Greatest Player of All-Time Tournament: Jerry Rice Comes out the Winner

We began this month-long, single-elimination tournament with 64 of the National Football League's best players of all-time. Now that we are approaching the end of April, we have officially ruled out 63 of those players and, thanks to you the voters, have come away with an official winner.

According to you guys, the "Greatest Player of All-Time" is San Francisco's wide receiver Jerry Rice.

There is absolutely no debate when it comes to the best receiver of all-time, Rice will win that one no matter who you're asking. Rice, now 50, is the all-time leader in receiving touchdowns (197) and total touchdowns (207). His 1,549 career receptions, and 22,895 receiving yards are both well ahead of the No. 2 all-time leader. The 13-time Pro Bowler and 12-time All Pro basically holds every possible receiving record in both the regular and postseason while winning three Super Bowls in his 20 years in the league.

The NFL.com list of greatest players of all-time also had Rice at the top. It's really tough to argue against him.

However, the race for this title wasn't quite the landslide that he's use to. His opponent just beat out current Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for the Madden 25 cover, and is arguably the best running back the league has ever seen: Detroit Lions RB Barry Sanders.

In fact, if it were up to us, we'd argue for Sanders to be considered the Greatest Player of All-Time champion. Sure, Rice's list of accomplishments appears to be endless. But Sanders' list is quite as impressive as well, and he accomplished everything with much less than Jerry.

When you're in the league for 20+ years like Rice, of course there's a much better chance that you'll own a ton of records by the time you retire from the game. And with Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh calling the plays with Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana throwing you passes, things are much easier. Barry, on the other hand, was running behind a god-awful offensive line with quarterbacks such as Scott Mitchell, Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer and Andre Ware.

Sanders stepped away from the game at a very healthy 30 years old and hadn't even peaked in his performance yet. The third all-time leading rusher made the Pro Bowl in all 10 of his professional seasons with six All Pro selections. He averaged over 1,500 yards per season and 5.0 yards per carry, while turning in one of the most impressive highlight tapes available on the web.

We are in now way trying to diminish Rice's accomplishments, because he is clearly the most-decorated player in the history of the game. But we believe Sanders deserves the title simply because of what he did with what he was given.

The Fan Vote (the one that actually matters): Jerry Rice, 49ers HOF WR

All-Out Blitz's Vote: Barry Sanders, Lions HOF RB

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Greatest Player of All-Time Tournament: Championship

Exactly one month ago today we introduced our great little idea for a "March Madness" tournament. We introduced all 64 of the seedings in four different "regions" and then introduced each of the First Round match-ups for you to begin your voting.

Now, a month later, we've finally cut down the 64 all-time greats to just two: Jerry Rice and Barry Sanders. A No. 1 seed (and the top seed of the entire tourney) and a No. 2 seed in Sanders.

This could be the toughest match-up of the entire tournament; yes, tougher than deciding between picking Jim Brown and Barry Sanders in the Final Four. But, trust me, you made the right decision in Sanders. Sure, Brown was the most dominant runner of his era by far. But Sanders was the type of player who could have been dominant in any era, using his speed, shiftiness and quick feet to make every potential tackler miss. When arguing for Sanders, all I would have to mention is the team and offensive line he played behind.

I guess that previous paragraph kind of reveals who my vote will be going towards in this final match-up, which means yes, I'll be voting against the most productive wide receiver the NFL has ever seen.

I'll remind you all once one last time how to cast your votes:

1. Leave your picks in the comments section below this article (you can do so anonymously if you would like).

2. Leave your picks on our Facebook or Tumblr page.

3. Tweet us your picks @AllOutBlitz1

4. Email us your picks at benheck77@yahoo.com

5. Or you may even send us a text message at 443-988-8597.

Championship

1 Jerry Rice vs. 2 Barry Sanders

Rice: By far the greatest wide receiver this game has ever seen. His numbers are incomparable to the rest of the wideouts both current and past. With 22,895 career yards, Rice is nearly 7,000 ahead of the second-place Terrell Owens. Going to 13 Pro Bowls and named to 10 First-Team All Pro squads over his 21 seasons, there's no doubt Rice's records will stand for years to come. Have I mentioned that the Hall of Famer has 208 total touchdowns and won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers.

Sanders: In our humble opinion, we'd say Sanders is the greatest running back of all-time. Though historians would likely argue against that statement and say it's between Payton and Brown and stat geeks would say it's Emmitt Smith (solely based on his all-time yards and TD numbers). But, looking at the bigger picture: Is there really anyone who can compare? Barry has the best highlight reel-worthy runs, played behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league at the time, meaning he had little talent around him. Not to mention he's likely run for the most negative yardage in NFL history, but still managed 15,000+ yards for his career.

VOTE AWAY!

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Top Six Performances by a Rookie Running Back

With rookie minicamps taking place in the last couple of weekends, I thought it'd be fitting to do a couple of posts surrounding rookies. I've compiled a list of the top six most memorable single-season performances by a rookie running back in the past decades.

Here's what I came up with (listed in chronological order)..

Gale Sayers, Chicago Bears, 1965

Sayers, one of the most durable backs this league has ever seen, had a short-lived career (just seven seasons in Chicago). But there's no doubt he was productive coming out of the backfield for the Bears. In his rookie campaign, Sayers ran the ball just 166 times while splitting carries with Jon Arnett, but he accumulated 867 yards, giving him a 5.2 yards per carry average.

Sayers put the ball in the end zone a combined 22 times (14 rushing, six receiving, 1 KR, 1 PR). In 14 games, Gale compiled 1,374 yards from scrimmage. The yardage doesn't seem like much in today's standards for a running back, but given he had just 195 touches throughout the season.

George Rogers, New Orleans Saints, 1981

Selected first overall in the 1981 draft by New Orleans, the South Carolina alum wasted no time proving he could keep up with the big boys. In 16 games that year, Rogers posted nine 100+ yard games in addition to three multi-TD games on his way to a league-leading 1,674 yard season.

His 13 rushing touchdowns proved to be one of his two double-digit TD seasons, as he went on to play six more years with New Orleans and the Washington Redskins before stepping away from the game following the 1987 season due to lingering injuries.

Eric Dickerson, Los Angeles Rams, 1983

Throughout his 12-year Hall of Fame career Dickerson won the rushing title four times, including his rookie season in L.A. In his second season he became just the second player to join the 2,000 yard club (there are six members now), but it all began with his 1,808/18 TD rookie campaign.

Rushing for an average of 113 yards/game in 16 games with nine 100-yard games, Dickerson quickly became the league's most dangerous runner.

Barry Sanders, Detroit Lions, 1989

Speaking of dangerous runners, next we have Barry Sanders being selected third overall in the 1989 draft, just six years later. Barry's rookie season wasn't quite as productive as Dickerson's 1,800 yards and 18 TDs, but he sure as hell did more with less. Dickerson also happened to lead the league in attempts (390), but Barry managed 1,470 yards and 14 TDs on the ground with just 280 carries, good enough for 5.3 yards/carry.

The most dangerous runner this league has ever seen didn't get much help from his Detroit offensive line, either. If you watched him play, he was always running for his life. The opposing defense would line up, knowing for certain that #20 was getting the ball, and they still couldn't stop him. His numbers weren't as dazzling as some of the other guys on this impressive list, but the results are just as good, if not better.

Clinton Portis, Denver Broncos, 2002

Now, I'm not gonna lie. Before I started my research for this list I didn't realize just how spectacular Portis' opening season was. With even less carries than Sanders, Portis (273 attempts) broke 1,500 yards with 15 TDs in Washington. His 5.5 yards per carry average tied his career-high (he also averaged 5.5 the following year in 2003).

Portis was not named to the AFC Pro Bowl roster that year, and started just 12 games, but considering he was drafted in the second round (51st overall) out of Miami, I don't think he was really expected to produce as much as he did. So kudos to you, Mr. Portis.

Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings, 2007

Of course you know I had to have at least two modern-day backs on this list, and Adrian Peterson A.K.A. "AP" A.K.A. "All Day" had to be the second one. This past season was the first time in his five-year career that he missed the 1,000 yard plateau, and that was simply because he played just 12 games. His rookie campaign wasn't a full season either, yet he made the most of his time on the football field.

On his 238 carries, Peterson amassed 1,341 yards and 12 TDs (5.6 YPC) and added a receiving touchdown in to the mix. In his very first game, a 24-3 victory over Atlanta on September 9, Peterson broke 100 yards–103 to be exact–and caught a touchdown pass. Later on that year? A 224 yard, 3 TD performance against Chicago and a record-setting 296 yards at home against the Chargers. To cap it all off, "All Day" put up four multi-TD games and led the league in yards per game as a rookie. If that isn't impressive, then I don't know what is.

Well, that just about wraps up my list of top six single-season rookie RB performances. Are there any other ones that you think I missed? If so, please feel free to let me know in the comments section or you can send my an email at benheck77@yahoo.com.

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