by Chris Bordelon

Created on: June 25, 2009   Last Updated: July 03, 2009

Who Was the Greatest Running Back in NFL History Barry Sanders or Walter Payton?

According to Mark Kram of Newsmakers, Barry Sanders is one of the premier running backs in the National Football League (NFL) if not the very best in the game today. While Encyclopedia of World Biography claims, American football legend, Walter Payton, earned a place in history with his career rushing record of 16,726 yards, an all-time high in the NFL.

However, both sources agree that Sanders and Payton alike were amazing athletes on and off the field; they differ when it comes to the caliber of teams they played on and the length of their careers. Which means Sanders who never played on a championship team and only played for ten seasons is clearly the underdog in the comparison of the two players, compared to Payton who played in numerous championships during his 13 year career.

In Kram's article he states that In his first two seasons as an NFL running back Barry Sanders rushed for more than 1,300 yards each season with a total of 27 touchdowns. He did this while playing for the struggling Detroit Lions. Sanders was drafted by the Lions in 1989 after playing his college football career at Oklahoma State University, where he set 13 college football records as a junior.

After being drafted Sanders received a 2.1 million dollar signing bonus which he donated one-tenth of to the Paradise Baptist Church in his home town (Kram). In his career Sanders rushed for a total of 99 touchdowns with 15,269 yards which was only 1,457 yards shy of Walter Payton's record of 16,726 yards. Sanders averaged over 100 yards a game in his career with an average of 1,526.9 yards and 9.9 touchdowns a season.

That is just simply amazing; no other running back in history can say that they have done the same. Although, many may say they hold such and such record and sure they might have been great players, there can only be one that was the greatest running back ever. It has been narrowed down to two running backs, Barry Sanders and Walter Payton.

According to Encyclopedia of World Biography, Walter Payton can say he holds the all-time rushing record but he would also have to say it took him 13 years to get there and he had a lot more help then Sanders did. Payton almost always had an all-star offensive line blocking for him throughout his career while Sanders never even had an average offensive line. Over his 13 year career Payton racked up 16,726 yards rushing with 110 touchdowns.

That is an

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