You forget how good Barry Sanders was

[erod]

I'm an Emmitt Smith guy until the day I die. He's my favorite player of all time. But holy moly......

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

That is why you are taught to wrap up and not just throw.

 

[Super_Kazuya]

I'm an Emmitt Smith guy until the day I die. He's my favorite player of all time. But holy moly......

Someone will chime in soon that Barry averaged 50 negative rushing yards per game based on a 20 year old, unverified Internet article. All to downplay a guy who ran for 15,000 yards in 10 seasons at 5 yards a pop...

 

[Aviano90]

Barry Sanders great at collecting highlight reel stats. Emmitt Smith great at collecting championship stats.

 

[T-RO]

Most fun back to watch, for sure. He makes defenders look like slapstick dopes. He's probably the best ever. Imagine if he'd played on a good team!

 

[TwoDeep3]

I call your Barry Sanders vs the Cowboys and raise you Emmitt Smith vs the Falcoms.

 

[Roadtrip635]

Bo Jackson, one of the big "what if" stories. If he had just focused on football and not gotten injured, what might had he accomplished. He was a true physical freak, very strong, very fast, great vision.... coulda been the best ever.

 

[ShortRound]

5'9 of no quit!

 

[Vanilla2]

Buncha woulda coulda shouldas up in this piece.

THE GOAT WEARS 22

 

[StarBoyz83]

I didnt. I think hes the goat

 

[foofighters]

Either way, that was a fun era to be a kid. Watching those two guys was a treat. My all time favorite was Eric Dickerson. He's the one I tried to mimic when I was playing. lol.

 

[Swanny]

I am fine with saying Barry Sanders is the best all time. I am also convinced if we had Barry instead of Emmitt we do not win 3 super bowls. Give me Emmitt

 

[DFWJC]

I'm an Emmitt Smith guy until the day I die. He's my favorite player of all time. But holy moly......

He was preposerously good.

Really, the only people in entire world that dont acknowledge that are a certain group of Cowboy fans.
I assume it's to tear someone down to build someone up.
Emmitt stands up on his own merits...so give Sanders his props!

 

[Aven8]

Nope haven't forgot at all. Anyone who rushes for 2,800 yards in a short season in college is a freaking stud!!

 

[jimmy40]

I'm an Emmitt Smith guy until the day I die. He's my favorite player of all time. But holy moly......

besides running a fumble the wrong direction being as lost as Tony Casillas was on that play may be the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen a defender do.

 

[yimyammer]

He makes defenders look like slapstick dopes.

speaking of, look at Norton & #75

 

[T-RO]

speaking of, look at Norton & #75

And Casillas is turned into a pillar of salt.

 

[big dog cowboy]

You forget how good Barry Sanders was

I don't. I live in his home town and drive by the football field named after him occasionally. I saw him play in high school.

 

[Diehardblues]

And he achieved it without a great team. Truly raw God given ability and a joy to watch much like OJ & Dorsett who I believe is the most talented RB in Cowboys history.

Sanders was no doubt the most talented in his era. Unfortunately the most talented are not always on championship teams.

That appears to have been near the end of the greatest era for RB’s in NFL history from the 60’s thru the 90’s.

My favs were Gayle Sayers, Jim Brown, Earl was a beast and no one else with his brut power and speed who I first saw play in high school at Sealy. OJ perhaps the most gifted of them all on horrid Buffalo teams in bad weather. Then Dorsett came along . He was truly gifted. Walter Payton, Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson in the 80’s the best that era.

All of these I’d rate above Emmitt as far as raw talent but few have been the champion Emmit was. Emmit while being one of the greatest wasn’t necessarily one of the most talented. I doubt he is all time leading rusher and 3 time champion on the Bills in the 70’s or Lions in the 90’s.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Barry Sanders was one of the greatest running backs of all time. However, I believe Emmitt Smith was a better fit for that 90s era Dallas Cowboys. Sanders was the best pure runner of that era, but Smith was a better all-around back. It made a big difference that Smith was a good receiving running back in addition to being a good runner. Could that team have been successful with Sanders instead of Smith? Sure. Sanders was an amazing talent and that was a well-rounded team on both sides of the ball. But we're talking hypotheticals because we could not have drafted both Aikman and Sanders without some kind of bizarre trade, and that could have hurt us down the road. If for some bizarre reason, the Lions and Cowboys had traded Sanders for Smith straight up, those 90s teams could have been successful with Sanders, but the approach would have been quite different.

There are other running backs I wished at the time could have been Cowboys. I loved OJ Simpson. The Cowboys of the 70s would have made smarter use of his skills than his lowly Bills did. Simpson was way better than the running backs we had at the time such as Calvin Hill and Robert Newhouse. That's not a slam on them; they were quality running backs, but they didn't have what Simpson had. Today I'm somewhat relieved that Simpson didn't play for the Cowboys because of what a jerk he ended up being in his personal life, but at the time I wished he had played for the Cowboys. I also would have love to have had Walter Payton. He was an amazing runner and a stand-up guy, but the team did pretty well with Tony Dorsett.