NFL Freaks and Greatest Players! Who's your pick?

Submitted by NY-Wolverine3599 on
I recently got into to it with another fellow poster about their view on the NFL. They thought it was "amazingly boring". I can remember the day Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theismann's leg as a kid, as well as winning the super bowl for my beloved New York Giants. He was by far a freak athlete, GOAT, my favorite player growing up and was definitely not boring. Who you got!? And please, we all know TB12 is on everybody's list, so pick someone else.

Magnus

April 6th, 2017 at 9:59 AM ^

He burned out early because he fractured his hip socket. He had three 80+ touchdwns and two 90+ yard touchdowns. He averaged 6.8 YPC as a rookie and was averaging 5.6 during his fourth season when he got hurt. Adrian Peterson - who some consider to be the greatest NFL back of this generation - has a career-high of 6.0 and a career average of 4.9 (Bo's career average was 5.4). If Bo had played a full career and hadn't also been an all-star center fielder, he'd probably be in the discussion as one of the all-time great running backs, along with Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, etc.

Magnus

April 6th, 2017 at 10:42 AM ^

It's an older book by this point, but I found Dick Schaap's biography of Bo Jackson to be enthralling. "Bo Knows Bo" is one of my favorite sports books of all-time. There's some great stuff in there on how he grew up and what kind of freak athlete he was from a very young age.

amedema

April 6th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^

Burned out.....? An injury ruined his career. It's not like he had 2 good seasons and then sucked because the talent wasn't there. His injury was so freakish that he's considered one of the few people even possible of hurting himself like that. 

Swazi

April 6th, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^

Apparently fracturing your hip is burning out.  TIL.

 

The dude would play baseball all year then come play for the Raiders in October/November.  And even with missing 6-9 games per season, he still would get around 600 yards averaging over 5 YPC, and almost got a 1000 yards his third year when he started playing game 6.

Everyone Murders

April 6th, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^

A bit of a homer take here, but with the one-dimensional offense the Lions had for many years, Barry Sanders was always productive.  Even if the Lions were terrible any given year (remember that one time?), I could watch just to see Sanders play.  Best lateral movement / change-of-direction/speed player I've ever seen.

On the defensive side, the OT got it right I think.  LT was playing at a different level for a number of years.  As a younger fan, he made watching football less about focusing on the offensive play and more about the dynamics between offense and defense. 

Michigan4Life

April 6th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^

There's no one like him, period. He has the combination of height/weight, speed, and godgiven ability. Single cover him, he get over 150 with ease. He forces the DC to change his scheme by rolling his coverage towards him which made it difficult for any QB to watch opposing defense film because it's always different than what they see on film.

Sam1863

April 6th, 2017 at 10:01 AM ^

Probably an obvious pick, but that guy could do things on a football field that were incredible. I heard someone once say that he could could run sideways as fast as most players could run forward. While that might be an exaggeration, it's not by much.

Would have loved to have seen what he could have done while playing on a good team. I'm sure he would, too.

CRISPed in the DIAG

April 6th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^

Aside from TB12, I am providing the Board with a list of five (5) NFL players that would cause me to watch them on tv no matter what my schedule looked like on a given day:

1) Barry Sanders - others will say it better. 

2) LT - see above

3) Eric Metcalf - I loved the Browns of that era and he was as flawed and entertaining as they were. Probably best used as a PR, Metcalf would have been at home in RR offense as a slot mtn goat.

4) Michael Irvin - I forget where I saw this, but he was on tv in a retrospective. He described his approach to the game (some of this paraphrased): "When I get scared or afraid of catching a pass over the middle I just tell myself 'ok, mike, catch this or you're going back to the hood.'" Shady background/personal life, but Irvin would cut off his arm to win a game. I celebrate his entire catalogue going back to the U.

5) Roger Staubach - He suffered approximately 259 concussions due to the way he played (in addition to the nature of the way the League treated QB's in the 70's), so I hope he can avoid the same issues many younger players currently face. He was as much a threat to run as to pass. Never gave up in a game and would have put up better numbers if he could have played more years with Dorsett, Pearson and Hill. I'm not a Cowboys fan, but I had those cheesy home and away #12 Cowboys jersey every 70's kid wore.

 

 

EastCoast Esq.

April 6th, 2017 at 10:11 AM ^

Brian Dawkins was by far my favorite player. I am an Eagles fan, so I am VERY biased, but Weapon X was awesome.

I'm not sure how much he qualified as a freak athlete, but he played with a wild abandon that made him an absolute joy to watch.

There's also this:

 

alum96

April 6th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^

When I saw the title my first thought was also L.T.  Guy was fucking scary straight up.

No one will mention him since he was 300 lbs and didn't run a 4.5 or whatever, but I'd add Reggie White - he was a terror as a DE or a DT, he could do anything on the line.  A man among boys.  He did "Suh" things but better, and in an era when 300 lbs was not yet typical.

In terms of who had me clutching my heart like Redd  Foxx in Sanford & Son, Barry Sanders.  (Not an athletic freak I guess in terms of size etc but a ballerina in spikes).

Randy Moss above also a great choice.

MadMatt

April 6th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^

The "other" Woodson, who played for Purdue, the Steelers, the Raiders and the Ravens.  A CB physical enough to play LB, and a LB fast enough to play CB (at least before his knee injury).

Everyone remembers his contemporary Deion Sanders, but it was Woodson, not Sanders, who was named to the All NFL 75th Anniversary Team.  That was correct.  Deion was the greatest ever at taking away another team's best received one on one, but he couldn't change the game if the offense simply got the ball to someone else.  Woodson on the other hand, could cover feature receivers one on one, gamble on jumping a short route because he knew he had the speed to recover if the receiver went deep, blitz effectively, and was a force in run support.  The Steeler defense was built around him, and the offense couldn't avoid him.

Also, he tore a knee ligament on week 1 of the regular season, and recovered so fast that he played in the Super Bowl of the same season.