Best Running Back EVER!

The Greatest Running Back EVER!

Ok, let’s do something controversial…..

I actually got this idea from something I saw ESPN do last year. They did their “25 greatest college players” and watched in disappointment in how they seemed to come up with names picked out of a hat.

I am not saying those guys listed were not great…but the order they showed them left a LOT to be desired. So I decided to do something similar but with some adjustments.

In a future blog, I am going to count down the greatest running backs in NFL history…and I am doing it by myself…and a formula.

You see, on order to decide who is the best, there has to be a fluid guideline. Fluid in that what is today will not be tomorrow. The best of any sport today is fine, but what happens 10 years from now? Or 5 years from now? Time has a way of changing what we think is the best…

(kinda reminds me of the crappy job VH1 did of the best songs of the 80’s…Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album has at least 2 or 3 songs that should have been number one…but that is for another time…)

So if I am going to make an honest attempt at who the greatest running back in the NFL is, I have to create a formula to test the credibility of the list of greatest running backs. What I did was break up the essence of “greatness” into a few categories, and will award certain points based on each of those factors.

So what ARE those factors? They break down into 4 groups:

1. TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

This is something many people don’t really think about, but simply put, a great player MAKES great teams, or at least makes others great around him. Let’s not forget that in sports, the bottom line has been, and will always be, about winning. Did your favorite running back WIN a Superbowl…or Superbowls? That is part of greatness, the ability to prove that your efforts contributed to the greatest prize in football. THAT is what makes you great.

So what about those who played BEFORE there was a Superbowl? This is actually factored in too, because to me, the championships they had before there was a Superbowl still count as forms of greatness. I cannot penalize Jim Brown because he never had a chance to go to a Superbowl because there wasn’t a Superbowl then.

But we cannot ignore the fact that winning is part of greatness, and the Superbowl is the perfect example of winning. But we also know that some of the best running backs never made it there, so there are points awarded for the losers of Superbowls as well as backs who played in conference championships. I’ll get into more detail on those later once I start with the top running backs.

2. INDIVIDUAL STATS

Well this is pretty obvious too, I mean, to be the greatest running back, you gotta be on some list of the all time best in a few categories, right? Even if you are not #1, you gotta be somewhere on that list. I broke it down into points based on where a back is on the all time lists. If for example you are #1 in a category, you get more points than someone who was in the top 5...or top 10, top 20 or top 30. A running back who is number 4 all time will have more points awarded than one that is #19.

Since we are talking about the greatest running back, we have to place some emphasis on the individual career, not the team. Yes, team success is critical, but the individual stats of a running back separate him from others in that he clearly has stats that prove his ability.

3. INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

You can’t be great if you don’t have any awards, right? I mean, if you think up some of the greatest all time, you know they won some awards throughout their career. What I did was identify about 6 of the biggest awards a running back can win, and will award points for EACH time he has won that award. For example, if a running back won the MVP twice, he gets twice the points as just winning it once.

I also ranked the awards in levels of importance, and placed a set value on each. In my formula, I believe winning an MVP is more important than being selected to the Pro-Bowl. But these things can even out, if for example one running back may have won the MVP once, while another has gone to the Pro-Bowl 8 times. This allows me to have some flexibility in the points.

4. ERA ADJUSTMENT

Now THIS is where things get dicey.

Part of the entire basis of the argument is based on who is the greatest NOW. This is where I think ESPN missed it, because in their list of greatest college players, they named Red Grange as the best of all time.

UH…NOT HARDLY.

Think about what “greatest” means. That means that if you could assemble the greatest college players in one place, right now in 2008, and EACH of those players were at the prime of their career, then by ESPN’s standards, Red Grange, a guy who played DECADES ago, would be better than ANYBODY. I do not want to sound negative against a great player, because Red Grange was great, but nobody sane can tell me that he would be better than ANY other college football player.

That is silly because TIME was never factored. This is what I want to incorporate into my list.

Folks, I want to give you my list of the greatest running backs of all time…but I am limited to only 2008. I cannot tell you what will happen in 2009, or 2019 for that matter. So I can only use history up until now.

But what I am also factoring in is a simple fact…that today’s athletes are BETTER than those before. I am not saying that guys in the NFL right now are better than those who played 3 years ago… but I am saying that the game of football and progressed in every way in the last 70+ years.

Guys are stronger, faster, plays are much more complicated and numerous other factors. Nobody is going to tell me that a running back in 1950 is better than any running back in 1980. Thirty years of football has passed and guys got better, stronger, faster and smarter.

It’s like if you has the ability to go back in time, and get the fastest car in 1965 and bring it to a drag strip to race against the fastest care today…no contest. Even an average car of 1965 stands no chance against an average car of today.

My point here folks is that just as we award greatness, we also have to temper it with time. A great running back of 1976 compared to a great running back of 1996 has twenty years of disadvantage against him. Now, this does NOT mean he is inferior; that is what the other factors are for.

So a part of this formula is to actually SUBTRACT points from running backs depending on the decade they played in or finished their career. For example, there will be no subtraction of points from any athlete who played after 2000. But the further back your favorite running back is, the more points that will be taken away.

This is going to create a big controversy because some will wonder where Jim Brown will fit, or O.J. Simpson. But by my formula, they HAVE to lose points because today’s athlete is built off the former, and they are more knowledgeable to professional football. I am actually very interested in how they will fit as well.

So, there it is…now the real debate…who IS the greatest running back ever? Stay tuned….