So, I am from the baltimore area, so this is probably biased.

Ray Lewis is the best defensive player i've ever seen, so I was
wondering, could he be the greatest player ever??

I try to look at it from a domination standpoint. There is only one player
who I can think of that was more dominating. Jim Brown.

So, my top 5...

Jim Brown
Ray Lewis
Barry Sanders
Dan Marino
Walter Payton

What are your top -5 ?

Ray Lewis isn't in my top 50.

Mine...in no particular order....

Emmitt Smith
Joe Montana
Jerry Rice
Walter Payton
Don Hutson

Barry Sanders
Jerry Rice
LT (Lawrence Taylor)
Reggie White
Joe Montana/Steve Young (i was a sf fan for years so I am biased to say them hehe)

I don't think Lewis is even close to being the best player ever, two defensive guys in my list were better than he is imo.

*note his career was behind 300+ lb lineman, give that line to Barry and he would have 20,000+ career yards

Lets not go there. Barry wouldn't know how to use a good line if it hit him right between the eyes. He's a e/w runner. I won't go down the Best RB debate, cause both Emmitt and Sanders lose to Payton.....and I am a Cowboy fan.

Don't forget that Jim Brown retired early too.

But, as far as Ray goes, you just have to see a game in baltimore to
see all the pomp and circumstance that goes on around him. I have
never seen a defense player get his own personal introduction, let alone
a 5 minute intrance with his own fireworks and everything.

Emmit is good, Barry is better, but I think that Brown is probably the best RB..

pfft maybe barry shouldnt have retried im sick of people saying that oh if barry this and barry couldve that, get over it, emmit stayed in the game and got the record

I'm mad at Barry for quitting too, I'm talking his career not how he ended it... The Lions sucked ass for so many years, with no offensive line and yet he is in the #3 spot for total rushing yards, I think that says a lot about him.

I honestly think he is the best RB every to play the game, and yes over Payton.

That dance thing he does annoys the heck out of me.

Where in baltimore? Im from Towson and originally in Owings mills

Well, actually the "area". I Used to live in Towson but now I live in Annapolis.

Great. Now group hug, and lets get back to talking about how rediculous it is to think that Ray Lewis is the best player of all time.

Emmit Smith
Barry Sanders
Walter Payton
Derrick Brooks
Terrel Davis (Yes, him, he just played 5 seasons and he was the best then)

No votes for Priest Holmes? He's dominated the league rushers the last 3 - 4 seasons...

didn't he kill someone?

1.- this season he is not dominating at all, just in the TD deparment, but most of those TD are 5 yards or less, people like Emmit smith worked a lot more that him
2.- just because 4 good seasons doesnt give him that big credit, besides his career started in a very mediocre way

Jr Seau.
Jerome Bettis (the bus).
Warren Sapp.

** edit **
Ladanian Tomlinson

I agree with your points SD... Yes his career did start off rather mediocre but by saying something like Emmitt worked harder, that tells me that KC has a better line than Dallas had and Priest gets more opporunities for the run because his line is able to open up the field for him. In Emmitts defense though, the game has changed alot since his hay-day...

<joke>The greatest players are on the eagles team right now!</joke>

Agreed, I think he isn't in top100, how bout that

Ok, so maybe he isn't the greatest player of all time, but, can you at least say he is the best defenseman in the league today??

No, Brooking, Thomas or Brooks are

i would give him best defenseman in the league now just because of his knowledge, ability, and intensity he brings to the game. But no... doesn't come close to all-time. I think I would have to say Payton all-time. Yes he had an incredible line to back him up, but you can't just say "well sanders would have been the best if he had that line".. you don't know, so you just have to go by what they had. And anyway, Payton could do it all.. run, block, even pass. Not many were all around like he was.

he is definatly in my top 10 defensive players of all time

Hmmm...

Top 5 all time - Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Johnny Unitas, Emmitt Smith

Ray Lewis is good. REAL good. But he's not the greatest player ever, let alone on defense. There's alot of players you could pick from: Dick Butkus, Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott, Deion Sanders (can you say SHUTDOWN corner?)...there's many.

And by the way, the argument about Barry Sanders and "if he didn't retire he would have been..." There's two players I can say that about with ALOT more confidence - Bo Jackson and Terrell Davis.

Terrl Davis...

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

He was destined to be the best, THE BEST!!!!

[saint dark]'s run into his room crying

No! Don't forget about Derrick Thomas (R.I.P.). Seven sacks in one game. Enough said.

Derrick Thomas was a freak of nature. An awesome defensive player.


Yes, everyone talks about Barry could have done this, or that. But, imagine
if Bo never got hurt? Dear god. He would have been great.

Ok, So, if you wont say that Ray Lewis is the greatest player ever, or the
best defensive player right now, then is he at least the best middle-linebacker
on the Ravens? haha

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm not saying he would have been great, he WAS great, I was saying he could have had the record that's all.

(also those guys got injured and cant play, sanders could play but left, little difference)

Oh no, I agree with you. 100%.

Someone said something about Bo, and i was thinking, "yeah, he would have been great."

Thanksgiving is not the same without Barry making defensemen look silly. He was a man among boys.

Actually it was more to soloredd

I liked Bo too, especially his "Bo knows" commercials hehe

Thanksgiving just isn't the same, youre right

Don't forget Terry Tate! Best in the game right now.

no way is ray lewis the greatest ever... lt was better than lewis is

lol

Very true and very good point. I loved watching Barry play (except against the Niners). Without a doubt, he was the best east-west running back ever. Nobody could run 3 yards and yet have every single defenseman from the other team laying on the field. He was great.

I really wished Ricky Watters would have stayed with SF. I would have liked to see what his career stats would have been had he played his entire career here. Free agency sucks.

And, I guess, we can add Clinton Portis to the long, growing list of future "destined to be great" football players.

ROFL!!

Greatest player ever? Are you kidding!!

I mean, you can't really say a defensive player is the #1 all-time, mainly because defensive players aren't as dominating as a great offensive presense on the field, they can be, but people remember the scorers.

Dick Butkus - Most Punishing LB ever! The man was an animal, he tore every running back up in his mouth and spit him out, hell, he crushed some fan charging on the field at Soldier Field.

Walter Payton - Absolutely Sweetness! The guy could break 10 tackles and rumble to the end zone, Gale Sayers was definitely great as well.

Joe Montana - I remember the Super Bowl vs. Denver, he threw passes all over the freakin place, amazing passes, scored like 6-7 TD passes, obliterated Denver, unbelievable.

Jerry Rice - When you have sure hands and are getting passes from a consistent bunch of great QB's, it's obvious why he's the greatest WR ever!

And as for Barry, I met the man a few times since he was in my father's year at OSU, The Man was great! And as for missing him on Thanksgiving, replace seeing Sanders with seeing Michael Vick make defensive lineman break ankles!

Sapp can go from both sides, and he didnt kill anyone to boot..

After M. Vick's 141 rushing yard game last night hes gotta be talked about as one of the greatest in the game at least currently. If anyone saw his nasty game last night you would think the same, he throws the ball so hard his wide recievers cant get their hands up somtimes

I don't think that Ray Lewis killed anyone. I do think, however, that he may have known what happened and witheld information, but I don't think he "did" it.

Do you think Marcus Vick has the potential to be even better than his brother? After watching him play a couple of games this year, I'd say he is farther along as a freshman than Michael was. I don't think Michael even played as a freshman actually. But his passing accuracy is better, I think. He can throw the deep ball with more precision, and he still has the mobility that Mike has.

Hope the 49ers get him in 2006!

My thoughts on all of the posts so far...

I do think Ray Lewis is one of the better defensive players right now. But greatest ever remains to be seen. Butkus and LT just murdered people. BTW: Ray Lewis didn't kill anyone, nor was he accused of it...he was in court because he was present at a club shooting (in Atlanta I think) and either lied about being there or something like that.

Man, Bo Jackson was great to watch. I had that poster of Bo where he's wearing shoulder pads and has a bat over his shoulders. Either Beyond the Glory or ESPN Sportscentury had someone who said "If Bo had picked just one of the two sports he would have been a hall of famer, but that just wasn't why he played" or something like that.

Barry Sanders was good, but he wasn't complete. I could remember watching games where he would have runs of -3, -1, 2, 75, 4, 2, etc. The Lions took him out in goal line situations because he didn't have the guaranteed yards in him.

Walter Payton is the best RB of all time and I think the best football player of all time. He could run better than anyone, catch better than most, and pass better than he should have. Like Bo Jackson, I think if he had picked one aspect to focus on he would have been the best at it. I remember watching games where he'd see a defenseman coming and square up for the hit. Then, he'd hit the guy so hard, the guy would fall over and Walter would get an extra 4 or 5 yards. Now that's Football.

Top 5: Payton, Rice, Unitas, Montana, Brown

Again, like everyone else's posts...this is all my opinion but I'll stick to it until Vick, Portis, Urlacher, Lewis, Rogers, et al give me reason to change.