Aside from putting Jerry Rice as my best player of all time, I wrestled with every ranking on this list. For example, even though Peyton Manning didn't even finish in the Top-10, I contemplated putting him as high as #2.
For football there is no truly scientific way to rank all-time greats, especially when comparing different eras. Baseball is a mainly numbers game, basketball is much more individualized with just five players on the floor at a time, and tennis is an individual sport, doubles at most. Football is all moving parts. Every link in the chain is intimately connected, and the success of one link is predicated on the strength of the entire chain.
In other words, Jerry Rice was great, but he was also great because Joe Montana was spectacular, the offensive line gave Montana time, and there were other threats on the field to deflect attention from Rice. Reggie White was brilliant, but players like Eric Allen, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner (for the Eagles) and Gilbert Brown, Santana Dotson, LeRoy Butler (for the Packers) certainly contributed to his lifetime of achievements.
I arrived at my final list by contemplating a number of factors: statistics, production relative to other players at that position, the era in which that player produced, and the wow factor—or just how amazing/hard to prepare for that player was. Lawrence Taylor and Barry Sanders place on the list because their talent was so blatantly obvious—they had the wow factor—and their domination wreaked havoc on opponents’ gameplans.
Championships did come in to play in some respect, but mostly only in regard to quarterbacks. Since the quarterback is the position most responsible for winning games, I gave special preference to Tom Brady and Joe Montana, who time and time again found their way to not only postseason success, but Super Bowl victories. By contrast, Manning has been perhaps the most brilliant pure passer of all time but has bungled many opportunities in the playoffs.
Football is the ultimate team game, which is said of many sports, but in this case it is the absolute truth. In that way, making a list of the singular greatest players ever is contrary to the basis of the game, but it’s a fun enterprise and one meant to engender debate. That was my goal, to create conversation, as well as to encapsulate the careers of, in my opinion, the ten greatest players to ever put the pads on.
--from @AdamHocking
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