Funny thats also a familiar argument with me and one of my friends that follows the NFL closely. He actually thinks that Owens is better than Rice in his prime. Its going to be a long time before a WR performs at an exceptional level as long as Rice.
Does Owens have more physical talent? Unquestionably; he is probably the most gifted all around wr to have ever stepped foot on a field. But then Jagr and Mario were both more physically 'gifted' than Gretzky, the only man who compares with Rice in terms of individual statistical dominace of a major team sport. People forget just how unbelievable Rice was in his prime...he's not just Jabbar, he was Wilt in his best days. Owens has more physical talent, but you give me a wr in his prime, for a play, a game, a season, a few year stretch, or a career, and it's Rice without blinking. But I forgot to mention that people who didn't see Rice in his prime think that he's a Bird: a guy who was about production, but not dominant ability. Couldn't be more wrong...the game has progressed, so that a freak like Owens is bigger, stronger, and just as fast as Rice was, but in his day Rice was among the biggest and strongest, had the best moves, the best hands, and his speed...on the football field...was unmatched. He ran a slow 40 for a wr..like a 4.6 or sometimes a high 4.5, but cb after cb, including guys like Terry McDanile and Deion said that he was the hardest guy to catch in the game, and that if he got seperationm forget about it. The only guy I have ever seen who ate up the field as seemingly without effort as Rice was Prime Time...both had that ability to seem to be floating if you just looked at them, but when you looked at them in relation to other players, you'd notice that they were blowing by them.
We definatly think alike on this topic. The guy had 23 td's in only 12 games in 87 and at 40 yrs old had 92 receptions for 1211 yds. Also, the argument that I hate most is that he has only had great QB's throwing to him. Sure it has some effect but it doesnt detract from his overall ability.
Agreed...his pro-rated production was the same when he had Grbak throwing to him,and a couple of other scrubs over the years...in fact throwing to him got Grbak a big contract. You might say that Young benefied from throwing to Rice...but Montana was great withoput Rice, and Rice was great without Montana, so neither one made the other great; it was just a rare combination of superstars. ( BTW, not dismissing Young, just that there isn't seperate evidence of his greatness independant of another star as there is with Rice and Montana.)
is Anthony Carter the vikings WR you meant MacBeth? he was pretty good for a while. Raiders had (just at QB)- Jay Schroeder, Todd Marinovich, Jeff Hostler, Jeff George, and Steve Beuerlein. also - Terry McDaniel, Chester McGlockton, Darrell Russell, Aundray Bruce, Patrick Bates, Larry Brown, Mervyn Fernandez, Willie Gault, Rocket Ismail, Napoleon Kaufman, Harvey Williams... Darnay Scott used to be good. oh, and Dana Stubblefield is a Raider now, so he is old, so he will automatically have a great season.
Harrison is a stud, but Rice has 1456 receptions, 21597 yds, 192 along with 10 rushing td' for his career. Harison is below rice's pace on yds and td's at the same age. At 30 Harrison has to play at his same extemely high level for many years to ever catch rice.
WR-Carlos Carson, Chiefs and RB-Charles White, Rams are the only ones not named that I can think of in ten minutes. Maybe some more pondering and I can come up with some more.
Peter Warrick I see a few people picked Doug Williams, how can you be a flash in the pan if you won the Super Bowl and if I`m not mistaken was also the Super Bowl MVP?
A lot of you are confusing flash in the pan with never panned out or busts. Example, Gary Brown had a good season in the NFL and never did much afterwards. Rick Mier was supposed to be the next great thing and never panned out, I'm pretty sure he never had a decent season. Same thing with Tony Mandrich. I don't know if people expected to much out of this guy but Burt Emanuel, had a couple of really good seasons.
Hey...I said Gary Brown first! Anyways...Eric Metcalf had a decent and pretty long career. I don't think he qualifies for flash in the pan. I think that you'd have to completely disappear to qualify for that.
Flashes in the pan, not disappointments. Remember they had to have played really well for a year or two then disappear. LaFluer never played well enough to flash.
Don't mean to derail the topic at hand too much, but back in the day when Rick Mier was a rookie for Seatle, I thought to "invest" in his rookie card. Spent a small fortune on trying to acquire every single special edition, rare insert, holographic, mail in only, you-name-it Rick Mier card. Yeah, I thought I was a stinking genius. Good times, good times...
No, Mirer had a really quite good rookie year, especially for an underclass qb...After their rookie years many thought he'd be a great qb, especially as he had the stamp of approval from the qb guru of gurus, Bill Walsh. I don't remember his numbers, but they were solid for a rookie qb.
Sorry for further derailment but remember Todd Van Popple? The next Nolan Ryan..... 5$ rookie card before he'd pitched a game, that turned out real well in my card collecting days.... Jr. Griffey burned me as well.... Good times indeed.
