Emmitt Smith >>> Everybody Else

[alexamenos]

Greatness of Dallas Cowboys' Emmitt Smith was durability jjt

During the NFL's wild-card weekend, I experienced a moment of clarity: We're really just starting to understand Emmitt Smith's greatness.

I realize how silly that sounds, but watching LaDainian Tomlinson struggle drove home the notion that no one is going to break Smith's rushing record any time soon.

Tomlinson, ranked 14th with 11,760 yards, was the only runner we could label a legitimate threat to break Smith's all-time rushing record at the start of the season. It's pretty clear he already has started to decline.

A knee last year. A groin this year. Tomlinson's body can no longer withstand the physical rigors of a 16-game season.

So Smith's record – 18,355 yards – is safe for another 20 years.

Maybe 30. Or longer.

The reasons vary.

We're in the midst of an era when teams pass the ball more than ever. Last season, 19 teams threw the ball at least 55 percent of the time, including six that passed at least 60 percent of the time. Only five teams ran more than they passed.

Then there's this current infatuation with the dual running back system – and it doesn't matter whether teams have a stud like Adrian Peterson or Michael Turner.

Smith never even considered sharing the ball.

Seven seasons, Smith carried the ball at least 319 times. In the last two seasons, only six players have hit that figure.

Ultimately, though, it's Smith's durability that ultimately set him apart from all others.

God blessed him with a thick lower body as a foundation and a low center of gravity that helped prevent him from taking the types of big hits Peterson regularly absorbs because he runs so high.

Smith missed 11 games in 13 seasons, and six of those came in 2004 as a member of the Arizona Cardinals, when Roy Williams fractured Smith's shoulder in his return to Texas Stadium.

Smith was never as flashy as Barry Sanders, the prettiest runner not named Gale Sayers to ever carry a football. Smith was a grinder, whose artistry occurred in the subtle moves and quick cuts he used to turn 2-yard runs into 6-yard gains and 6-yard gains into 10-yard bursts.

Don't get me wrong. We all knew Smith was great when he played. I just think we took it for granted because he was so consistent.

Jim Brown, the best running back in NFL history, held the record for 21 years. Walter Payton kept it for 18 years.

File 2002
Emmitt Smith set the NFL rushing record against the Seahawks in Texas Stadium in 2002.
View largerMore photos Photo store Smith broke the record in 2002 on an 11-yard, fourth-quarter run against Seattle. He gained more than 2,000 yards in three forgettable seasons in Arizona, but that doesn't diminish his stature any more than Brett Favre's legacy will ruined by his season with the Jets.

Most running backs start declining at 28 because the punishment their body has absorbed begins taking a toll. They can still see the holes open, but they can't accelerate through them.

Have you forgotten about Curtis Martin's demise? Some folks thought he would break Smith's record after he rushed for 1,697 yards and 12 touchdowns as a 31-year-old. A year later, Martin retired after gaining 735 yards in an injury-plagued season.

Shaun Alexander gained 1,880 yards and scored 27 touchdowns in 2005, when he was 28. He gained 24 yards on 11 carries this season as a forgotten member of the Redskins, who signed him off the street midway through the season.

The testament to Smith's greatness is what he did after he turned 30, gaining 5,789 yards.

Tomlinson, who gained 364 fewer yards this season than last, while averaging nearly a yard less per carry, doesn't turn 30 until June. For the first time in his eight-year career, Tomlinson didn't carry the ball 300 times.

And with the way Darren Sproles has performed in the final month of the season, Tomlinson's days as the featured back in San Diego are over.

All that does is illuminate Smith's greatness.

Smith didn't put the ball on the ground, he put blitzing linebackers on their butts, and he was the greatest ever at consistently turning three yard runs into five yard runs and five yard runs into 8 yard runs. He always found a little extra while going to the ground. He was a much better football player than Barry Sanders, among others.

[jthig32]

Put the two backs on each other's teams and Barry Sanders is unquestionably the greatest running back that ever lived. End of story.

[alexamenos]

Sanders was the flashier of the two, without a doubt. If you wanted a highlight reel run you give the ball to him several times and you'd get something spectacular.

OTOH, you give it to smith if you had first and 10 and wanted 2nd and 5 (as opposed to a loss of two yards while your flashy running back danced around the back field trying to make a huge play).

[Murphy3]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Put the two backs on each other's teams and Barry Sanders is unquestionably the greatest running back that ever lived. End of story.

Wow..such authority. Sometimes when people speak with such authority, you almost tend to just take what they say as truth... almost

[alby]

Smith's running < Sanders's running
Smith's catching = Sanders's catching
Smith's blocking > Sanders's blocking

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

Sanders was the flashier of the two, without a doubt. If you wanted a highlight reel run you give the ball to him several times and you'd get something spectacular.

OTOH, you give it to smith if you had first and 10 and wanted 2nd and 5 (as opposed to a loss of two yards while your flashy running back danced around the back field trying to make a huge play).

He was dancing around in the back field because he ran behind a horrible offensive line, played with an incompetent QB, and played for an incompetent head coach.....for his entire career.

And yet he averaged 5yds/carry for his entire career.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Wow..such authority. Sometimes when people speak with such authority, you almost tend to just take what they say as truth... almost

Isn't that like Murph's rule of posting #1? Post as the ultimate authority on the subject?

[Silk Smoov]

Originally Posted by jthig32

Put the two backs on each other's teams and Barry Sanders is unquestionably the greatest running back that ever lived. End of story.

Are you talking about greater RB than Smith? Because the Greatest RB of All-Time is James(Jim) Nathaniel Brown by far...It is not even close...Pound for pound!!!! Only played 9 seasons, and NEVER missed a game...

[dalmations202]

Arguing Greatest RB is like arguing whether Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan is the best player ever in basketball. Opinions.

I'd probably take Bill Russell, or Oscar Robertson as best ever -- but that is just an opinion as well.

Jim Brown was excellent, Smith holds the records though because he did it longer. Sanders was great, but he played on awful teams.

With that said Earl Campbell is my vote for best ever -- if you discount longevity. I loved watching him run.

<edit> I forgot to include Walter Payton... no GREAT running back discussion can be had without including his name, IMO.

[Silk Smoov]

Originally Posted by dalmations202

Arguing Greatest RB is like arguing whether Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan is the best player ever in basketball. Opinions.

I'd probably take Bill Russell, or Oscar Robertson as best ever -- but that is just an opinion as well.

Jim Brown was excellent, Smith holds the records though because he did it longer. Sanders was great, but he played on awful teams.

With that said Earl Campbell is my vote for best ever -- if you discount longevity. I loved watching him run.

<edit> I forgot to include Walter Payton... no GREAT running back discussion can be had without including his name, IMO.

I dont agree with Earl Campbell at all. I would not even name him in the Top 10. Now, I loved to watch him play and his bruising style, but Earl is the exact same bruiser as Jim Brown BUT w/o the speed. Bruiser/Speed Combo is something that usually dont mix. Jim Brown did it best, and I would say that Walter Payton was 2nd in that combination. IMO, but like you said, we can make a case for a couple of players on this, but IMO Earl Campbell is not close to being the Greatest RB of All-Time. At the time, I liked Jim Riggins over Earl

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by jthig32

He was dancing around in the back field because he ran behind a horrible offensive line, played with an incompetent QB, and played for an incompetent head coach.....for his entire career.

And yet he averaged 5yds/carry for his entire career.

I don't dispute that Sanders was a great running back, but the extent to which he did it inspite of his teammates is a bit overblown -- the lions had some darn good teams in the 90's. If we ask which running back was faster, which was more capable of juking a couple of defenders out of their jocks, which was more likely to break a 50 yard, then there is no question that the answer is Sanders.

...but, if we ask instead which running back will get you three yards on 3rd and two, which running back will give you 4 yards time and time again when you've got a 4 point lead in the fourth quarter and you're trying to burn some clock, which back is going to nail a linebacker on 3rd and long when you've got to have a first -- the answer is Smith.

It's an oversimplification to say that Smith was a power back and Sanders was an elusive type back...it's an oversimplification because this view doesn't take note of the fact that Smith wasn't any bigger than Sanders, Smith was just a lot slower.

All of this is why I carefully said that Smith was the better football player than Sanders. Sanders was far and away the better athlete, Smith was just a gamer.

How good of an athlete was Smith? I'm not saying he wasn't a great athlete, just that right now the Cowboys probably have 3 running backs on their rosters with athletic abilities that equal or surpass Smith.

My bigger point -- and it's really for the guys 'round here who didn't see pretty much ever Smith carry during his NFL rushing record setting career with the cowboys -- is that Smith's greatness was in his grinding consistency, not his flashiness. Smith's greatness wasn't in the huge game-breaking run, it was in picking up 4 yards when any other running back would have only gotten 3. He didn't go sideways on the way down. The guy never, never went backwards when he went down. More than any other back I've ever seen, Smith always picked up an extra yard and half on the way to the ground. Over the course of 4,000 or so attempts in a career that extra yard or so is the difference between being the career rushing record holder and a durable but forgettable running back.

A final note, on the oft cited greatness of the Cowboy's line -- when Smith won the league's MVP in '93 the starting offensive line was:

Tuinei, Newton, Stepnoski, Gogan and Williams

When he Cowboys went 1-15 a few seasons earlier the offensive line was:

Tuinei, Newton, Rafferty, Ker, Gogan

Nobody was talking about that '89 offensive line as a great offensive line--in fact it was abysmal. Williams for Ker was a significant upgrade, but Rafferty was actually a very good center for a decade plus in the league so the addition of Stepnoski wasn't that big of an upgrade over what the cowboy's had when Smith arrived....point being, the Cowboy's offensive line dramatic improvement was one part Eric Williams and one part Emmitt Smith. All the offensive line had to do for years was get a body on somebody, anybody. One can reasonably argue that it was Smith that made the offensive line great and not the other way around.

[Underdog]

Sanders might have been one of the greatest RBs ever, but he wasn't smart enough to get out of Detroit... He's a prime example of where loyalty gets you in the NFL - the "could have been" category...

At the end of the day - Smith has rings, Sanders doesn't (and you can't pretend that Emmitt didn't have a LOT to do with earning those rings!)

[jthig32]

The Lions, despite having (imo) the greatest running back of all time, had a below .500 record while Sanders played for them and was such an incompetent organization that Sanders retired rather than staying on to easily lay claim to the rushing title that Emmitt would never have sniffed.

Sanders did turn them into a semi-legitimate team at times on the field. They had several good years after being putrid for three years before he got there, but he couldn't overcome everything himself.

There's no way to settle this argument, but the fact that Sanders is even in the discussion against a back like Emmit, given Emmit's line and really his entire offensive team, is a testament to how amazing Sanders was.

The only concession I am willing to make on Sanders vs Emmitt is that Emmitt was in fact better suited for a team like the Cowboys, that had playmakers elsewhere and did not need the gamebreaker running back. But believe me, if Barry Sanders had ever run for the Cowboys, there would have been a lot less dancing behind the line and a lot more touchdowns.

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by jthig32

...There's no way to settle this argument, but the fact that Sanders is even in the discussion against a back like Emmit, given Emmit's line and really his entire offensive team, is a testament to how amazing Sanders was.

The only concession I am willing to make on Sanders vs Emmitt is that Emmitt was in fact better suited for a team like the Cowboys, that had playmakers elsewhere and did not need the gamebreaker running back. But believe me, if Barry Sanders had ever run for the Cowboys, there would have been a lot less dancing behind the line and a lot more touchdowns.

It's necessary to put some things into context -- the '92-95 Cowboys were among the greatest football teams ever assembled. So, to say that Smith had that player and that other player on the football team and therefore he was able to do what he did because he had these great players around him rather misses the point that the team would not have been among the greatest ever had Smith not been so great himself. Of course Aikman was great, as was Irvin -- but that doesn't diminish Smith's greatness.

the thing is....8 men in the box is 8 men in the box whether you've Michael Irvin on the outside or Herman Moore (a damn fine receiver, btw). And Smith was as likely to see 8 in the box as Sanders. Having Alvin Harper on the outside did not make Emmitt Smith a better player, and on 3rd and goal from the two it really doesn't matter whether the guy handing the runningback the ball is a hall-of-famer or Rodney Peete.

The Cowboys had other weapons on that team, of course they did--Smith made them offensive weapons. Smith made Jay Novacek and Alvin Harper -- opposing teams would put a safety in the box and linebackers were all keying on Smith all the time, hence Harper and Novacek were always running free. Hell, Harper's last season with the Cowboys was more productive than the remainder of his career elsewhere.

And again with the offensive line thing...

Smith's running style was very conducive to making an offensive line look great, and his ability to keep them out of third and longs did wonders for the pass protection. People forget that Smith was a pro-bowler behind virtually the same offensive line that carried the cowboys to a 1-15 record in '89.

[Murphy3]

Many forget that some of those lineman weren't thought of nearly as highly as the were after Emmitt came along. So what came first..the chicken or the egg?

[Rhylan]

I'm tired of the Emmitt vs. Barry argument because Barry is a quitter, simple as that.

Talk about Emmitt versus Jim Brown, Payton, etc.. I'm all for that. But I'm sick of hearing everyone talk about Barry. Barry coulda woulda shoulda. Well, Barry hung it up when he was still awesome and hadn't won squat. So he took himself out of the running for this debate. Honor his decision by leaving him out of it.

Jim Brown quit young, too, but at least he was the all-time leading rusher at the time.

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by Rhylan

Jim Brown quit young, too, but at least he was the all-time leading rusher at the time.

Not to mention that he quit to chase some Hollywood ass - that's a noble way to leave the game...

[jthig32]

Not sure how quitting while still awesome is somehow worse than hanging on until your're a terrible running back for the record.

Trust me, as a Barry fan (and a Cowboy fan, which puts me in a weird position in this debate) I wish he hadn't quit, but there's something to be said for the mystique factor of quitting before the decline sets in.

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Many forget that some of those lineman weren't thought of nearly as highly as the were after Emmitt came along. So what came first..the chicken or the egg?

1989 -- Tuinei, Newton, Rafferty, Ker, Gogan -- 1-15, Paul Palmer led the team in rushing (does anyone else remember Paul Palmer? I do)

1990 -- Tuinei, Ker, Stepnoski, Gesek, Newton -- 7-9, Smith makes pro-bowl as a rookie.

1991 -- Tuinei, Gogan, Step, Gesek, Newton -- Smith leads the league in rushing

With practically the same group of players in place (vet Rafferty ~= very young Step), the offensive line went from an abysmal group on an offense that could not move the football (forwards, anyway) to a group blocking for the league's leading rusher. I submit that this has a heckuva lot to do with the ability of that running back.

There's no question that the line of Tuinei, Allen, Step, Newton and Erik Williams (~94, 95....) was epically good, but Smith was already winning rushing titles before that group was completely in place. It's like I'm saying to jthig --

yeah, the offense of the early cowboys had very good players at every position--that's why they were one of the greatest teams ever. Smith himself was quite great and he would have been great had he run the ball behind the Detroit Lion's offensive line.

[Underdog]

Emmitt Smith > The Beatles > Jesus


(perspective?)

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Emmitt Smith > The Beatles > Jesus


(perspective?)

Led Zeppelin > Emmitt Smith > The Beatles > Jesus > Pole Vault Girl > MLK

[dalmations202]

The problem is that there is no real way to decide this one.

It is a totally opinionated question, unless you start laying down the rules -- like most yards, or most yards in one season, or YPC.

Three different answers. Emmitt, Dickerson, Brown.

Brown led the league in rushing 8 times but the league wasn't exactly the league of today. Too Many variables, but lots of ways to answer.

Emmitt had more 1000 yard seasons that Brown had seasons.

I can see the argument for Brown, Emmitt, Sanders, Dickerson, Payton, Campbell, even Bo Jackson. They are what they are though - still opinions.

[alby]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

Led Zeppelin > Emmitt Smith > The Beatles > Jesus > Pole Vault Girl > MLK

where does basketballgirl fall on this list?

[chumdawg]

I remember Paul Palmer. #26, right? That kid had electric abilities. His career fizzled out in KC, didn't it?

As for this debate, I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't give Emmitt the respect he is due. He simply did it all. And he's the one with all the trophies. While it may be fun to use your imagination and wonder how much better Sanders' career may have been on another team, the reality says that Emmitt wears the crown and all the others are pretenders to the throne.

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by alby

where does basketballgirl fall on this list?

Led Zeppelin > Emmitt > Beatles > Jesus > Pole Vault Girl > MLK ...

....

....

...Drunken Uncle at thanksgiving > basketballgirl25 > relatives who hit you up for money > psycho bitch ex-girlfriend

....

....Jeffrey Dahmer > Hitler > Antoine Walker > Satan

She's not like the worst thing ever, just kind of middle of the road annoying.