When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel…so bad. -Sound of Music
Public Service Announcement: I love baseball as much as the next guy. Probably moreso. But in these dog days of summer, I sure do miss football. First a disclaimer. I am in no way, shape or form stating that these five cats are the five best running backs of all time. OK? Got it? In no way, shape or form. I am just saying these are the five cats I enjoyed watching running the rock the most. Are we clear here? Good. Now let’s get to this. Like we always knew this. Like my main man Marvin Lewis. You know you can’t resist. All the way from Bankok to Budapest. Dropping science like a nuclear physicist. My five very favoritest.
5. Elbert L. Woods. That’s right, your boy and mine, from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Ickey. How could you not love this guy. Back in 1989, in his rookie season, Ickey Woods helped carry the Bengals to Super Bowl XXIII. Back in 1989, Ickey Woods rushed for 1066 yards and 15 touchdowns. Back in 1989, Ickey Woods had 228 yards and 3 touchdowns in the playoffs. Back in 1989 Ickey Woods’ team lost in the Super Bowl, but he finished as the game’s leading rusher with 79 yards. Back in 1989, the Ickey Shuffle was all the rage. All the rage on playgrounds, living rooms and Pop Warner fields across the country. My only regret is the 49ers beat the Bengals that year and our boy didn’t get to cross the goal line. He didn’t get to cross the goal line, so we never got to see his triumphant end-zone boogie woogie oogie. He got hurt the next year and was never the same. But the one year was a lot of fun though, wasn’t it? Huh? Wasn’t it? Thought so.
4. Greg Pruitt: Huh? I can see Ickey, but Pruitt? Ickey I get, but Pruitt? Ickey yes, but Pruitt? Know this, I’m a little guy. I tend to like other little guys. Doug Flutie, Calvin Murphy, Big Nate Robinson, Freddy Patek. Those are the guys I look at first. Greg Pruitt was no exception. 5-9, 190. He was around when I first started watching football. The King. All-Pro four times with the Cleveland Browns. Ran for three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons in the mid-’70s. He also was a very dangerous return man. Very Dangerous. Devin Hester the Very Bester, dangerous. The two things I remember most about Pruitt was: A) His ”Hello-Goodbye” T-shirts. Hello on the front. Good-bye on the back. You get it? Right? B) The tear-away jerseys. That’s the image emblazoned on my brain. Would-be tacklers grabbing at this dudes shirt only to be left with rags in their hands. But they caught on. Later, opponents would just walk up to him and tear them off in between plays, forcing him to return to the sideline to avoid a rules infraction. The tear-aways were outlawed soon thereafter.
3. Like Joey McIntyre, the new kid on the block. Skol Vikings! My man. AD. All Day. Adrian Peterson. The Touchdown Maker. The Record Breaker. The Shake and Baker. The Icing on the Caker. Nobody does it better. Not now. If he keeps up this nonsense, not ever. Eating up the field. Eating up yards. Most 200-yard rushing games for a rookie. Most yards rushing in a single game. Best runnung back in the game today. There doesn’t seem to be anything this dude can’t do. He does it all. He does it all the time. He does it better than everybody else.
2. Ripley’s style. Believe it or not, the only Patriot to make the list. Sam Bam Cunningham. Older brother of Eagle great, Randall Cunningham. When Trojan Fullback Sam Bam ran roughshod all over the then lilly white Alabama Crimson Tide, it was said, he did more in that one game for integration in the South than Martin Luther King was able to accomplish in a decade. Folk-lore has it, that after that game, Bear Bryant took Cunningham into the Tide locker room and said to his team: “This is Sam Cunningham. This is what a football player looks like.” He sure did. Bruising. Punishing. Sam Cunningham played nine seasons (1973-1982) with New England rushing for 5,453 yards – the most of any running back to ever wear a Patriots uniform. On the goal-line, nobody did it better. I remember him just running through or diving over defensive lines. Unstoppable. Number 39. Sam Bam Cunningham.
1. Number one on the chart. Number one in my heart. The Tyler Rose. Earl Christian Campbell. The toughest summamabitch to ever put on a pair of cleats. The most powerful runner I ever saw. Now, that’s what a football player looks like. A one-man wrecking crew. Talk about punishing. His 36-inch thighs, 5-11, 244-pound frame, coupled with 4.6 speed, made him the scariest back of his time. Of any time. Of all time. So mean, that Mean Joe Greene himself once said that Campbell inflicted more pain than any other back he ever faced. Ever. Coming from Mean Joe, that means something. 1980 baby, 1980. Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers, Houston Oilers number one! Earl Campbell number one! How many times did we see that baby blue jersey busting through defensive lines. That year, Big Earl ran for an incredible 1,934 yards. 1,934! That year, Big Earl rumbled and stumbled and pummeled his way for more than 200 yards in a record four games. His running style cut his career short. But his running style is why we loved him. My god, when he was in his prime, he was mesmerizing, tantalizing, captivating, devastating. My all time favorite. Earl Campell, the Tyler Rose.
Public Spectacle:
Peace out homies. Six Two and Even!
