Tour2ma Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Thought this musing from PoeG was worth a thread... The more I think about it...Is... any... player a once in a lifetime player? The obvious, first-to-mind 'round these parts has to be JB... at least for those of us at a certain age. But there's also been a Campbell or a Bo Jackson. For every Montana there's been a Manning... Every Rice there's been a Megatron... Every Biletnikoff... a Largent. Every Mackey... a Gronk... or a Casper. Every Munoz... a Pace... or a Thomas... While there may not have existed an absolute equal, one or two alternates might be equal enough that the original, the GOAT, cannot be seen as unique. As Bum once said of Earl... "He may not be in a class by himself, but it doesn't take long to call the role." As close as I have come has been Barry Sanders... but then there's Sweetness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zombo Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Scott Player was once in a lifetime, I don't think we'll see the likes of him again: As far a truly unique skill set and talent, I think of Sanders and also Gayle Sayers, Bo Jackson, Dieon Sanders. I think a lot of people compare young QBs to Bret Favre but no one really has all of the things Favre brought to the table. I'm not sure Lawrence Taylor has been duplicated either. Peyton Manning kinda stands apart as the best pure "field general" in my opinion. And I don't think anyone was ever as better than their peers than Jim Brown. Zombo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumby73 Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Every Mackey... a Gronk... or a Casper. Former Charger's Asst. Coach Al Saunders once said "Kellen Winslow Sr. was a WR in an Offensive Lineman's Body"...More Focus to details Tour .. at least 1 write in vote for The OZZY of NewSome.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted December 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 lol... of course OL were smaller back in KW Sr's day... He did cross my mind... as did Ozzie... but I think of them as beginning the new breed of "receiving" TEs definitely different from those I listed. Gronk might be the only one that would rate inclusion in both lists. But regardless once you accept a list of two, it does not matter how many more names you add. "Once-in-lifetime" is no more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudfly Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Gotta climb on board with Zombos mention of LT......to me, he was the one and only......lots of imitators, but never one as dominant... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richiswhere Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Rice and Sanders are as once in a lifetime as it gets. I would have loved to have seen what Jackson would have done with a complete season, training camp and all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flugel Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Thought this musing from PoeG was worth a thread... The obvious, first-to-mind 'round these parts has to be JB... at least for those of us at a certain age. But there's also been a Campbell or a Bo Jackson. For every Montana there's been a Manning... Every Rice there's been a Megatron... Every Biletnikoff... a Largent. Every Mackey... a Gronk... or a Casper. Every Munoz... a Pace... or a Thomas... While there may not have existed an absolute equal, one or two alternates might be equal enough that the original, the GOAT, cannot be seen as unique. As Bum once said of Earl... "He may not be in a class by himself, but it doesn't take long to call the role." As close as I have come has been Barry Sanders... but then there's Sweetness. Great topic - excellent post! How about the Chicago Bears landing Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus in the same draft only to learn both HOF players never competed in a post season game? Then there's the Philly fan meltdown in the 99 draft when Andy Reid dared to select Donovan McNabb instead of Ricky Williams. Ditka took Philly's version of football messiah and went golfing the rest of the draft. Keep in mind, Philly had the worst record in the NFL in 98. The player that got heavily booed by Philly fans, ended up leading that franchise to the playoffs in his second season and never stopped doing so for about the next 10 years. This included participation in 5 NFC Championship games and 1 SB while Ricky went from prozac to a marijuana sabbatical. While both of these guys weren't sure things, Ozzie Newsome and Clay Matthews in round 1 were a gigantic help to us frequenting the playoffs throughout the 80s. Compare that impact with what we've done in recent years when we had 2 first round picks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lodilobo Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Eric Metcalf....at least for the first couple years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hish747 Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Josh Gordon. That combination of spectacular talent and stunning stupidity could never, ever be matched in the NFL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miktoxic Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Josh Gordon. That combination of spectacular talent and stunning stupidity could never, ever be matched in the NFL. darren sharper would tell you different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasAg1969 Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Josh Gordon. That combination of spectacular talent and stunning stupidity could never, ever be matched in the NFL. Ricky Williams-rest my case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted December 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 I thought of Blackmon... but as I said above, it only takes one additional one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gipper Posted December 12, 2016 Report Share Posted December 12, 2016 Thought this musing from PoeG was worth a thread... The obvious, first-to-mind 'round these parts has to be JB... at least for those of us at a certain age. But there's also been a Campbell or a Bo Jackson. For every Montana there's been a Manning... Every Rice there's been a Megatron... Every Biletnikoff... a Largent. Every Mackey... a Gronk... or a Casper. Every Munoz... a Pace... or a Thomas... While there may not have existed an absolute equal, one or two alternates might be equal enough that the original, the GOAT, cannot be seen as unique. As Bum once said of Earl... "He may not be in a class by himself, but it doesn't take long to call the role." As close as I have come has been Barry Sanders... but then there's Sweetness. Cy Young 511 career victories? One in many lifetimes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gipper Posted December 12, 2016 Report Share Posted December 12, 2016 Scott Player was once in a lifetime, I don't think we'll see the likes of him again: As far a truly unique skill set and talent, I think of Sanders and also Gayle Sayers, Bo Jackson, Dieon Sanders. I think a lot of people compare young QBs to Bret Favre but no one really has all of the things Favre brought to the table. I'm not sure Lawrence Taylor has been duplicated either. Peyton Manning kinda stands apart as the best pure "field general" in my opinion. And I don't think anyone was ever as better than their peers than Jim Brown. Zombo Otto Graham. Lead team to 10 title game appearances in 10 years. No one has ever touched that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark O Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Ricky Williams-rest my case. As weird as he was....he at least had a decent NFL career Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Ricky Williams-rest my case. c'mon now ricky put together a few nice years and at least he was open about smoking,flash on the other hand is a complete dumbass and haslem should have listened to Lombardi about trading him.in fact I will take this one step further banner and Lombardi should never had been fired,jimmy truck stop is gonna fuck are team until there is nothing left Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasAg1969 Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 c'mon now ricky put together a few nice years and at least he was open about smoking,flash on the other hand is a complete dumbass and haslem should have listened to Lombardi about trading him.in fact I will take this one step further banner and Lombardi should never had been fired,jimmy truck stop is gonna fuck are team until there is nothing left I think many of you have forgotten how troubled his career was with multiple failed drug tests, suspensions, retirement, return and more of the same. Read it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Williams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted December 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 With the exception of Bo, Ricky was the best college back I'd seen since The Tyler Rose... I guess that means Ricky was my best since Bo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrownsnMopar Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Gotta climb on board with Zombos mention of LT......to me, he was the one and only......lots of imitators, but never one as dominant... KCs Dereck Thomas was on his way.....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taco918 Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Weeden had to be one of a kind. I mean a 28 year old picked in the first round doesn't happen often. Weinke is the only other that comes to mind but I don't think he was a first rounder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wargograw Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 With the exception of Bo, Ricky was the best college back I'd seen since The Tyler Rose... I guess that means Ricky was my best since Bo? Who's the best since Ricky? With the exception of Adrian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasAg1969 Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 With the exception of Bo, Ricky was the best college back I'd seen since The Tyler Rose... I guess that means Ricky was my best since Bo? Bo had the greatest top end 7th gear I have ever seen in person (1986 Cotton Bowl). He took a screen pass around Auburn's 20, cut laterally across the field at the 50 to turn the opposite corner around the DBs while running what I thought was full speed. But once he got around the last DB and cut upfield he really turned on the jets and crossed the goal line in what seemed to be about 3 seconds later and 15 yards ahead of the nearest defender. I was in the endzone seats when he accelerated towards us and it was like watching a rocket take off when he put it in top gear. Never seen anything like it before or since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted December 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Weeden had to be one of a kind. I mean a 28 year old picked in the first round doesn't happen often. Weinke is the only other that comes to mind but I don't think he was a first rounder. lol... Well no one specified that they had to be great lifetimes... plus there's the whole clay pigeons thing. Who's the best since Ricky? With the exception of Adrian. Good question... at the college level my first thought would be the pre-injury Fournette of 2014/2015. Showed that same speed/power combo Earl, Bo and Ricky featured. But that leaves a fairly sizeable gap that someone eluding me surely filled. Jamal Lewis has to at least get an Honorable Mention. AP is an interesting case... stellar first year that, much like Fournette, injuries kept him from repeating. I actually thought he was too risky to draft. Clearly the Vikes made a better call than me, but feels like they are now holding on too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Reggie Bush at collegel level? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrb12711 Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 I think it depends on what you classify as a "lifetime". If you're talking about the span of the whole lifetime of a sport, then no there isn't. But if you're talking about the the major eras of sports, then yes there are definitely those types of players. If you are referring to the lifetime as the whole of the sport though the only player that really can hold that mantle is Wayne Gretzky. The amount of untouchable records that dude has is insane, and it's about as well known as it gets that no one has ever been as good of a player as that dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tour2ma Posted December 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 The Great One... you bet. I'd add Ali to the non-football list. In his prime... nothing like him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted December 13, 2016 Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 There is always Johnny... WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark O Posted December 14, 2016 Report Share Posted December 14, 2016 There is always Johnny... WSS Johnny Evans? Punter/QB and could spin the ball on his nose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canton Dawg Posted December 14, 2016 Report Share Posted December 14, 2016 KCs Dereck Thomas was on his way.....!I was just going to post something about Thomas. In my 49 years of watching the NFL, I've never seen any defensive player get off the snap quicker than Derrick Thomas. LT was the best LB off the edge, but he wasn't as quick as Thomas. Too bad he died so young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasAg1969 Posted December 14, 2016 Report Share Posted December 14, 2016 I was just going to post something about Thomas. In my 49 years of watching the NFL, I've never seen any defensive player get off the snap quicker than Derrick Thomas. LT was the best LB off the edge, but he wasn't as quick as Thomas. Too bad he died so young. And that is the reason Von wears #58, his hero was Derrick Thomas. He patterned his own game in a similar way to emulate Thomas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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