"Set" complete (NFL Top 50)
 

Based on my sabermetric-y calculations I compiled a list of who I think are statistically the 50 best players in NFL history, with a goal of putting together a collection of their rookie cards. I've done the same for MLB, NBA, and NHL, but the NFL group is the first I've completed. It's quite a bit harder to do the NBA and NHL ones and nearly impossible for MLB. Anyway, with my Ray Lewis eBay pick up arriving in the mail today, this group is complete. I also have a Matthew Stafford waiting in the wings as I'm expecting him to move into the top 50 this year.

cool i remember seeing that marino and elway on late night tv . in the 80s ..on that show selling baseball cards and baseballs signed by HOFs etc..

Those are the two I just got back from PSA from my submission last March.

right i dont mean those exact cards specifically.......im sure others on the forum remember that late night show that sold sheets of cards with the marino on it etc.

Don West?

Where are _________?
 

Interesting collection. that said, only one card pre 1960? Many greats omitted.

It’s a lot easier if there’s only 10 before 1980 ;). Ken Anderson but no Starr or Unitas? The statistical basis must be weighted very heavily to the modern game. I don’t get the list chosen, but it’s a very cool collection.

Definitely is. Makes it much easier that the NFL has kept updating the rules to favor the modern passing game.

Contrast that with my MLB-equivalent list where 33 of the top 50 players' careers had already ended before I was born (in 1977), and 8 of them played in the 19th century.

This is why I like contextualization, evaluation in time and place. It shouldn't be all old or all modern, on the whole eras should roughly balance out. One guy before 1962 isn't better than 1 guy after 1980 would be.

I like that you put a personal touch on your list and built it to match your beliefs. That is the definition of creating a collection you will enjoy. Good stuff.

While I agree this list doesn't list probably 15-20 players easily that should be on list, as long as your happy than you did it right!!!

No creativity in it, but I am mostly done with the NFL's own 100 list that it put out fairly recently. It's fairly inclusive as to earlier decades and pretty evenly distributed across positions, so probably in some respects isn't going to line up with other such lists which are more QB heavy, but it's still a nice list IMO. My biggest quibble with it is Dutch Clark over Nagurski.

I am not degrading Bronco, but I think Clark was far more skilled as a leader and a nimble runner. Nagurski relied on his size and Christian Okoye line hammering. Amazing tackler however, it’s damn close in the end.

Just personal opinion (and a Detroit bias, lol).

I don’t hate the list but it’s just ok. I think almost more so than any sport, and because of the ample rule changes, football is the hardest to compare players of different eras. They just just are not interchangeable at all.

The clear goal of the NFL's official list was to get in a fair number of players from previous decades at all positions. Accepting that objective I think it's a pretty good list.