Thread by @OnWithLogic

1) There are 2 kinds of extraordinary running backs, the position I think is more interesting to a football team than any other.

Type 1:

2) The darter.

Emmitt Smith, Marshall Faulk, Adrian Peterson and Barry Sanders.

3) Or, the beasts.

Jim Brown, Hershel Walker, Bo Jackson.

4) There is this middle category that only 2 guys have really ever occupied at an elite level: Walter Payton and Gayle Sayers, where they mix the two, which strangely is rarely replicated in the sense of a top 10 ever.

5) I side with the beasts. There is no greater highlight reel than Hershel Walker or Bo Jackson. They are the most incredible running backs ever.

It's going to take a few decades to see a match for those two. Sadly, Marcus Dupree didn't get to join the club thru injury.

6) Here is a sampling. What separates these two is their ability to accelerate in that first few yards past scrimmage, with that size, it became unstoppable. The speed for that size is just unheard of.

7) When you can break past the most solid line of defense with this kind of speed and power, you have something that smaller backs cannot match.

I can't decide between them, but Jackson and Walker are absolutely incredible, the 2 best ever.