The Latest, But Not the Greatest

Emmitt Smith has a long list of statistics to back up the claim made by many that he was the best running back ever. He retires as the leading career rusher in NFL history, with an astounding 18,355 yards. He retires as the career leading in rushing touchdowns and as the No. 2 all-time leader in career touchdowns.

As one-third of the Cowboys' infamous offensive trio, "The Triplets," along with Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman, he helped turn around a moribund Dallas franchise and fueled their early '90s championship dynasty. He was one of the smartest and most determined runners the game has ever seen. But he was not the best ever.

"How can you say he's not the best ever when he has all those records?" you may be wondering. Easy. Too often, stats lie. Or, in some cases, they stretch the truth a bit. There is a stat to substantiate nearly every claim, further any story or perpetuate any lie. In sports, that especially holds true. In football, though, stats don't always tell the entire story. And that's where Emmitt comes in. Sure, the stats say that he's the best ever. He's run for the most yards ever, so he must be the greatest, right? Wrong.

Emmitt Smith had the supreme fortune of running behind one of the most prolific offensive lines ever assembled and therefore, he was able to make a living running through the many huge holes they often opened for him. The quintet of Erik Williams, Nate Newton, Mark Tuinei, Mark Stepnoski, and Ron Stone (and later, Larry Allen), made annual reservations for February in Hawaii and in Erik Williams and Larry Allen, had two of the greatest offensive linemen in history. In fact, Williams and Allen were so dominant that they also may one day have their busts in Canton, alongside Smith.

That five-man mass of humanity made Emmitt's job eminently easier than that of some of the other running backs on all-time list. Can you imagine the types of numbers Barry Sanders would have put up if he had any kind of a consistent line in front of him, much less a line comprised of yearly Pro Bowl selections? What about Walter Payton? Payton would have finished his career with another thousand or so yards if he had Dallas' line opening holes for him. Not to take anything away from what Emmitt achieved in his career, but I've always wondered what his career would have been like without that offensive line he was privileged to run behind.

Another factor that people tend to overlook when discussing Emmitt's career was the presence of the other "Triplets" and the effect they had on opposing defenses. Sure, Emmitt led the league in rushing multiple seasons and was a Super Bowl MVP. However, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, as well as Jay Novacek and Alvin Harper, formed the nucleus of an explosive offensive unit, which made it very difficult for opposing defenses to key solely on Smith.

Unlike Sanders, Emmitt didn't have to face seven- and eight-man fronts on nearly every down designed to shut him down. Smith had the benefit of almost being an afterthought, to a certain degree, while opposing defenses sat up the night before the game worrying about which Dallas weapon they had to take away. For Payton, Jim Brown, and especially Sanders, defensive game plans revolved around ways to stop them. Not so in Smith's case.

To that end, Smith barely cracks my top-five list for the best running backs of all-time. He comes in fifth, behind Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, and Gale Sayers, in that order, and only slightly ahead of O.J. Simpson.

Brown is unquestionably the best back ever, with his unmatched combination of speed and power. Brown could run over you just as easily as he could run past you, a fact crystallized in his career rushing average of 5.2 yards per carry. He played nine seasons, was voted to the Pro Bowl in all nine seasons, and was All-NFL eight seasons. He led the league in rushing eight times, including his ninth and final season, when at the age of 30, and after rushing for 1,544 yards, he shocked the sports world by announcing his retirement. Brown is still the standard by which all running backs are measured.

Payton is number two based on his stellar career, retiring after breaking Brown's mark for career rushing yards, as well as setting the record for most career rushing touchdowns. Payton was one of the most gifted and durable runners in league history, running for 1,000 yards or more in 10 of his 13 seasons, the strike-shortened season of 1982 interrupting a string of 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons. Payton retired atop the list of many of the career rushing marks that Jim Brown once held and is widely considered to be among the top two or three backs that ever played.

Barry Sanders was quite simply the most electrifying, exciting, elusive runner to ever step onto the field. Sanders had the gift of "magic feet." Tackling Sanders was like trying to tackle a greased pig. He was just too slippery. He'd seemingly be heading right and then, before you knew it, he was going left after faking out a defender with a move straight out of the official "two-hand touch" manual. Sanders was the king of being stuck behind the line for a loss of six, and all of a sudden, turning it into a gain of nine, leaving bodies in his wake grasping at a body that was there just a second ago, but was now gone.

Sanders, much like Brown before him, retired at the peak of his career, playing only 10 seasons. But, during those 10 seasons, Sanders made his mark on the game like no back before him. He rushed for 1,000 yards all 10 seasons of his career, making him the first back ever to do that. He became the first back in NFL history to rush for five seasons of 1,500 yards and, in 1997, became the third back in history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season. As with Brown, had he continued to play more seasons, Sanders would have set the bar at a level far more unattainable than it was when he quit.

Gale Sayers was one of the game's most spectacular breakaway threats and was the heir apparent to the suddenly retired Jim Brown as football's most dominant back. Extremely versatile, he was equally dangerous running the ball or returning kicks. He scored a record 22 touchdowns his rookie season, which included a then-record six touchdown game against the San Francisco 49ers, and led the league in rushing in 1966, the season after Jim Brown called it quits. Unfortunately, he suffered a serious knee injury during the 1968 season that hampered him throughout the remainder of his career and eventually led to him retiring after only seven years.

However, he left the game as the leading kickoff return man in history and a member of the All-NFL team five straight years. Had he not suffered the knee injury, that robbed him of the speed and athleticism that made him the most dangerous man in the league with a football in his hands, there would have been many more yards and accolades added to his impressive, but far-too-short, resume.

Emmitt Smith had a long, distinguished career that will eventually lead to his induction into the NFL Hall Of Fame. He has rushed for more yards and touchdowns than anyone in league history and, along with Troy Aikman, is the face of the Cowboys' dynasty of the early-to-mid '90s. And with all those achievements, there are those who will say, now that his retirement is final, that he was the best running back ever. I beg to differ. Just because he's the latest, doesn't mean he's the greatest. Emmitt Smith was a great running back ... just not the greatest running back.