The Greatest Giant Ever

The past couple days the same link has been posted in separate articles.  The link I am speaking of is this one. It leads you to the results of a SportsNation poll over at the 4 letter.

After looking through the list of greatest players for each franchise as voted on by the fans, it was tough to argue with any of them.  There were only a couple that grabbed our attention.

The most comical of them all was Matt Stover for the Ravens.  The kicker?!?  I understand that the Ravens history does not go back too far (1996) because they had to relinquish all historical records back to the Cleveland Browns following their move to Baltimore.  However, when Ray Lewis, the leader of one of the most dominant defensive units (2000 Ravens) is not considered the face or greatest of the franchise, that is just ridiculous.   Are the fans of Baltimore that ignorant?  Granted, Lewis may be overrated as a LB in the entire NFL, but it was his leadership and ferociousness that led that team to the Super Bowl Championship in 2000.  Plus, Matt Stover is a kicker!!!  Seriously, why didn’t Pat fans just vote Adam Vinatieri as the greatest Patriot ever?  Oh yeah, cause he is just a friggin kicker!

Hello, Cowboy fans? Emmitt Smith???  You can tell that a younger demographic was voting on this poll. Roger Staubach is the greatest Cowboy of all time.  I will give you that Emmitt Smith is the all time leading rusher(clap clap), and I continue to stick by my stance that cmfost could have run behind that OLine and racked up 10,000 yards rushing.  The Dallas teams of the 90s rank right up there in terms off all-time great dynasties in sports, but Roger Staubach helped make Dallas America’s Team.  When one looks at Staubach’s career stats (153 TDs-109 Ints, 22,700 Yards Passing, QB Rating of 83.4) nothing really jumps out at you.  However, remember that Roger was fulfilling military duty in what would have been his first 5 seasons in the league.  He was away from the game for 5 years between his career ending at the Naval Academy and his first start with the Cowgirls Cowboys.  Remember also that the NFL was not pass happy back in the 70s. He also wasn’t too shabby the scrambler himself (2264 yards rushing, 20 rushing TDs).  Dallas not only won 2 Super Bowls under Staubach, but also won more games than anyone else in football during the 70s.  Isn’t that what sport is really about, wins and championships?  Personally, I still think Jay Novacek was the best player on the 90s Cowboys anyway.

The other one that grabbed my attention was the Arizona Cardinals.  The only reason is that they are the only franchise that needed to use a black and white photo for the greatest member of their franchise, Dick “Night Train” Lane.  Come on, OJ Anderson baby!

The toughest one to call in my book would have been which QB to choose for the Colts.  Peyton grabbed the top spot over Johnny Unitas.  Had this poll been taken two years ago, Johnny U definitely would have won this by a landslide.

Hey Marino, you won something! Just not a Super Bowl….

Seems to be a mistake on the Vikings. When one checks the actual voting from SN, Randy Moss was the winner by 2.8% over Fran Tarkenton.  The team-by-team result page lists Fran.  When I think of great Vikings, the first I always think of is Tarkenton.

Not surprisingly, Lawrence Taylor (Giants), Jim Brown (Browns), John Elway(Broncos), Brett Favre (Packers) all won by huge margins with their organizations.  However nobody dominated the competition for his team Like Barry Sanders.  Poor Barry.

Didn’t study it all that closely, but it looks like Reggie White(winner for the Eagles) ended up getting votes on two teams(Packers were the other)

What do you guys think?  Disagree with the fan base of your team?  Or anyone elses?  Would love to hear what you have to think…

All Time Franchise Players in the NFL (ESPN SportsNation)

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