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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Randy Moss Retirement: The Rice/Moss Debate Continues..

Yesterday's announcement of four-time First Team All Pro wideout Randy Moss was seemingly shocking to the entire NFL world.

The 34-year old Moss spent the 2010 season on three different teams (New England, Minnesota and Tennessee), setting career-lows in receptions (28) and yards (393) with five touchdown catches. It was just the third time in his 13-year professional career that The Freak failed to reach 1,000 receiving yards in a single season.

While many still believe his "retirement" from the game will be brief and that he will get the urge to return to the field with a contender and work towards earning that coveted Super Bowl championship, I am set to believe that Moss will never step foot on a field again.

Throughout his career, the supernatural talent of Moss has drawn comparisons to Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, who is without a doubt the best wide receiver in NFL history–possibly even the best player in NFL history.

The Rice/Moss comparisons have surely been abundant amongst fans and "experts." And although a majority say Rice wins in a landslide, there's plenty of evidence that Moss isn't as far behind Rice as we think.

First off, let's take a look at what the Hall of Fame voters will be looking at first and foremost: career numbers..

Note: all-time rank in parenthesis

Rice–SF, OAK, SEA: 1,549 receptions (1), 22,895 yards (1), 197 TDs (1), 14.8 YPC, 10 rushing TDs in 21 seasons

Moss–MIN, OAK, NE, TEN: 954 receptions (t-8), 14,858 yards (5), 153 TDs (t-2), 15.6 YPC in 13 seasons

It's obvious Rice's numbers trump Moss's by a longshot, and that his numbers are clearly the best of any other receiver to step foot on an NFL field. But what people don't understand is that Rice played for over two decades. Of course his career stats are going to stack up extremely well against the rest of the competition, he played for a long time.

The other top receivers in history? Cris Carter (Moss' teammates in Minnesota), Tim Brown, Terrell Owens, Marvin Harrison, Isaac Bruce, Art Monk, Steve Largent, Rod Smith, James Lofton. NONE, and I mean none of the receivers named in the previous sentence played for as long as Rice did.

That's what made Rice so great, though, is that he was able to stay in shape and was even a huge asset to the Oakland Raiders' AFC Champion squad in 2002. At age 40, Rice's stateline was a Pro Bowl-worthy 92 receptions 1,211 yards and seven touchdowns for Rich Gannon's offense.

Rice's prime produced him three Super Bowl championships under Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young in San Francisco. Rice's approach to the game–calm, collective and very non-diva-like–paved the way for the receiving position. In his day, circus catches were the norm, and crying and complaining about his team were not.

Rice gave 110% in every game, and was a total team player.

Moss? Not quite so much. In fact, he usually just "did him," as hip-hop artists in today's society often like to call it. Meaning he did what he wanted, when he wanted, and didn't really care about anyone else. If he didn't like the situation he was in, he would throw a hissy fit and sometimes even not make a full attempt while on the football field.

This attitude gave Moss a bad rep, and may hurt his chances at reaching the Hall of Fame on first ballot. Which is a silly claim to make.

His bad attitude should not hurt his chances, because whether fans like it or not, Moss's production–and circus catches–are up to par with Rice's.

Before you try and call B.S. on me, take a gander at Rice and Moss's season averages (Note: Rice made 284 starts in 21 seasons while Moss made 191 starts in 13 seasons)..

Rice: 73.8 Rec., 1,090 yards, 9.4 TD in 14 starts

Moss: 73.4 Rec., 1,142 yards, 11.8 TD in 15 starts

It's a pretty tough comparison. Moss did more with his receptions, meaning he had a much better YPC average, yet Rice was thrown to more often. Let's just say, Moss played along side future HOF wideout Cris Carter part of his career and played with future HOF quarterback (Tom Brady) for another part of it. While Rice played with two Hall of Fame signal callers in Montana and Young.

They both received assistance in putting up astounding career numbers, both made numerous highlight-reel circus catches on the norm, and both changed the way defensive coordinators went about in weekly game-planning.

Overall, I do agree with the masses in that Rice will still go down as the best receiver the game has ever seen, but there's no doubt that Moss is right behind him. One of the league's first divas, Moss did more with less in Minnesota, while Rice was pampered in San Francisco's west coast offense with Walsh and Montana.

After all of this back-and-forth debating of the two's careers, I really don't think it's fair for Rice and Moss to be compared. Rice revolutionized the passing game with his big plays and clutch Super Bowl performances, not to mention his continual burning of opposing defensive backs. But at the same time Moss shouldn't be punished for his attitude towards his teammates.

Football is the ultimate team game, and a better attitude from Mr. Moss would have, no doubt, helped his career out quite a bit. But nevertheless his production was there, and it was up to the same level as Rice. 

Well, except for all those accolades Rice earned in his two decades as a player: 13 Pro Bowl selections, 12 First Team All Pro selections, three Super Bowl championships, Super Bowl MVP, Pro Bowl MVP, PFWA MVP, two-time AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, NFL 75th Anniversary All-time Team, 1980s All-Decade Team, 1990s All-Decade Team, Pro Football Hall of Fame. His #80 jersey is retired in San Francisco and, of course, he still holds several NFL receiving records.

Gotta love Rice's love and approach to the game, and he trumps Moss in personal accolades. But Moss is a close No. 2 to Jerry.

**Photos found on Google, no copyright infringement intended**

Why Terrell Owens is slowly, but surely, stealing Ochocinco's spotlight

Yes, his convincing efforts in tonight's six-point loss to the 6-2 Steelers turned out to be all for nothing, but Terrell Owens' 10 receptions for 141 yards and two touchdowns has surely caught the attention of the general public.

Not only did Owens' first touchdown of the night put the Bengals back in the game, but it also just so happened to be his 150th career touchdown reception, making him just the third player to reach such a milestone (joining the likes of Jerry Rice and Randy Moss).

His second of two touchdowns, again, gave the Bengals offense some confidence and allowed them to make a great attempt at a comeback. But, by the fourth quarter there was some tension not only on the sidelines, but on the field between two certain players.

Those two players, not surprisingly (to me anyways), happened to be a quarterback and a wide receiver. A frustrated Chad Ochocinco, who caught just one pass for 15 yards all game, lashed out against Palmer--in the middle of the field in between plays, of all places! This was quite an embarrassment for Cincinnati fans, if you ask me. Palmer, who targeted Chad seven times throughout the game, had overthrown him, which did not make Ocho a happy camper.

To make matters worse, Ocho's good buddy, the guy Chad lobbied to bring in to Cincinnati, stole the spotlight as he was targeted an astonishing 14 times during the game.

So, while Chad attracts all the defenders and negative attention, Terrell gets all the touches and touchdowns. Hmmm, for some reason this looks a bit familiar. I knew this wouldn't last forever. It seems as though the Palmer/Ochocinco/T.O. trio could have it's days numbered already.

If there's one thing fans have picked up on by now, it's that Chad doesn't let go of things very often, so if Cincinnati continues to struggle, I don't expect this problem to go away anytime soon. Get ready for more drama in Cincinnati, people!

Photo Credit

Owens/Ocho: AP Photo/David Kohl

Canton-Bound: A Look at this Year's Hall of Fame Class

In the beginning of August each year the NFL opens the doors to welcome in a few new members of the league's Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. This year's very deep class includes the greatest receiver to ever put on an NFL uniform, and the league's all-time NFL rusher.

We've been waiting for this for five years and it has finally come, Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith will both be joining fellow legends in the Hall.

Others being inducted are cornerback Dick Lebeau, running back Floyd Little, guard Russ Grimm, linebacker Rickey Jackson and defensive tackle John Randle.

Here's a closer look at each inductee's career:

Jerry Rice; San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks WR

Rice is basically football's Michael Jordan. He caught practically every single ball thrown his way and did it with class. Having two Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Montana and Young, obviously) throwing him the ball may have given him a slight edge over other receivers, but I certainly think that Jerry's graceful, acrobatic catches made their jobs a whole lot easier.

Rice's career numbers blow his competition out of the water. Jerry finished his 21st and final season with 1,549 receptions, 22,895 yards and 197 receiving touchdowns. All of which are still league records. His 13 Pro Bowls, 10 All Pro selections and 14 1,000 yard seasons are astonishing, not to mention his speed and outlandish athletic ability.

Rice even managed to put up 1,000 yards on 92 catches at age 40, in '02 with Oakland.

Emmitt Smith; Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals RB

Much like Rice, Smith dominated his position for years. After being told he was too small to make it in the league, Smith went out in his rookie season in 1990 and ran for 937 yards and 11 touchdowns. For the next 11 years after that he ran for over 1,000 yards before finishing his last three seasons on limited carries with Dallas and Arizona.

Smith broke the career rushing yards record, held by Chicago great Walter "Sweetness Payton, and ended his 15-year career with 18,355 yards, 164 touchdowns and 8 Pro Bowl appearances. He was part of one of the greatest trios in history alongside Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman and receiver Michael Irvin.

Dick LeBeau; Detroit Lions CB

Probably known better for his blitzing schemes as the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator (2004-present), LeBeau made a name for himself in the defensive backfield as well.

The three-time Pro Bowler played all 14 of his seasons in Detroit. And in 185 games played he intercepted 62 passes, good enough for a tie with Dave Brown for eighth all time.

Floyd Little; Denver Broncos RB

Little's numbers may not look all that impressive in comparison to today's Hall of Famers, but his 6,323 rushing yards was good enough for seventh all time when he retired from the league after nine seasons in 1975.

Little only had one season of 1,000-plus yards ('71) and one season with double digit touchdowns ('73), but was named to five Pro Bowls. The little man (5'10," 195 pounds) was drafted No. 6 overall in the 1967 draft and is currently in Denver's Ring of Fame.

John Randle; Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks DT

Randle dominated opposing offensive lines for years, attending seven Pro Bowls and being named to six All Pro teams in the process. Randle, along with Bruce Smith, was one of the best pass rushers of the decade in the 1990s.

Randle's 137.5 career sacks is tied (with Richard Dent) for sixth-most in history, and the most among all defensive tackles. In nine of his 14 seasons Randle recorded 10 or more sacks, plus three more seasons with seven or more.

Randle wasn't exactly the biggest defensive tackle out there (6'1" 290 pounds), but he could beat guys with his speed and athleticism, not to mention he was a great trash talker and could get inside opposing players' heads with ease, and entertain us fans at the same time.

Russ Grimm; Washington Redskins G

In my opinion, it's much tougher judging offensive linemen when it comes to the Hall of Fame. I mean, there really isn't many stats to go by when comparing these large men, who have one of the toughest and most important job on the field: protecting the quarterback.

What I tend to look for in offensive linemen is consistency, which Grimm had early on in his 11-year career. He was also named to four Pro Bowls and three All Pro teams while in Washington, his only NFL team.

Grimm was named to the 1970s all-decade team. But, to tell you the truth, I think it's his three Super Bowl rings (four counting the one he won as a coach for the Steelers in '05) that has finally pushed Grimm over the top and in to the Hall.

Rickey Jackson; New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers LB

Jackson, most likely because of the fact that he spent 13 of his 15 NFL seasons with the lowly "Aints," was one of the most underrated linebackers of his era.

The six-time Pro Bowler recorded 128 sacks, which puts him 10th on the all-time list, and made 1,173 tackles. Jackson was surely a sideline-to-sideline playmaker, recording 100-plus tackles five times and forcing 40 fumbles in 227 games.

Possible inductees for 2011 HOF class (first-year eligibles):

Jerome Bettis
Curtis Martin
Marshall Faulk
Deion Sanders

You can watch the induction on Saturday at 7 P.M. on ESPN and NFL Network...the Hall of Fame game between the Bengals and Cowboys is the following evening (kicks off pre-season).