- 08:00 AM
- 04/25/24
Anyone who even thinks Emmitt is even close to Barry is out of their minds. Emmitt Smith was a tough hard nosed runner and a great running back but 70% of his runs he didn't even get touched until he was 5 yards down field. Barry was dodging linemen the second he took the handoff. We won't even get started with the fact that he played with a Pro Bowler almost at every position for most of his career. Give Barry Aikman and Irvin spreding it out with Novacek thrown in there. Let Barry run behind one of the greatest lines ever and you copuldn't even imagine the numbers he would have put up. Please don't give me that crap a fullback would have gotten in his way or his yards for loss. He was the sole threat on his team and had 8 men in the box constantly eyeing him. Everytime he had a hole the man hit the hole quicker than anybody. Unfortunately, those holes were few. Has anyone ever seen him in college? He had a line and a fullback and what did he do? He had the greatest single season in collegiate history. 2,600 yards and 39 touchdowns. Not to mention him and Jim Brown are the only two backs in history with over 5.0 yards a carry. Emmitt was a great back on a dynasty, and despite what all Emmitt fans say, he didn't elevate his teams play or make them better. They made him look a lot better than he was. Nobody ever had the talent Barry had.
posted by murph21 at 12:29 PM on March 10, 2005
Emmitt Smith will be retiring today
One more thing, you can't compare running backs from 20, 30 years ago. I'm Sorry, Jim Brown dominated when he played but he also didn't line up against Ray Lewis, LT, 300 Lb defensive linemen who run 4.6 40's. The game is much bigger and faster nowadays. There's now way he would outrun a Rod Woodson or run through Ronnie Lott.