Think Before You Speak, Joe

By E. Spencer Kyte
Love of Sports Correspondent

Last week, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, turned television loudmouth, Joe Theismann expressed his belief that Deion Sanders is the best player in the history of the National Football League.

Sanders may have been great, BUT he was definitely not the best cornerback.

Nor the best defensive player.

He wasn’t even the best punt returner.

So, the “Best Player Ever?!?”

Joe, let’s be serious? While I would never question Prime Time’s talents and agree that he made each and every team he played for immediately better, these next ten guys might have a little bit of a problem with your assessment.

Note: These are not necessarily my picks as the 10 Greatest Players ever, but simply 10 dudes that rank ahead of Deion in my book. I actually had to trim the list from 20 or so.

10. LaDainian Tomlinson

I don’t think we actually appreciate how great L.T. is, because he’s great year-in and year-out. All he does is rack up yardage and score touchdowns. Even when he was the Chargers only weapon and teams would load up the box to stop him, what did he do? Score touchdowns. By the time he hangs them up, we’ll be talking about him as one of the Top 5 Running Backs ever, if we’re not already doing so.

9. Lawrence Taylor

The Original L.T. revolutionized the game by dominating his position the way no one else had done before. He was an absolute monster and the unquestionable leader of a terrific Giants defence throughout the ‘80s.

8. Jerry Rice

Read this piece and then try to argue against me.

7. Deacon Jones

Before they started keeping track of records for sacks, Jones had about 4,597 of them, give or take a couple here and there. Dude was nasty and served as the model for all the great pass rushers who have come after him, including the likes of Bruce Smith and Reggie White.

6. Tom Brady

Now that Matt Cassel has proven without a shadow of a doubt that not anybody can run the Patriots offense flawlessly, thereby proving that it’s not just the system, can we give Brady his due? At the end of the day, he’s the unquestioned best quarterback of his generation and will go down in the books as one of the best ever by the time he’s finished.

5. Brett Favre

Did you watch the 56-point display against Arizona? I rest my case.

4. Barry Sanders

Do you ever look back and wish Sanders had actually played for a contender just once during his career? Lions fans will claim they were contenders at various stages, but they never really were and that’s a shame, because the staggering numbers and incredible displays he gave us before retiring too early would’ve been even greater had he been surrounded by greater talents.

3. Walter Payton

How do you know “Sweetness” is one of the best ever? Simple - the two other running backs on this list both display elements of his game. L.T. has the “over the top” leap at the goal line and a nasty stiff arm. Barry had the “whoops, you missed me” elusiveness.

2. Joe Montana

Yeah, I don’t think I need to explain this one.

1. Jim Brown

He owned every rushing record in the history of the game when he retired and he did it all in nine seasons. Then he retired ... at age 29.

Like I said, there are a lot of other guys who could’ve made this list and I mean no disrespect to any of them. Except maybe O.J.