8) Ronnie Lott
While Joe Montana, Steve Young, Bill Walsh, and the West Coast offense get all the credit for San Francisco’s dynastic run in the 80s and 90s, Lott was the centerpiece of a four-time Super Bowl-winning 49ers defense. He also led San Francisco to eight division titles all while being probably the hardest hitting player this side of Lawrence Taylor.
Lott played every position in the secondary; he ran like a corner, hit like a middle linebacker, and was the smartest, most instinctive defensive player of his era. Among the toughest all-time as well, Lott once cut off part of his finger in order to re-enter a game.
While tackles were not an officially tracked stat until 2001, pro-football-reference.com lists Lott as having 1,113 tackles in his career, easily putting him among the top safeties all-time. (For reference, since tackles became a consistently recorded stat in 1994, just fifteen players have a higher total than Lott’s. Only three of them are safeties.) He’s also sixth on the all-time interception list with 63.
A six-time All-Pro and ten-time Pro Bowler, Lott was the best safety in the league for most of his career. He places on my list as the best safety in football history.
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| #8 Ronnie Lott |
7) Lawrence Taylor
Lawrence Taylor was once found laying passed out on the floor of his hotel room two hours before the start of a game. Apparently he had been partying into the wee hours the previous night. First concerned that me might be dead, his teammates woke him up, got him in the shower, and got him to the stadium in time for kickoff. He proceeded to sack the quarterback five times that game. That is Taylor in a nutshell.
Much like Jim Brown a generation previous, Taylor was an athlete before his time, the reason that every NFL team now clamors for that “edge rusher” that can change their defense, but there will never be another like Taylor. Absolutely unstoppable when focused in, and though often confused off the field, Taylor was a savant on it. He once came up with a sack when he was supposed to be in coverage, and when coach Bill Parcells said, “That wasn’t the play,” Taylor responded, “Well, we better put it in on Monday.”
Taylor is also responsible for the emphasis on the ultra-athletic left tackle that can handle the prized speed rusher. Bill Walsh started the trend, using his most athletic offensive lineman to block Taylor, figuring that he needed someone with enough speed to stop LT from getting around the edge and killing Joe Montana.
The NFL did not start recording sacks until 1982, after Taylor’s rookie year, but going back and looking at the film the consensus is that LT racked up 9.5 sacks in his first year. He may have been part of the reason sacks became a recorded sack. Including that rookie year, Taylor averaged 11 sacks per season, but more importantly, teams simply had no idea how to prepare for him.
Dominant the moment he stepped on the field, Taylor was the single most difficult player in history for an offense to gameplan for. He had seasons of 20.5, 15.5, 15, and 13 sacks in his career. Eight-straight double-digit sack seasons while battling drug addiction are pretty impressive as well.
Taylor is one of only two defensive players in history to win the NFL MVP award (Minnesota’s Allen Page being the other). In 1981 he also won the Rookie of the Year Award and the Defensive Player of the Year Award, an award he won two more times.
Looking over it all, Taylor is a “What if?” guy. What if he hadn’t had so many personal demons? Would he have been even better, played longer, been more focused and more dominant? Probably so, but since we will never know, he cannot surpass the #7 ranking on my list.
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| #7 Lawrence Taylor |
--from @AdamHocking
(first image from flickr.com, second image from hfadvantage.wordpress.com)
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