DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum The Greatest of All Time

Some of you know I played RB in high school and college. Love the position. Love the toughness of it. Love the speed. Love the flair and the dancing while you run. Love seeing things before they happen.

I have a lot of respect for many great RBs who were far superior to me. I mean no disrespect to any of them when I talk about this dude as the greatest player of all-time. But "nobody did it better" than this man. He was a 3-down back and a 3-tool back. He could run it, he could catch it, and he could block your ass.

He was fast. He had great moves. He had incredible balance. He was powerful. He had a great will to win and be the best. He would punish you.

I like to think that I was that kind of back, but I was doing it against inferior competition and could never hold a candle to this man. I only mention it because I want to show how much I respect his play. And again, in my opinion, he is the greatest of all time.

Walter Payton, Jim Brown, and Earl Campbell will be backs that will never ever be surpassed.

I'd hate to try and tackle any of them. They'd blow me up, or I'd get bruised if I took them down.

I would add Barry Sanders to that list, but outside of those 4, no one comes close.

This is a complete tangent off the subject, but your comment reminds me of a story.

I was in the Navy stationed at Pensacola Naval Air Station. We had a pickup game of tackle football, no equipment. I was playing LB and the RB on the other team (Ron Paradise) had played RB at college. He was big and fast. There was a sweep to the left and he broke clear of the line, it was me between him and the end zone and he was looking to run me over like a Mack truck. I planted my feet, lowered my shoulder and hit him in the abdomen and stopped him in his tracks. He got up and complimented my on the tackle and trotted back to the huddle. I stood up and did my best to look like I wasn't hurt, I felt that hit through my entire body!

That was in 1974, and I still feel that hit!!!

Gayle Sayers and OJ?

LOL it could go on and on and lot of really old school backs will be forgotten along the way. The Browns would have more than a few on that list depending on how big it is.

I'd put Jim Brown over Sweetness, but I'd put Sweetness above the rest.

How about Csonka? Personal fave. Payton and Sanders are good. JB did a lot, but more about how he was used. Sanders was incredible.

Thread has some Sweetness to it. . . .

Brown, Payton, Sanders

I was fortunate enough to have seen Payton, Campbell and Sanders play live. I think Bo Jackson deserves a mention even though his career was cut short.

All a matter of opinion, but no real beef from me. Sweetness was as good as they get.

Good thing Hue Jackson wasn't his coach.

Jim Brown, man up again and put on the jersey. Maybe we'll see a hole getting hit then lol.

To me it's a close call between Sweetness and Jim Brown. I really can't make that call. I will say that I have to give Payton the edge in the human being department though. He was a class act on and off the field.

Jim Brown is the Greatest of all time ask Barry Sanders!

I would have to rank Brown and Payton as #1 and #1A followed by Sanders, Campbell, Dickerson, and Dorsett.

for those of you who have more of a witnessing sense of browns history, who's our second, third, fourth, etc. best runners?

My dad says Leroy Kelly, Byner, Pruitt, Mack

Marshall Faulk and LaDainian Tomlinson are clearly not the best of all time, but their names should in this thread. Faulk had a season where he had 1381 rushing yards and 1048 receiving yards. Tomlinson had a season where he had 1815 rushing yards, 508 receiving yards, and 31 TDs.

Now I haven't seen Emmitt Smith's name here. So I'm just throwing it out there. Not that he's the best ever but he still belongs in the conversation.

Leroy Kelly was awesome for the Browns. I remember he took the sting out of the JB retirement.

sounds about right.

Can't have that conversation without HOF'er Marion Motley.

1) Jim Brown
2) Marion Motley
3) Leroy Kelly
4) Mike Pruitt
5) Kevin Mack
6) Greg Pruitt
7) Ernest Byner
8) Ernie Green
9) Bobby Mitchell
10) Eric Metcalf
11) Jamal Lewis
12) Dub Jones
13) Calvin Hill
14) Cleo Miller
15) Isaiah Crowell
16) Bo Scott
17) William Green
18) Edgar Special Delivery Jones
19) Reuben Droughns
20) Peyton Hillis


I am sure I forgot somebody.

Those only, well you left off the Kansas Comet, Gale Sayers....poetry in motion.

Sweetness was good, but Jim Brown in his prime has no peers.

GO Browns!!!

I LOVED watching Walter play. He was poetry. Truly beautiful with the ball in his hands. I don't believe anyone ever had a stronger work ethic either. Sweetness was elusive and acrobatic, made from concrete & steel.

I never saw Jim Brown, but my dad always said he was the best.

The best RB's I ever saw were OJ Simpson and Eric Dickerson.

I don't remember Marion Motley as i was too young, but everyone including Jim Brown i seen them all. There are so many that could be in the top 10.

IMHO, he was very, very good. Don't get me wrong...but he was also part of a very potent offense, and had an excellent run-blocking line, to go along with a HOF QB and WR. When you look at guys like Payton, Byner and Brown, you see an offense that was almost totally centered around their skills.

j/c:

I agree w/bonefish and a couple of others that this is very subjective. Allow me to ask a question and make a comment, please.

--Question: Did anyone take the time to watch the video? Even if you don't think Sweetness was the best, I thought there might be some comments on some of the plays he made. They were jaw dropping. Kinda makes me think people skipped the video. If so, I encourage you to check it just for pleasure. It's really cool.

--Comment: I loved Jim Brown and I think he was the best runner ever. I think Payton was the greatest of all time because he also was a ferocious blocker, an very good receiver, and could even throw it deep and w/accuracy. Jim Brown refused to block. That turned some people off. He didn't get throw to all that much. Payton was a much more complete back.

But again, it is subjective.

Here's my 2 cents on Walter Payton etc etc
At times I look at a RBS surrounding cast
Jim Brown had HOFers around him or some very great talent at WR OL QB at great coaches
Payton had at best average around him
Rickey Watts was no Gary Collins
James Scott was no Paul Warfield.
Bob Avellini along with Dan Pastorini was one of the worst qbs of that era
Payton was the whole show. He often led the Bears in recieving
Plus Payton played against better defenses
The Vikings defense Cowboys Doomsday Defense etc

He played on a lot of bad/mediocre teams, iirc. They didn't make the playoffs much, back in the late 70s, early 80s, before 1985 and a couple years after that. The GOAT? It's either Walter or Jim brown. It could be argued forever.

Since I've been a Browns fan, Mack is my favourite Cleveland RB.

You forgot Hoard and Touchdown Tommy

Different eras make it difficult-to-impossible to determine GOAT RB. When I was a kid, I watched Jim Brown, and he looked like a man among boys. He made it look so easy. He broke tackle attempts by D-linemen and LBs alike, and was fast enough to run away from most DBs. I don't want to denigrate his accomplishments, but IMO Jim Brown played 1960's era football in a 21st century NFL body. His size, 6-2, between 230-235 lbs, with near sprinter speed made him a freak for that era. His two OG's, the guys who lead-blocked the famous Browns sweep, were Gene Hickerson and John Wooten. They weighed in at 236 and 248 respectively. Our biggest DT at the time weighed 270; our linebackers were between 225 and 240lbs. All our DBs were 190 or less.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cle/1964_roster.htm

One other thing ... the league was not fully integrated yet in JB's era. When the Browns traded Bobby Mitchell to the Redskins for Ernie Davis, Bobby was the first ever black player for that franchise - just for example. Due to the slow integration of the league, Jim played against some pretty small, pretty slow, non-world-class-sprinting ... white ... DBs. Watch some of the video from those days. A lot of those guys not only couldn't hope to tackle Jim Brown, they couldn't even catch up with him. I hesitated to mention this, because I didn't want to "racialize" the discussion, but it is what it is.

Jim Brown would have been great in any era, but a lot of the guys he competed against couldn't play today.

Unless they juiced, that is.

Dave, as you stated different eras, the players in 50s/60s were like Josh Gordon, they sold cars for their other real job....the money and specialization hadn't happened yet. Race bias for sure happened.
Without Jim Brown's success and social activism Sweetness might never have been given a shot. Didn't block, a race horse doesn't plow.......GO Browns!!!

While I agree that most teams schemed to contain Jim Brown when they played us, its not like there weren't other weapons around him to keep opponents from totally selling out to stop the run. HOF'ers like Bobby Mitchell and Paul Warfield, guys who probably deserved HOF consideration like Gary Collins and Ray Renfro, a FB like Ernie Green, and two pretty good QB's in Frank Ryan and Milt Plum, all of them, made it impossible to just gameplan to stop JB. Those were some good-to-very-good Browns teams back then.

Good points, and Jim had better than average line...still, EO is right, MOST NFL raters state JIM, then all others....GO Browns!!!