He nailed field goes from an eternity away. He nailed them from the stupidest angles possible. He nailed them early, nailed them late, nailed them with the game on the line.
And he was a block of ice in the clutch. I don’t remember a single critical blunder he made when it mattered the most. Even…Morten Andersen, was it?..had that infamous miss against the Falcons that cost the Vikings a conference championship.
Maybe I’m just being a homer, but it’s tough to argue against him.
I wouldn’t call those Raiders teams terrible. Of the sixteen years Brown played for the Raiders, they had only five losing seasons (averaging a little over a .500 record over that time). Not that they were tearing it up all those years, but far from terrible.
(If you couldn’t tell I’m a huge Rice fan, and i’m just defending his G.O.A.T. status with whatever I can grab)
I don’t see how you can put these players (except maybe Woodson) in this discussion. I would take Lott in a nanosecond against any of these players. Ed Reed is good at playing center-field, but he isn’t taking on a full speed RB and taking them down. Polamalu is good too, but has been in the league for what? Five years? Not long enough to put him in the discussion.
Could you see any of today’s players having part of a finger amputated, and then came back out on the field to play?
I am almost 40, have never followed basketball and I have heard of Bill Russell. I don’t think MJ is the consensus you think he is. He is just the most recent great player most non-fans can name.
What a terrific hijack this thread has become. I’d like to make a couple of points, if I may. IMHO, Michael Jordan is the Greatest 2 guard of All Time, and I am confident that that should be undisputable. While Wilt may have played with some outstanding teammates over the years, I don’t believe that he had anyone of Pippen’s stature while he was at the top of his game (he played w West during the twilight of his career). During the 90’s, no other team came anywhere near the Bulls in talent regarding their top 2, if for no other reason than the presence of # 23.
Regarding Football, I am surprised that Deacon Jones has only been mentioned once, and that Ray Lewis not at all. It has been said that had the sack been a statistic when he played, he would still hold all the records. And while I do believe that Taylor is the GOAT, I feel that Lewis should be in the conversation (re linebackers, didn’t someone here earlier refer to Dick Butkus as Mike?)
I forgot to say - while I think Pippen tends to be underrated as a player, Billy Cunningham, Hal Greer, and Chet Walker were all individually at least approximate to Pippen in ability – all good all-around players, each an effective scorer in his own right, and from what I know of Greer and Cunningham, at least, they were excellent defenders – and it so happens that all three of them were on Wilt’s team at the same time, which is where my comparison of the relative supporting casts came from.
My mentioning of the talent level of the Bulls top 2 was regarding the assertion that during their title years there were a dozen teams with comparable talent; it is a point that I disagree with because Jordan was far and away the best, and that Pippen was in the top ten.
Right, and I agree with that. My assertion was that dozens of players in the 90s had comparable supporting casts, though, not that dozens of teams were as good as the Bulls. I wouldn’t argue that other teams were as talented as Jordan’s, including Jordan, because I don’t think any team was ever as talented as Jordan’s, because of Jordan.
Thanks for clarifying, JC. The supporting cast is also what seperated Russell’s teams from Wilt’s. Also, regarding Wilt, he was an outstanding athlete, and competed quite successfully in track and field.
Getting back to football, I’d rank Jim Brown as top rb, and I imagine that he would have excelled in the modern game, catching passes and picking off blitzing defenders when called for. He was also one of the best lacrosse players of his day.
I’m not a Packers fan, but the lack of mentioning Don Hutson is sad. He still has half a dozen records that Jerry Rice never broke, despite playing in a distinctly non-pass happy era.
And at TE, I don’t think Winslow can be given a shoo-in without considering Tony Gonzales.
Meh, He never played in the European leagues, he shone in the '58 cup when many of the great teams did not compete. He was great in the Brazil team of 1970 but, and I am barely joking here, I probably could have played on that team because that team was so good at every position.
For me, it’s Maradonna or Best. Maradonna for getting to two WC finals and for winning Serie A in the 80’s with a fairly weak team.
Best was incredible. Power, pace, skill, great in the air and he could tackle so well.
For American football I’d take Montanna at QB. Simply put, the man won wherever he went and was a hair’s breath away from going all the way with Kansas City.
What about Eusebio? Best never played in a World Cup (not that it was his fault), so you can’t very well argue that he proved himself against the world’s best.
Anyway, you can’t nominate anyone you can’t spell, so Lochdale’s vote for Montana doesn’t count.
