by Dwight Mcgee

Created on: July 21, 2009

The debate of who is a better runningback between Barry and Emmitt will never be settled. That being said my personal opinion on it is that Barry was more amazing as a runner, but Emmitt is the better runningback. There are a few things that one needs to consider when comparing runningbacks.

The first thing I hear when this arguement comes up is that "Barry had no team and Emmitt was a product of a great team." Mainly this refers to the offensive line. I find this to be a rediculous statment. Emmitt had a couple pro bowl linemen durring the 90's, but people seem to forget that Barry did as well, Lomas Brown is a hall of famer and made 5 probowls, Kevin glover was selected to the pro bowl 4 times as well.

The Lions also ran out of singleback formations mostly with two Te's to give Barry the outside edge on sweeps. The Lions also had enormous wide receivers; Herman Moore was one of the best blocking wide receivers of all time and at 6'5" he would dominate corner backs. Germaine Crowell was also a big dominant wide receiver who was a great blocker.

People tend to forget that Emmitt's line after 95 was always hurt, and durring the early 90's they would put Deion Sanders at wide receiver, and he wouldn't even put a hand on db's on run plays. Dallas also had Aikman and Irvin as well, but they had the two in 89 and went 1-15 as well, they drafted Emmitt in 1990 and he was the eading rusher in only his second season.

The Lions also made the playoffs a few times when Barry was there. In fact, in 95, the Lions had the #1 offense in the NFL. Scott Mitchell threw for 4300 yards and 32 touchdowns; Barry had an even 1500 and 11 touchdowns and Herman Moore had 1686 yards (3rd all time) and 14 touchdowns. Aikman threw for 20+ touchdowns 'once' in his career and his career rating is also less than 1 point above Scott Mitchells with Detroit! Herman Moore's stats are very similiar to Irvins as well.

Another thing to consider is what does it take to be a great running back? Barry was very flashy and has the best highlight reel of any player you can talk about. But there is alot more to being a great running back then having a killer juke move. Emmitt could juke, spin, stiff arm, power run up the middle for short yardage, catch out of the backfield, and was an excellent blocker.

Barry was not the man you wanted to have in the backfield on 4th and 2 with the game on the line. Barry would tend to skip the first hole in hopes for breaking a big run, it's exciting to watch but

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