Riggins better than Earl?!?!

Norcal Longhorn

Norcal Longhorn

25+ Posts
NFL.com - 10 best Power Backs

1. Jim Brown (No question)
2. John Riggins
3. Earl

No one on this list is currently active. Only ones recent were #6 Jerome Bettis and #10 Mike Alstott (which I thought a bit generous)...
 
Were there this many "best of" or "greatest ___ of all time" lists before 1999? It could be the advent of the message board, 24x7 sports channels, ESPN.com or whatever but I don't recall these lists being that prevalent before the eve of the 21st century.
 
I saw Jim Brown play and all I can say is that his greatness has increased year by year over what I witnessed in the Cotton Bowl. I would take Earl any day of the week.

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I am a Redskins fan and not going on college and only on NFL allegiance.........




























Hell no, are you freaking kidding me?

Earl, baby!
 
Too early to say. Tim Riggins is still a high school senior and has just one game under his belt as the featured ball-carrier. That being said, the kid does have some athletic ability. Only time will tell.
 
Yeah, and maybe Kobe is better than Jordan. Seriously, Earl was much better...just imagine what he would have done if he had had Riggins' O line blocking for him. The mind boggles.
 
I thought of comparing Okoye and Riggins. They're both huge, powerful, etc.. But Earl could break away in the open field AND make people miss at times.
 
Riggins was a terrific back who demonstrated amazing longevity. Early in his career he had the ocassionaly breakwaway run.. Okoye was brilliant, but only for a 3-4 seasons. Bettis hammered defenses forever.

For all my admiration of those guys though, I
Earl was the best power back I've ever seen. As Knoxville Horn has pointed out, it's not even close.

I've only seen Jim Brown in highlight reels. No question he was something special in his era.
 
The only thing John Riggins leads Earl in would be inane remarks made to Supreme Court justices. No one except Jim Brown could be mentioned in the same breath in this category.
 
"Yeah, he only had 26 carries for 132 yards and 2 TDs in that game. He also kicked the PATs."

I knew as soon as I posted that someone would think I meant the Cotton Bowl game but I saw Jim Brown play against the Cowboys way back in the early days. I just remember being disappointed- maybe I was expecting Superman and that wasn't what I watched that day.

Anytime you talk about Earl in college you have to wonder what his college career would have been in the I-formation his whole career instead of just one year.

In any case, how lucky are we that Earl choose The University of Texas to play his college ball? A more stand-up guy couldn't be found to represent us. I was proud for him in college. I was proud for him in the pros. I've always been proud of him in all these years after his career was over.

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Earl.

Jim Brown himself used to call Earl the best RB. Jim Brown was an incredible back, but I can't help wondering how badly Earl would have injured the LBs that Brown was running against in the early 60's.

John Riggins is a ******* joke compared to the other two.

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Yeah, I watched that show and I was wondering who would be rated above Earl. Then they said Riggins. I thought no way. But I didn't see so much of Riggins during his career. I watched Riggin's highlights and there was no comparison with Earl's highlights. For his first few years, there was nobody better than Earl.

I saw Jim Brown once in person vs. the Cowboys and on TV a lot. He was great. He had a gliding running style and bounced off people and just kept going. It was like nobody could get hold of him. He was very strong and had tremendous balance and speed once he broke clear. Over his career, he was better than Earl. But for Earl's first few years, as a punishing power runner, Earl was the best. But his style of running was his downfall. The human body could not take that punishment for long.
 
Earl was clearly a back than Riggins.

Nobody even remembers Riggin's 9 seasons with the Jets. All they remember is the 5 years running behind the "Hogs", Jeff Bostic, Russ Grimm, Joe Jacoby, Mark May & George Stark, at Washington to which he owes them for his credit. Even though Riggins played 6 more seasons than Earl he only had 2,000 more rushing yards.

Earl ave 1,200 yards per season vs Riggins 815 per season. Yep, Riggins was a better "power back".
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