Top 100

Today was the conclusion of NFL Network's Top 100 greatest players of all time.  I have very few arguments with most of the list.  I am not that old, so I can't really argue with sports writers, analysts, personnel men, coaches, and players about who is the greatest.  I feel though that I have an understanding about football and what it takes to be great, and I know who passes the "eye test."

The player who I probably admire the most in the top 10 is Reggie White.  Yes, he was a Packer, and I saw him play up close and personal for 6 years as a kid.  He was ranked the 7th greatest of all time.  That is about right, although Lawrence Taylor was ranked 3, which I kind of questioned as compared to Reggie.  The argument is that LT changed defense & impacted games in ways that had not been done before.  My argument for Reggie is that he played the game the same way it had been played for 75 years and did it better than anyone ever has.  Without question.  When he played for Philadelphia (8 seasons) he had 124 sacks in 121 games.  That is absurd.  You do not average a sack per game in the NFL for 8 years.  You just don't.  Bruce Smith, who has the most sacks of all time (2 more than White), had 108 sacks in his most productive 8 years span (minus an injury plagued year at 28 years old).  The thing that I remember about White is how is sacks came when it really mattered.  Anyone can get 2, 3 sacks in the first half of a game, but  Reggie would get them on 3rd and 3 with the game on the line.  The other thing that separates Reggie White from anyone else that has played the game is that he did things that no one ever did before, and no one has ever done since.  Deacon Jones slapped guys in the head to sack them, guys like Mean Joe Greene & Gino Marchetti didn't have to worry about roughing the passer & facemask penalties.  Reggie White beat offensive linemen for 15 years in the NFL (and 2 years in the USFL) using power, speed, agility, and pure heart.  He had no dirty tricks.  He bull rushed, swim moved, and clubbed (a move that I have never seen anyone else do) his way to 198.5 sacks by just being plain better than anyone else.  And he made everyone else around him better too.  Brett Favre was the lovable southern boy superstar of the 90s Packers, but White made them a legitimate Super Bowl team.  He commanded the respect of his teammates; offense, defense, young, old.  He did not swear and act like a crazy person like you see a lot nowadays.  You can find videos of him telling his teammates before the game to "kick some tail" and "dominate."  This is a far cry from the profanity laced tirades that you hear now.  I don't think we will ever see another player quite like the Minister of Defense.