This one was a difficult one to select. Montreal goaltender Ken Dryden was tremendous between the pipes. Baseball offers us Rod Carew, who has 29 retired by both the Twins and the Angels. John Smoltz was a Cy Young award winner and World Series winner with the Braves, not to mention Satchel Paige, and Catfish Hunter. Basketball offers up Paul Silas. In the NFL there was Eric Dickerson.

This came down to a coin flip between Carew and Dickerson, and I am going with Dickerson.

Dickerson was the first player in the NFL to rush for 1000 yards in seven consecutive seasons. In Dickerson’s 65 games with the Los Angeles Rams he averaged 111 yards per game. In his first season he rushed for 1808 yards. In his second season he set the single season rushing record that currently stands with 2105 yards. During that season he averaged 5.6 yards per carry. Dickerson was one of the best open field runners to ever play the game, and his long fluid strides and the sport goggles he wore made him easily recognizable. Dickerson was headed for a career that would have put the rushing record so far out of sight that it would seem impossible to reach, but after gaining 7200+ yards in a little more than 4 seasons, Dickerson and the Rams front office began to argue over a contract. The Rams offensive line, led by Jackie Slater, helped make Dickerson into the running back that he was, but when the bickering continued the Rams front office decided they had had enough. That autumn, Dickerson would be traded after 3 games to the Colts. He would lead the league in rushing one season with the Colts, but the Colts were not the Rams.

Dickerson would move from the Colts to the Raiders and finally retire with the Falcons after 4 games in 1993. Dickerson finished with 13,259 yards, 90 rushing touchdowns, and in my mind a giant what if he had stayed with Los Angeles and played more than half his games on grass? What if?

Hans and I have pretty much set Jim Brown alone as the best running back to play the game. Hans says for his money the best running back he has ever seen is Barry Sanders. I have to strongly disagree, Barry was great, but Dickerson was better.