The facts are not blasphemy. Fact - Barry Sanders is the all-time NFL leader in lost yards. In his career, he had 446 carries in which he lost yardage (1114 total yards lost). He had 3062 carreer carries. That means that he lost yards almost 15% of the time you gave him the ball. 1 out of 8 times you gave him the ball, he lost yards. Do you know how hard it is to sustain a drive when your running game goes backwards? Barry = 2nd and 12. Emmitt = 2nd and 7. Give me Emmitt. Fact #2 - In Barry's magical 1997 year in which he ran for 2053 yards, nobody seems to remember that Barry had to clear the 2000 yard mark twice. In the fourth quarter, Barry had a carry that placed him just over 2000 yards. On the next play, he lost something like 5 yards and fell below the 2000 yard mark. The Lions had to punt, and it was uncertain whether or not they were even going to get the ball back. Luckily for him, the Jets were unable to run out the clock and Barry got his shot to once again climb above 2000. This back-handed compliment of a tribute video says it all: YouTube - Barry Sander's Backward Runs The phrase "...staggering amount of negative yardage..." should never appear in your tribute video of you play offense. Also, notice at about the 1:20 mark, where Barry "...passes up the first hole he found, always willing to risk a loss for the reward of a big run." That kind of running will get you SportsCenter high-lights, but it won't win too many championships.
Barry was a home run hitter but he didn't often pass up holes. That just didn't happen. He normally changed direction and tried to make something out of nothing. That's something Emmit could not do and that's why Emmit would have been just an average runner with the Lions. We all watched Barry run for years and you can splice together any kind of tape you want but the holes were just not there for Barry.
for folks that want to point out the negative yards barry had, you have to do the same thing with the number of 5,6,7 and 8 yard CLEAN and NOT TOUCHED start to run holes that Emmitt had during his Dallas days... I mean I could have gotten 750 yards running behind that Offensive Line. mind you the def players would have to be told it was tag football, because one hit would have killed me.
In my opinion, Barry's negative yards makes his stats even MORE impressive. His career rushing average is almost 1 full yard better than Emmit's DESPITE all of the negative yards that he got. And I don't believe that Barry passed up holes as much as he tried to find a hole. His ability to make something out of nothing would sometimes hurt him because where any other back would have been stopped for 0 yards, Barry would continue to fight to try to make something happen and would sometimes lose an extra yards or 2 trying to make it happen. That is where the negative yards came from, not from passing up openings. Sure, Barry has more negative yards than anyone else, but I'll bet that Barry also had more CONTACT behind the line of scrimmage than any other back has as well. I can't count the # of times that I'd see 2 or 3 defenders in the backfield before Barry even got the hand off.
FACT: Barry played behind a sub-par O-line. Why do you think a RB as good as Barry lost yardage on so many carries? Because his line consisted of a bunch of turnstyles! FACT: Emmitt played behind one of the best.
I forgot to mention the fact that you know nothing about Barry Sanders. You make these statements under the assumption that all O-lines are the same.
The 'backward' vid must have been posted by an Emmitt fan. IMO Barry was/is, without question, the most amazing & exciting RB ever.
I never saw Emmit Smith destroy an All-Pro DB's (cough cough Rod Woodsen) ACL without even touching him.
Yeah we have seen Barry make a lot CB's and safety's look silly trying to stop/tackle him once he gets past the defensive line.
I know that on 12/31/94, the Lions had a playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. And Barry carried the ball 13 times for -1 total yards. He also had 3 catches for a total of 4 yards. That means that the greatest RB in the world had 16 touches for 3 yards??? Barry was great, but he is overrated in Detroit. It's like Favre in Green Bay. Favre was a decent QB, but Green Bay diafied the man beyond what they should have. They fell in love with they're own player and ignored that his bad plays were costing the team wins. Farve = too many interceptions = overrated. Barry = too many negative plays = overrated.
Clean up after yourself Yo Dressing, Take that felonious crap out'a here. It was bad enough when you tried to make your ridiculous argument that Emmit Smith (a poor mans Walter Payton at best ) could even get a sniff of Sanders Jockstrap, now you're gonna start trying to run down Brett Favre? That's another steaming elephant pile you just dropped. What is it you're doing? Who's next on your list of most over rated? Dr J? Larry Bird? Magic Johnson? Al Kaline? Lance Armstrong? Kareem? Ali? Samprich? Jack Nicklaus? Tiger Woods? Dale Earnhardt? Richard Petty? You gonna go in and cherry pick each of their career records for some small iota of historical insignificance to make more ridiculous points? I hate the Packers with every cell in my body. It makes me want to throw up when I go up into the UP twice a year and see all those brother Michigander Packer backers. But even I have to admit he's one of the greatest quaterbacks of our era, it's frickin indisputable. "Favre is statistically one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Favre is the only player to win the AP Most Valuable Player three consecutive times (1995–97.) He led the Packers to seven division championships (1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007), four NFC Championship Games (1995, 1996, 1997, and 2007), winning two (1996 and 1997), and two Super Bowl appearances, winning one (Super Bowl XXXI). He holds many NFL records including: most career touchdown passes (464), most career passing yards (65,127), most career pass completions (5,720), most career pass attempts (9,280), most career interceptions thrown (310), most consecutive starts among NFL quarterbacks (269; 291 total starts including playoffs)--just one away from tying the all-time consecutive starts record for any position-- and most career victories as a starting quarterback (169)." Wiki I'm thinking your primary goal in here is to start arguments as opposed to reasoned sensible debates on merit? You clearly lack insight into recent football history or you wouldn't have posted the needless Favre comment outing yourself. What's the real plan? Are we doing the Jeff Gordon takedown next?
Easy now. I'm not trying to stir up the poop. I'm just sharing my thoughts. And just because I think someone is overrated, doesn't mean I think they stink. I just think they get too much credit for what they really did. I think Detroit fans blind themselves to Barry's less desireable qualities because they loved cheereing for him. The same goes for Favre in Green Bay. Barry was a highlight reel waiting too happen. I simply think his running style wasn't going to help win too many playoff games. He never lowered his shoulder and got the hard yards. That basically means that he didn't have heart. As was proven with the classless way in which he retired and screwed the Lions. Brett was a pretty good QB (better than any the Lions have had in my lifetime). I just think that he threw too many bad interceptions. And I think its bologna the way he keeps retiring/unretiring. He holds Green Bay hostage with this "will he/won't he" nonsense, and then he acts indignant when the Packers hand the reins to Aaron Rogers? That's garbage on his part.
