HOFers Playing Now: Runningbacks

[Rain Man]

So...

Tomlinson is in the top two of every category and has longevity. No ring, but it seems like he's a lock.

Portis is in the top five or six of each category. No ring again. It's hard for me to imagine him making it because he doesn't seem to play as big as his stats. He does have stats, though.

Edgerrin James gets a lot of yards and has longevity, though he doesn't score much. Again, no ring. He might move ahead of Portis. Dunno.

LJ doesn't have the longevity yet, and it can be argued that he's one-dimensional as a no-block, no catch runner. Not unless he plays a long time and gets a ring.

Jamal Lewis gets lots of yards and has the 2,000 yard season on his resume, but is handicapped by playing on bad teams and not getting TDs and wins. No.

If Fred Taylor gets in, it'll be a pure longevity play. He's got nothing going for him but cumulative yards and maybe yards per game.

It's amazing that Ricky Williams has amassed almost 10,000 yards from scrimmage even with his marijuana breaks. Sorry, but no.

You can make an argument for Shaun Alexander if he's technically still active, but I don't think he had enough longevity.


cdcox is right. I'm not sure that we'll have many HOF running backs in this generation. Tomlinson will go, and maybe in a stretch they'll take Alexander and Portis and James, but they're not exactly Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith.

We'll have to keep an eye on Peterson and Gore. I came into this expecting to make an argument for Westbrook, but looking at the stats, I'd say no. The Patriots also destroyed the concept of good running backs getting Super Bowls, so the leaders can't even make the "champion" arguments. Slim pickings.