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How often have I seen this very list put forth on television sport shows? Probably just as many times as I have disagreed with them. The problem is that those who create those lists of the greatest Running Backs of all-time do not look at the whole picture.

For instance, a name that reaches the top of that list quite often and is always in the top five all-time is Jim Brown. They look at the yardage he gained. They see film of how he dominated the sport back then. They argue that if he did not leave early to make movies, he would have held an unbeatable record for career yards. All of these are important points, but the problem is that they do not look at the other side of the coin. We are not talking about the most dominating running back of all time but the greatest! When Jim Brown played, the defensive line-men were not much bigger than our line-backers now. Our defensive linemen now, run as fast as the linebackers did then. Jim Brown was a star caliber player playing on a field of lesser players. In 1989, there was a very good running back by the name of Christian Okoye. While he was a very good Running back, he was not and never will be considered one of the greatest of all time. He was a very large bruising running back in the manner of Jim Brown. The biggest difference between the two was simply that Brown played at a time when players were not as good. Okoye went against much better players. If Okoye would have played his career in the 1960's as Brown did, he too would have been dominating. Bring Brown to the modern era and he would not have been as dominant as he was. As great as Jim Brown was, these facts keep me from listing him as one of the all-time best.

Another fault I have with the list of greatest Running backs of all-time is the comparisons of Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith. Almost every list will have Smith above Sanders for three reasons. He had more career yards, he had more Touchdowns and he won super-bowls. One would often say... "Well duh! That sounds better to me!" But that comes from one who does not look at the complete picture. Emmit Smith played on a far better team, with a far superior line and played for more years. Many years, Barry Sanders had more yards than Smith had and he got them with a bad offensive line. Barry Sanders often was tackled for a loss because he would be hit as he was still taking the hand-off. The line was seriously that bad. The yardage Barry made came from his own abilities and rarely came from the line creating

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