the 32 on his back.  He ran the ball, caught passes (Brown was a dominant two-way threat), and returned kickoffs to the tune of 15,459 career all-purpose yards.  In the Summer of 1966, Brown abruptly retired (just like Barry Sanders did above).  He didn't win a single title, and at age 29, he was still considered in the prime of his career.  Even though I said that 30 is over the hill for a running back, if you remember that they didn't play so many games back then, running backs had a lot longer shelf life.  With that in mind, Jim Brown could have had several more years in peak form, but like Barry Sanders above, he got out when he was still in top form, and more importantly, top health, and this was even with not missing a single game in his entire career!  Jim Brown, Caputo's Corner salutes you as our #1 running back in NFL History! 

Thanks so much for reading our countdown.  We're not done though.  We still got 3 more weeks in the preseason, that's plenty of time to do an examination of wide receivers, tight ends, cornerbacks, linebackers, and even linemen!  Stay tuned and thanks for following Caputo's Corner.