I personally think Walter Payton was. He played on some really crappy teams. He always seemed like he was at a different level.

JohnBurns

The Montana/Rice team was decent.

Tony

deflave in his High Scool years! LOL Is he back yet?

Walter "Sweet Pea" Payton is a pretty good selection, but my vote goes to Tom Bradey for Longevity and Records, even though I prefer defensive players, as quarterbacks are overrated.

Without a great defense, you are screwed!

KB

Another vote for Joe Montana. And also Roger Staubach.

And neither one of them has ever posted a picture of them kissing their kid on the mouth like that F.AG Tom Brady. 🤪

George Blanda or Jan Stenerud.

Colin Kaepernick

Too many to pick one.

Tom Brady-quarterback
Jim Brown-running back
Bruce Mathews-offensive lineman
Rob Gronkowski-tight end
Jerry Rice -receiver


Reggie White-defensive lineman
Lawrence Taylor-linebacker
Charles Woodson-defensive back

Go back to before the Super Bowl......late 60's the NFL Championship believe it was called then. Era of Bart Starr, Unitas, Jim Brown. Never saw either of these guys with beating the chess look what I just did.....Were real pros in there time. Most tough runner was Jim Brown and did it for years. Take more to bring him down than just one man. Never wore down....like a bull. In his prime there was no better so take it for what its worth.

Impossible to really say - too many different skills in too many different eras. If forced to name someone, it would be John Unitas.

Jim Brown was a certified bad ass on the field.
Ole Earl Campbell might have been better if he’d stayed healthy and played as long as Jim Brown.
Fun to watch old video of those two running over folks.

Larry Csonka Was pretty damned good for a slow white boy. Big time hunter too.

Can’t believe nobody mentioned Bo Jackson yet.
And Herschel Walker was no slouch either.

Been interesting to see how Bo Jackson’s Career would have turned out if he had played as long as Jim Brown. He was something else!

Lawrence Taylor on Defense.
Walter Payton on offense.

Truthfully though, you have to compare apples to apples.
Every position is so different.
They all deserve recognition.

Jerry Rice.
Deion Samders.
Tom Brady

Yada..yada...

OJ was a really good back.

Not much of a person, but a darn good back.

Mongo. Alex Karras on defense.

It's a team sport.

He’s got a nephew playing in e NFL now

Barry Sanders


Paul Krause

Dick Butkus!

I can’t believe that nobody hasn’t said Aarod!

A rod!

Brett Favre was one tough QB.

Back in the real days of football before it
became the national felons league ?

Bob Lilly no question


I haven't watched any kind of games in years,
and most likely never will
Same with racing. I still watch motorcycle
road racing because skill is still necessary
to win

Tony Romo...

If Barry Sanders hadn’t got tired of playing for the Lions and quit, he would have easily broken the rushing record.
Talk about playing on some crappy teams……

Mickey Mantle

LOL. 🤪

Lance Alworth deserves mention.

L.W.

Joe Biden...he played every position and could beat every team all by hisownself. And he has more hair on his legs than any other man ever had.

White Player -- "The Golden Boy" Paul Hornung
Green Bay won 4 NFL titles and 1rst Superbowl with him.

Fran Tarkington ~ Minnesota Vikings

I would rank Dick Butkus right up there with just about any player in the league- especially on the defensive side. But no one was more entertaining to watch and more dominating on the field than Lawrence Taylor in his prime.. he was a dammed gladiator... offensive players feared going up against him for good reason...

So many one dimensional players are lauded as GOAT.

Bob Waterfield was the best all around player. He played both sides of the ball, was a great QB, he was a punter and a place kicker. He played 18 years back when the QB went unprotected and equipment was nothing like it is today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Waterfield

Another vote for Walter Payton.
1 game missed in his whole career.
Lousy team for the first 6-7 years, never complained, could run, block, catch, and even throw.
He was a man's man.

Not even a contest. . . . Troy Polamalu

He was sure one of the best rapists in the league.

Walter Payton. For most of his career the bears sucked. And he could nock the snot out of a defender when he had to

One thing about Walter Payton is his consecutive playing and not missing games due to injury.

He did that by taking so many painkillers he fried his liver and died of liver cancer at 45 years old. I really enjoyed watching him play.

Football is a tough game and he was 1 tough guy!

KB

You cant even state this. That’s like saying Micheal Jordan was better than bill Russell.
The football game has changed. It would be better to say who was the greatest in these years
Tom Brady was good because of bill (cant stand the pusssyyyy unsportsmanlike priccccc) but he wasn’t the best. They the nfl changed the rules to fit him. Put him and groin back in the 70’s let Mel Blout be the defender with the rules then and let’s even how many years Brady plays. I doubt many cause he is protected heck you cant even get within 10 ft and the refs blow the play dead. Roger and terry, Fran Bart all those QB took hits after the hits and kept playing.

That's a pretty good list. If I had to pick one, it'd be the one who won the most super bowls.

Lots of great players have been mentioned.
But honestly my big regret is that Ernie Davis passed before he had a chance to team with Jim Brown in the Cleveland backfield. He broke all of Brown's records at Syracuse and in my mind stood an excellent chance of eclipsing Brown in the pros. But Leukemia won and football fans are all the poorer because of it.

I got to watch both play at Syracuse.

The greatest who never gets any mention at all even though he MOST richly deserves it, was Earl Morrall. If the NFL was even just a shadow of what it was back in his day I'd still be watching it...but it ain't, and I will NOT.

He was?

Otto Graham. He led his team to the Championship every year of his career

Colin Kaepernick. He single handedly reminded me I needed to ditch the NFL and get a life.

Brady. Man has more SB rings than ANY franchise. That said, phuqq him

Does he still have the rib place?

Probably the best post that this thread will see.

Tommy boy has won more super bowls than any other QB, but that's not the same thing as the greatest QB to me. He definitely has had the greatest number of media cock sniffers of all time though.

Idk I hate the friggin Steelers but Troy Palamauloo was something to watch.

If you pick according to who was the greatest player at his position by the widest margin, then it's Jerry Rice hands down.

Butkus.

Before he was riddled with injuries.
Even then, he had games he took over.

Huh? Check your facts or I really missed something somewhere…….

Bronco Nagurski.
Both sides the line, no face mask.
Full back. Linebacker. Offensive tackle.

Osky

Not sure about the best, but the most exciting player I have seen is probably Earl Campbell.

Why would you let a Stupid, Selfish P R I C K, and his Liberal D-Bag friends ruin your Sundays?

I would never let confused azzholes ruin my fun!

KB

Lawrence Taylor

Yep, back in the olden days, Brady would be out by game four. Brady is the mechanic type, not athletic , but very studied and driven.

The question, though, as posed is unanswerable.

The biggest Diva Attention Whore the NFL ever produced.

I despise that guy.

I’ll see your QB and raise you with this QB, 😜
Bruce, my guy’s got your’s beat :

I submit Slinging Sammy Baugh !

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Baugh

His son still runs his 20,000 acre Cattle Ranch just down the road about 15 miles from our Ranch.

I believe he was as good are better than Jim Brown when it came to running over Defenders.

Met him once. He was an Asswhole.

Payton, Bo Jackson and Sanders would be high on my list. Brady deserves a mention.

Gale Sayers was pretty good in that regard, if we're talking about different level.

I go back, again, to Butkus.

They both played special teams early on. Butkus was literally leveling people and Sayers was setting special teams records.

When he was playing for the Oilers I was living in the bush, no power, but we had a generator we would fire up and watch the black and white TV with rabbit ears.

One of my American friends lived out there too, at the time he had been drafted by the Oilers, he never played though, he went on with his career as an educator instead...... and we used to watch Earl play, he was a beast.

LOL that's funny man! Better than nothing though.

NFL RULES!

KB

Davey O'Brien

Perhaps the smartest of all time" Roger the Dodger Staubbach". He retired before he had one too many concussions.

Greatest player is pretty broad and think it's likely best to do it by position.

It being a team sport, for me, it'd be the guy that could literally affect a game all by his lonesome – Lawrence Taylor would get my vote.

Adam Sandler; waterboy

Yeah, but he had the advantage of being able to see downfield through the legs of the defense.

OJ?

I concede. He no doubt was, but these kids on here don't know who he was.

IMO, when he wasn't killin people, he was onea the nicest guys ya could come across.

When he was workin MNF, he'd be down on the field before the game, and would just shoot the shat with whoever was there, includin me.

HOF player, million dollar tv guy, that would just shoot the sht with whoever.

That's why I agree with Chris Rock bout the murders.

I ain't sayin he shoulda did it.

But I understand.

Don Hutson of the Packers was no slouch

John Hannah

You know! You were there....

Anyone that doesn't think he is the best of all time is delusional. He played behind a crap OL for most of his career. Had he been on a team with even a semblance of an OL his yardage would be astronomical.

Jim Brown

Wasn't he they guy that lost to the Bears 72-0 and coached the New York Titans?

Ray Lewis. End of story.

End of story.

If he killed ya, like he did 2 other people.

I loved watching Barry, but Walter Payton really had no good line until Ditka showed up at the tail end of his career. Barry had moves like Walter, but a lot of Paytons yards were through defenders.

Walter Payton.

He played on some really crappy teams and still managed to have stellar seasons. Lots of carries, taking lots of hits, and made it through 13 seasons, many of those when he was really the only offensive option. I think he only missed like one game in his career? He wasn't big either, but was resilient as hell and played like a guy 40 lbs heavier.

Do you suck dick¿????

Butkus was a LOT more feared by the teams he played against than Taylor was.

Just too many to really choose from & hard to compare positions...................but

Butkus was the best overall defensive player

John Unitas was the best QB............if for no other reason than he called his own plays & didn't have the benefit of film & replays during the game & he was as tough as anyone QB ever was & he could make every single type of throw, every single time. Staubach might be next. Put either of them on the teams with the coaching that Brady has had & they would have done as least as well..............at least as well

Barry Sanders was the best running back; Gayle Sayers might have been if he hadn't gotten hurt; Walter Payton was good, but he just played a long time, met him once.....super nice guy

Jerry Kramer was the best offensive lineman

Randy White was the best defensive lineman

MM

Johnny Unitas

One and done

Hes won more SBs than any player or franchise. I cant stand the basturd, but not one player in the history of the NFL can say that.

Joe Montana

That doesn't make him the best player ever.............not even close.

MM

So many great ones. Miss congeniality Conrad Dobler If you know him you hate him. Dude supposedly sent prostitutes to oppenents rooms the night before the games.

Terry Bradshaw…….he won 4 Superbowls in 6 consecutive years with the Steelers

Don't see the need for any question mark.

Da Refrigerator! He could eat more than 3X anyone else. An immovable structure in the line!

The Greatest NFL player of All Time is a Pepper Belly.

Exactly, like him or not it’s gotta be Brady.

Don't hate the greatest. He wasn't proven guilty and you were not there that night. At least he wasn't snorting 8 balls of coke before every game like Larawance Taylor. Best pass run defender ever. Causing fumbles picking off passes. Every offence that ever faced him was scared. Please don't be a Karen.

For running back, Barry Sanders.

He was also a class act.

Tom Brady wouldn’t have lasted a week playing against guys like Randy White, LT, Mean Joe Green, Dick Butkus, and others of that era. Much less a whole season.

LOL !!!

How bout the most wins ever, most pro bowls, most SB MVPs, most passing yards and TDs? Whats your criteria for best ever?

Curly Lambeau

Only because the Superbowl doesn't cover NFL history

This.

My vote for best career ever is for Brady.

Best player ever - either LT or John Unitas.

Babe Ruth

Jack Lambert

Shooter Jennings

This^^^^ He made Conrad Dobler look like a choir boy.

Pepperbelly Pete? Also a fan of Pepperbelly.

Tom Brady

Joe Namouth.

Payton.
But Sanders could have been had he played longer and for a decent team.

Bronko Nagurski

Too many great players in a team sport, I think we need to start over & pick an all pro team for the ages. Jerry Kramer would be on it for sure.

Dick

Lol.

Ok pick your QB...

Joe Montana

Well, then ya best pick eras too. Because Jerry Kramer wouldn't make an NFL roster as a guard today.

Earl Campbell. Every time the ball was snapped everyone knew Earl was getting the ball.

Well, no $hit.

LT would probably be a backup/nickelback role player, because he'd be too small to handle the 240 lb running backs and 320 lb tackles of today.

Jim Brown would be a solid, but unspectacular running back today because of his lack of acceleration.

Pretty much any player of the 20th century, other than a kicker or quarterback, would be totally outclassed physically by today's players.

Geesh.

LT is/was the same size as Von Miller. I'm pretty sure Von Miller holds his own in today's game, no?

There's a game on today?

Von Miller is faster and stronger than LT ever dreamed of being.

LT would be pancaked regularly by today's offensive tackles, who are also much stronger and quicker than similarly-sized players of the '90s. There weren't any offensive tackles that big (or that quick and strong) in the '80s.

Sports science didn't exist until Tom Osborne budgeted and built the strength department at Nebraska in the '70s. It really started taking off in the '80s, and by the end of the '90s, every professional and most Div I athletic departments had extensive strength and conditioning staffers. Hell, big high schools have them now.

To compare athletes from different eras, one has to look at how they dominated the game, opposing players, and their relative performance to the same position players of their era.

From that standpoint, people like Jerry Kramer, Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown, Dick Butkus, Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice, Joe Green, Mel Blount, Walter Payton, etc... stand head and shoulders above 99% of other players.

From any era.

Tom Brady. Seven rings. Next question?

Don't know about greatest but I liked Gale Sayers...