| The only one of those that I would say for sure is NOT the best is Emmitt Smith. I think there are a lot of running backs that could have put up his kinds of numbers when playing with that offensive line for all those years. I don't know much about the older teams, so it's hard to have much of an opinion about the older guys, but Barry Sanders proved he was one of the best pure runners ever when playing with those horrible Detroit teams.
I'd say either Sanders, Payton or or Jim Brown. I can't really call any one of them better than the others though. |