If you're willing to compare across eras, then it's Jim Brown and it can't even be close.
It's sort of an idiosyncratic pick, but I still feel like the best pro RB I've ever seen myself was Earl Campbell. I admired his work a hell of a lot more than anything I ever saw from Barry Preening Sanders. Maybe if Campbell had been afraid to take a hit then his career would have lasted as long as Sanders's.
The best college RB -- and player -- of all time is still, unfortunately, Herschel Walker. Hard to imagine what his career would have sounded like had the ESPN hype machine been in effect 30 years ago.
If Barry had that Dallas O-line in front of him, he would have been a 2000 yd rusher multiple times. And all those knocks about him not being a great goal line runner would be destroyed. The only pro-bowler he had in front of him was Lomas Brown (I think he was a 2 or 3 timer). Go count how many The Cowboys had during the time Emmit was there.
I can't think of any way Jim Brown finishes anywhere but first and by a substantial margin. Guess we could take limited time periods and some folks might approach him, but dude was a man among boys, even in the NFL.
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Barry and Jim Brown are the only two rushers to average more than 5 yards a carry in their career. I don't know if I would go as far as to say "by a substantial margin".
I would. Brown simply had the ability to carry people and a gear to go around them. Barry had to go around, but he could often.
Sanders was a great football player, but I class him with Walter Payton, though Payton could put his head down better. Those guys are second tier to Brown, who really has no peers.
Wasn't Ernie Davis supposed to be as good or better? Too bad he died so young. Agreed on Jim Brown though, watching old film and looking at the stats, he was simply the best there ever was.
Davis and Gale Sayers are both left from the conversation because of simple lack of carries.
Jim Brown was a good sized DT, with great speed, agile enough to play TB.
My wife and I watched that a few weeks ago. It was an interesting story.I watched The Express not too long ago, and while I got the feeling that some of it was overblown and the movie itself seemed a bit heavy handed, the Ernie Davis story is a sad but interesting one.
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Barry Sanders...far and away the best, not sure how anyone could even argue anyone else, he dominated on pathetic teams, everyone knew he was going to carry the ball and he still was the best player on the field every time he laced them up.