One List to Rule Them All...

The Sporting News, my personal favorite sports magazine, came out with a list of the top 101 NFL Players. For the most part, the list is solid, however I do have some issues with it.

First of all, Number one is a problem. The Magazine lists Peyton Manning as the best player in the league. There's only one problem with that: LaDanian Tomlinson is arguably the best player at his position in the History of the game. Now, I know that I never really saw Jim Brown, or Walter Peyton play, but their is definitely a case for LDT. No one has topped Tomlinson in nearly five years. He owns the single season touchdown record. He even is trusted with passes in the red zone. How good can you be? Apparently, SN thinks that Tom Brady and Champ Bailey are better players as well, as they ranked the Chargers RB 4th.

The only argument that can be made for dropping LDT to 4th is that he plays a position that is considered by many to be "easy." Well' Let's be honest, If we go by a similar position difficultly scale as baseball which looks like this:

1B - LF - RF - 3B - CF - 2B - SS - C

Then, Football's would probably look like this:

Offense:
FB - G - WR - RB - TE - C - QB - T

Defense
S - DT - DE - LB - CB

Of course, things are a little different in football with schemes being so varied. However, Let's go with those as basic assumptions. This would mean Champ Bailey should be the best player in the league based upon his position? I don't think so. Champ's great, but I don't know if my team starts with him over LDT. In fact, I do know that it wouldn't.

Along the same vein, I have a problem with the breakdown of the players involved. Linebackers, Wide Receivers and Defensive Ends tie at 13 for the most players on the list. Ok, Now while those are all important positions that deserve a lot of praise, where are all of the positions are clearly more difficult to play?

Under the current NFL rules, Cornerback is the hardest position to play in the NFL. Are you really telling me that Secondary play is so bad right now that only 7 guys deserve this accolade?

Here they are:

3. Champ Bailey, Broncos
31. Nate Clements, 49ers
46. Asante Samuel, Patriots (For Now)
48. DeAngelo Hall, Falcons
49. Terrence Newman, Cowboys
59. Rashean Mathis, Jaguars
84. Chris McAllister, Ravens

Their choice of players not withstanding (Terrence Newman Anyone?) There are more safeties in the top half than corners. That's absurd. Safeties are the one who end up reeping the benefits of the corners work, not the one who really make the plays.

The one thing that they got right is their predictions for who they believe will on the list next year. Chad Greenway of the Vikings should return from his injury with a vengeance. Kellen Winslow is an ass, but a good football player. Three locals headline the list however:

LB Mathias Kiwianuka, Giants
RB Thomas Jones, Jets
LT D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Jets

Not a bad list, but I think that SN needs to change their thinking about football little bit.

You know what I love about football season? Getting to argue about stuff like this.