Well, I am not a lions fan. They won alot of games in spite of having a terrible coach. Your statement about playing for a "losing team" his entire career is incorrect. If you mean they didnt win the SuperBowl while he was there, then there are alot of quitters on the list.

1) Barry Sanders
2) Walter Payton
3) Jim Brown
4) Emmitt Smith
5) O.J. Simpson
6) Eric Dickerson
7) Earl Campbell
8) Marcus Allen
9) Marshall Faulk
10) Bo Jackson

i actually am not qualified to make a list. i never saw brown play and i was pretty young when payton played.

You realize Barry accomplished the same as well...

You're statement of:

I just chose to put players who wanted to play on my list.

is probably the worst statement I've seen on this board.

So...Michael Jordan would not be the greatest basketball player of all time?

Brett Favre considering retirement (ie. not wanting to play) makes him not one of the greatest quarterbacks?

You're just pulling up propaganda garbage....Don't hide behind some cockamamie blocking excuse...much less not even know that Barry helped Detroit to the NFC Championship game...

Sportsmensa...You ain't so mensa.

au contraire, unless you want to "debate" this with Merriam-Webster.

Main Entry: 1de·bate http://www.m-w.com/images/audio.gif
Pronunciation: di-'bAt, dE-
Function: noun
: a contention by words or arguments: as a : the formal discussion of a motion before a deliberative body according to the rules of parliamentary procedure

verb
1 obsolete : FIGHT, CONTEND
2 a : to contend in words b : to discuss a question by considering opposed arguments
3 : to participate in a debate
transitive senses
1 a : to argue about b : to engage (an opponent) in debate
2 : to turn over in one's mind

mensa?

I don't know that after I re-read my post I said it was a "bad" thing, but what I WAS saying was that sometimes Barry's own abilitites turned a no-gainer into a horrible loss. Sure it's an admirable quality to not give up, but you also have to realize when you've reached a point where nothing good is going to come of staying on your feet.

Best example of this is when you see a recieiver catch a ball downfield, instantly get wrapped up by 2-3 defenders, and push with all his might to stay on his feet and maybe get 2 more yards. The end result is quite often that while the defenders have the guy stood up, their chances of stripping the ball is pretty high. The risk/reward of getting 2 extra yards vs. being stripped of the ball is not equal, IMO.

That's just one example. You can't just be a hardnosed ball player, you have to be a smart one. I'm not saying Barry was not a "smart" ball player, but he was *sometimes* too stubborn to let a play die when the chances of making something more happen were close to nil.

I don't know that that's a *knock* on Barry's ability as it is a commentary on his stubbornness.

1.)Walter Payton
2.)Barry Sanders
3.)Emmitt Smith
4.)Jim Brown
5.)Earl Campbell
6.)Gale Sayers
7.)Eric Dickerson
8.)Marcus Allen
9.)Tony Dorsett
10.)OJ Simpson

While I agree with the basic premise of what you're saying, there is a huge difference between YPC for one game and an ENTIRE CAREER. For Barry's career his YPC is very high. It doesn't make that much difference to me how he got it there. Now if you look I don't have Barry number 1 myself, and I really don't want to argue who is better than someone else.

I can see a good argument for more than 5 guys and why they are number 1. I don't really care. It proves nothing, and there is no fool proof stat that everyone will agree with.

Van Buren was one of the greats and is a huge reason for 66.6667% of the Eagles Championships, but I don't know enough about other players during that era not on the Eagles, so I didn't want to include him and possibly slight someone else from that time.

That's right...You have nothing...Hang your head in shame.

Barry Sanders not in the top 10 all-time...

Summed up:

Sportsmensa | The entire human race other than Sportsmensa.

Urlacher would kill him.

1. Reno Mahe.


It doesn't really matter after that.

lol, uber nerds.....

1. Walter Payton
2. Jim Brown
3. Barry Sanders
4. Earl Campbell
5. Gale Sayers
6. Eric Dickerson
7. The Juice
8. Jerome Bettis
9. Franco Harris
10. Thurman Thomas

Barry did not quit he walked away cuz Barry did not DID NOT want to break Sweetness Rec Barry hated to be in the lime light also did not like Bobby Ross and what the lions did to some of his pals.

for all the guys who listed emmit ahead of barry? even emmit knows barry was better.

Not to mention having a statement like he did and then look at number 2 on his list, it makes one wonder.

I take back just about everything I said in that post. I blame being out in the sun all day...and Tice.

Except the last 2 lines. They still stand.

whats a mensa convention? and i hate the lions completely but I still idiolized sanders in school as the best rb, his footwork and awareness are unmatched period. he did things with a subpar team that noone else could. And there were times the lions line was terrible and he still was a 1000 + back, so yeh your right everyone is entitled to their own opinion but you cant deny greatness.

agree with all you said Wiskey *btw* just threw out that over a 10 year career you had to have some "sucessful" runs yourself. Seeing that he had more years in 10 years on less carries.