Snub Justifications

Most people would be shocked to find the below players missing from my roster. Here, I present my arguments against each player. I'm obviously not refuting all possible players, so I'm only addressing ones here that are especially controversial or help to illuminate my thought process:

Shutdown Corners: Deion Sanders, Darrell Green, and Mike Haynes are the first names that come to mind when you think of a shutdown corner. But while the term has gained popularity in recent years, the concept is a familiar one for the opponents of my CB selections:
Lane
Blount
Adderley

And on a philosophical level, I firmly reject the notion of the shutdown corner. Anybody can get beat on a given play, even Sanders. However, I must admit the rule changes around pass-interference have certainly privileged speed over physicality, and I don't believe my picks could copy the style of the above players. But like I said in the blog, I want the hardest hitters and I've designed a system around their abilities.

Quarterbacks

Johnny Unitas: If Johnny Unitas maintained the dominance from his early NFL seasons throughout his career, he would be the starting quarterback of this team. I think Johnny Unitas's legacy is partly a function of being in the right place at the right time. He was the best quarterback in the league in the first few seasons that football overtook baseball as our national pastime. In the end, Starr had a better career than Unitas.

Dan Marino: If you were going to draw a picture of everything you wanted in a quarterback -- physicality, throwing motion, arm strength, height -- it would look a helluva lot like Dan Marino. The main consideration here is of course his lack of a ring. But if I were going purely on film, I'd go with Marino.

Peyton Manning: Greatest regular season quarterback of the modern era, but struggled in the post-season.

Otto Graham: Otto Graham is the most dominant regular season quarterback of all-time. However, his 10 championship appearances and 7 rings belie the statistical truth that he struggled in the post-season. First and foremost, he played in an era where the top 2 regular season teams would usually advance directly to the championship game (as did Starr in the first half of his career), so there's no opportunity to choke in the playoffs. His first 4 rings came in the less competitive All-America Football Conference. In the NFL, he went 3-3 in championship games. For comparison, Starr went 5-1. In his 12 career post-season appearances, he ringed in a mediocre 67.4 post-season passer rating and threw more picks than TDs (14-17). In Starr's 10 post-season appearances, he ringed-in the highest post-season passer rating of all-time at 104.8 and threw 15 TDs and 3 picks.

Sammy Baugh: (Edit: This passage was written when I had Luckman at #3). The analysts at the Cold Hard Football Facts argued that Sammy Baugh is the 3rd best quarterback of all time (behind Starr and Montana), and put Luckman outside the top 10. In general, I think they are one of the best available sources for objective football journalism. But the perpetual boner they have for Sammy Baugh has clearly affected the bloodflow to their brains. By most measures, Luckman was the superior quarterback of the era. Let's look at the cold hard facts:

Who has the higher career passer rating? Luckman.
Who has the higher career YPA, a CHFF favorite statistic? Luckman.
Who has the higher career post-season passer rating? Luckman.
Who has the lower post-season interception rate? Luckman.
Who has more rings? Luckman.

Baugh has more career passing yards and touchdowns than Luckman, but by the very measures that CHFF values the most in their assessment of Starr, Luckman is ahead of Baugh.

Runningbacks

Emmitt Smith: Yes, he has the record. No, stats aren't everything. I think a side-by-side of the highlight reels definitely makes clear that he's not number one. One of the greats, but not a top 3 pick.

Adrian Peterson: Peterson is arguably a better pure runner than Payton, but it's super close and Payton is a better receiver and would be a stronger special teams contributor, so I'm happy to keep him in the 3rd spot.

netflix

Anastasia
chicken run
dumbo
hercules
james peach

Key and Peele

1) East-West Bowl
2) I Said Biiiiiiiiitch
3) Anger Translator
4) Liam Neesons
5) Auction Block
6) Substitute Teacher
7) Dueling Hats
8) Continental Breakfast
9) A Cappella
10) Bling Beezy vs Da Struggle


a cappella
gay marriage legalized
you can do anything
sexy vampire
alien imposters
bling beezy and da struggle