Though any greatest of all-time list is subjective, you’ll find most lists of the 10 greatest players in NFL history include the following players in varying order. There’s no way such a list would omit Lawrence Taylor, or Jim Brown, or Jerry Rice, or, well, these gridiron legends, all of whom are, naturally, in the Hall of Fame.
1. Jerry Rice / San Francisco 49ers / Oakland Raiders / Seattle Seahawks
1985-2005
It's hard to think of a more dominant player at any position in any sport than Jerry Rice is at wide receiver. We could easily have slid several players into the top slot. But only Rice has a Secretariat-like lead over his contemporaries. The gap between Rice and his peers shows he has none. Rice has 22,285 receiving yards (no one else has 20,000). Rice has the most total touchdowns, with 208. He leads the world with 1,549 receptions. He leads all time in all-purpose yards, with 23,546, and went 274 consecutive games with at least one reception. And in a league and sports climate where records drop like autumn leaves, the immortal Jerry Rice holds 36 NFL records, 16 years after he retired.
2. Tom Brady / New England Patriots / Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2000-present
Brady left New England, at age 43, and led a forlorn Bucs franchise to a Super Bowl title in one season. He did it without OTAs, summer camp, or preseason games. In other words, he had no chance to practice with his new teammates, and create the kind of shorthand a quarterback needs with his teammates to win games consistently. Perhaps you have to either play, cover. or ardently follow football to realize what kind of impossible achievement that is. It's safe to say it won't happen again, unless Brady does it next year. He's already got seven Super Bowl titles. Joe Montana, the most recent holder of the "Greatest Ever" mantle, has four.
3. Jim Brown / Cleveland Browns
1957-1965
An All-American at multiple sports while at Syracuse, Brown is the greatest running back in history, from a time when rushing was the main way the NFL moved the ball. In nine years, he was first-team All-Pro eight times. He's the only running back to average over 100 yards rushing per game (104.3). He led the league in yards per game in eight of his nine NFL seasons, led in total rushing yards in eight seasons, led in rushing touchdowns in five seasons , led in touches and scrimmage yards in six seasons. To give you an idea of how dominant Jim Brown was, in his final NFL season (1965), he led the league in rushes, yards, touchdowns, touches, and yards from scrimmage.
4. Lawrence Taylor / New York Giants
1981-1993
It's harder to judge defensive players because they aren't tethered to stats. But if we're being objective, Lawrence Taylor is the best defensive player in NFL history. Teams designed offenses around Taylor to keep him from single handedly wrecking the opposing offense. He was big enough to stop bruising running backs, fast enough to sack quarterbacks at will. He created the downward chop that modern players use to cause fumbles. In 1986, Taylor established himself as the linebacker nonpareil, notching 20.5 sacks (the most ever for a linebacker), made first-team All-Pro, led the Giants to their first Super Bowl victory, and became only the second defensive player in history to win NFL MVP. Even Bill Belichick gets red-faced when someone dares to compare a contemporary player to Taylor, the first, and only player who earned the nickname LT.
5. Reggie White / Philadelphia Eagles / Green Bay Packers
1985-2000
An All-American at Tennessee, White was picked fourth overall by the Eagles in the NFL Draft, and utterly destroyed offensive linemen. He was a 13-time Pro-Bowler and eight-time first-team All-Pro. White also won NFL Defensive Player of the Year twice, in 1987 and 1998. He finished with 198 sacks, just two short of the all-time record. Though he was part of an awesome defensive line in Philadelphia and reached the playoffs a few times, he left for Green Bay as a free agent, thinking he had a better chance with the Packers. He was right. With a young QB named Brett Favre, White won his only Super Bowl in 1995, beating Bill Parcells and the Patriots. Not only was White a legendary player who was so insanely strong he could get to the opposing QB using one arm, he was also one of the nicest men in the game. An avid reader of the Bible, White was so devoted to the Good Book he learned Hebrew so that he could learn to read it in original text. For all his brutality during the game, White was notoriously polite, never used profanity, and was renowned for picking up players he'd just flattened a few seconds earlier. Sadly, White died the day after Christmas, in his sleep, in 2004.
6. Joe Montana / San Francisco 49ers / Kansas City Chiefs
1979-1994
Just the name Joe Montana has magic to it. It rings for all the kids who worshiped him, from yours truly to Tom Brady. It rings sad for all the teams he beat in the final moments; for the four Super Bowls he won; for the 11 touchdowns he threw in the NFL's biggest game, and zero interceptions. Montana has the most Super Bowl throws without an interception, at 127. Montana was named to eight Pro Bowls and twice the NFL MVP. It all started in the 1981 season, a single play called, "The Catch," when Joe rolled right at Candlestick Park with 58 seconds left, and the ball at the Cowboys' six yard line.. He pump faked, as three Dallas Cowboys, including Ed "Too Tall" Jones, stalked him down., Montana chucked the ball about 15 yards, just over their fingertips, to the back of the end zone, where a galloping Dwight Clark leaped, caught the ball at its peak, and landed with the pigskin cradled in his hands. So started the legend of Joe Montana as "Joe Cool," his name called out from the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, across the flatlands of South Bend, Indiana and Notre Dame, and across the cornfields to California, where he and the Niners, along with a young genius named BIll Walsh, forged a dynasty.
7. Walter Payton / Chicago Bears
1975-1987
It's tough to think of such a stone-hewn man of infinite toughness being called "Sweetness," but it fit Walter Payton. A wrecking ball of a runner, Payton could bowl over a defense for 275 yards, as he did against the Vikings. Or he could stand sentinel next to the QB on a pass play, and serve as a key blocker. He fit perfectly as a Chicago Bear, the team called The Monsters of the Midway, yet he had an unusually soft voice and decent manner. A true throwback, Payton was one of the few players who played his entire career with one team. He was selected to the Pro Bowl nine times, and was named first-team All-Pro five times. He retired as the all-time leading rusher, with 16,726 yards on the ground. Tragically, Payton died a young man, on November 1, 1999, of an incredibly rare and incurable illness. He was just 45.
8. Peyton Manning / Indianapolis Colts / Denver Broncos
1998-2015
Though he won two Super Bowls, Manning isn't higher on this list because he didn't win more, while his direct contemporary, Tom Brady, has won seven. It's not a matter of talent or production. Manning is often hit with the dubious handle as the best regular-season player in history. Indeed, Manning was a walking record book, playing in the Pro Bowl 14 times. First team All-Pro seven times. And no one comes close to Manning's five NFL MVP awards. He retired with the most TD passes (539), most passing yards in a season (5,477), second-most passing yards in NFL history (71,940), and third-most passes completed in league history (6,125).
9. Barry Sanders / Detroit Lions
1989-1998
Most times it's a great thing when a great player stays with one team. Unless that team is the Lions. Sanders - a most quiet, decent, and humble man despite his talent, fame, and fortune - rushed for 15,279 yards, which ranks third all-time. He's been selected to ten Pro Bowls. He was voted first team All-Pro six times. And he's the first running back to gain 1,000 yards on the ground in his first ten seasons. Sadly, the Lions lost five of the six playoff games they reached while Sanders was wasting his talent on them. And in an age of polarizing personalities, Sanders was old-school, tossing the ball to the ref or gently dropping it after each touchdown. Never concerned about his wage or age or fame, Sanders retired in his prime, content with greatness over greatest.
10. Joe Greene / Pittsburgh Steelers
1969-1981
The first player Chuck Noll drafted when he took over the once terrible Steelers squad that had been terrible for decades. Not only was Greene a great defensive tackle, he was the lynchpin of the empire that Noll built, beginning with him. Greene was also the leader of the famed "Steel Curtain" - a term that was really reserved solely for the defensive line. Greene repaid the investment by helping the Steelers win four Super Bowls during their dynastic '70s. He was a five-time first-team All-Pro, two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and a ten-time Pro Bowl selection. Perhaps he was just as famous as “Mean” Joe Greene in that iconic Coca Cola commercial in which he hands an awestruck child his jersey in exchange for a cold Coke.
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