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If you were a sports reporter and asked Jim McMahon or Troy Aikman "who made your job easier as a NFL quarterback." They would probably responded and say having a hall of fame running back in the backfield. This is something I am sure Dan Marino would have agreed upon, unfortunately he never had a hall of fame running back. The running back position has produced some outstanding players and I will run down the 10 best of all-time.

1. Walter Payton This choice was an easy one for me considering Walter Payton did play in my lifetime. Payton was the all-time leading rusher and touchdown producer until Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith broke his record. Walter could do anything you asked him to do on the football field. He ran with speed, power and agility which these days you need two running backs just to duplicate the style of runner he was in his day. He also had some of the softest hands that you ever saw making him a bigger threat on third and fourth downs. Payton was one of the most skilled players but was also one of the most humble player ever to take the field. He screamed pure professionalism and class that many players these days need to pay attention too. He hardly ever spiked a ball or taunted a player it was just not his style to play like that, and many of his teammates and coaches wished they had 52 Walter Paytons dressing up to go and play a football game.

2. Barry Sanders Barry Sanders could make you juke out of your shorts at home while you watched him and I could not imagine how it was to try to tackle him. He oddly did play a shorter career compared to some of his counterparts of his time but he still left 20 years worth of highlights to watch. Teams literally had to gang tackle Barry to stop him and if you only had one guy between him and the end-zone good luck, he would beat that guy 99% of the time. Barry never really had the break lightning speed but was so elusive with his size and quickness he was hard to see in between all the bodies playing and by the time you saw him he was already by you. I saw Barry Sanders make more players do 360's more than any other running back I ever saw, he could have played in today's game and still dominated like he did for the Detroit Lions.

3. Jim Brown Before Payton, Smith, and Sanders there was one big man name Jim Brown and he played for the Cleveland Browns. Just watching all of those highlights from his day are quite amazing. Brown would run you over and back up over you to make sure he got the better lick

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