Tonight I will be watching the Jets make a rare Monday Night Football appearance. YAY!!
I have a friend on the island, an English bloke (that’s what they call themselves), who was excited to watch the Jets game because of their new quarterback, Brett Favre. He has never watched football before, but he heard about Favre changing teams, and his girlfriend is a big Favre fan, so he wants to see what the excitement is all about. Favre coming to New York is big news for the Jets, indeed.
But this friend of mine said something that got me thinking. He said that he understood that Favre was like the David Beckham of football (american football, not soccer football). I said that I didn’t think this was quite accurate (although it really is, as they are both superstars that are aging and past their prime, but still performing well). But I figured that he meant that Favre was the biggest star in the sport, and even though he is good, Favre is not that. And that got me wondering who in the NFL would be the equivalent of David Beckham. And that led to the more important question: Who is the Babe Ruth of Football?
Most sports have a “greatest player ever”. Baseball has Babe Ruth. Basketball has Michael Jordan. Hockey has Wayne Gretsky. Even Soccer has Pele (or Diego Maradona, the Barry Bonds to Pepe’s Babe Ruth). But what about Football? Who is the greatest ever to play the game?
It’s a tough question, because football is the ultimate team game. The positions are so specialized and everyone has different parts to do. Comparing a quarterback and a running back is apples and oranges. One would seem to have to think that the best player ever would be a quarterback, since it is the key position in the game. But I don’t know — there have been some other great players out there. In football the conversation seems to lend it self to greatest at a particular position. Lawrence Taylor can be argued as the greatest linebacker ever, Ronnie Lott the greatest safety ever. At Runningback you could argue Jim Brown or Emmitt Smith, maybe even Barry Sanders. At quarterback you could argue Montana, Starr, Bradshaw, Marino, and yes, Favre.
In some positions it is more clear than others, though. For the greatest wide receiver of all time, there is no argument. It is Jerry Rice. He’s just far and away better than any other receiver ever to play the game. He not only re-wrote the record book, he destroyed it, shattering records and leaving a huge gap between him and number 2.
Because of his absolute dominance over every other player to play the same position, I’d be inclined to argue that he would be the Babe Ruth of football, the best to ever play the game. Except that people don’t think of him the way they think of Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan. He’s perceived as great, but not as the clear cut greatest.
So I figured I’d see if anyone of my hundreds of thousands (ummm, yeah…) of readers has an opinion on this. Who is the best player ever, and why? Next time my English friend asks me, who should I tell him is the Babe Ruth of football?