Brad Oremland is a sportswriter and football historian. There are few who have given as much thought to the history of pro football as Brad has over the years. What follows is Brad’s latest work, a multi-part series on the greatest players in pro football history.
This is the tenth article in a twelve-part series profiling the greatest pro football players of all time. You can find the previous installments below:
111-125
101-110
91-100
81-90
71-80
61-70
51-60
41-50
31-40
I would prefer to write about the players in exclusively positive terms, but since this series is organized as a ranking, some of the comments will highlight weaknesses by way of explaining why the player isn’t even higher. I try to anticipate arguments that a player should be ranked higher or lower, and tailor the summaries accordingly, but please don’t misinterpret these justifications as disrespect for the player’s accomplishments. At this point in the series, we’re considering the very best players in the history of professional football.
Best Players of All Time: 21-30
30. Alan Page
Defensive Tackle
Minnesota Vikings, 1967-78; Chicago Bears, 1978-81
23 FR, 86 yards, 2 TD; 2 INT, 42 yards, TD
1 MVP, 2 DPOY, 4 consensus All-Pro, 8 AP All-Pro, 9 Pro Bowls, 1970s All-Decade Team
The greatest pass rushing defensive tackle of all time, Alan Page retired before sacks became an official statistic, but historian John Turney credits him with 148.5, the most ever at his position. Page was an undersized DT for most his career, despite his 6′ 4″ height. Page lost more and more weight over time, coming into the league at 278 but playing his best seasons around 250 lbs. He was famously down to 225 by the time he played with Chicago, but he remained an effective player. Turney credits him with 40 sacks during 58 games with Chicago, and Page was All-NFC as late as 1980. He had 3.5 sacks in his final game.
Although he had many good seasons, Page’s prime was the early 1970s. In 1970, he personally recorded eight takeaways: 1 interception, 7 fumble recoveries, 104 defensive return yards, and a touchdown. In 1971, he was the consensus Defensive Player of the Year, and the Associated Press named him NFL MVP. He was incredibly impactful at a position not normally expected to produce impact players. MVP awards were for quarterbacks and running backs. Lawrence Taylor and Page are the only defensive players to win that award. Two years later, Page was again DPOY.
He was the keystone of Minnesota’s defensive dynasty, variously known as the Purple Gang (after a 1920s Detroit mob) and the Purple People Eaters (after the Sheb Wooley song), with both names originally referring to the defensive line (of Carl Eller, Gary Larsen, Jim Marshall, and Page) but popularly extended to the entire defensive unit. Eller, Page, and safety Paul Krause are all enshrined in the Hall of Fame. From 1969-76, the Vikings ranked in the top three in fewest points allowed seven out of the eight years, including three straight seasons leading the NFL (1969-71). The 1969-76 Vikings went 87-24-1 (.781) — about 12.5 wins per season in 16-game seasons — and reached the Super Bowl four times in eight years. The Cowboys or Vikings represented the NFC in nine out of 10 Super Bowls from 1969-78.
Page was an unusual football player, but specifically, he was an unusual defensive tackle. He moved around on the line, upsetting blocking schemes with his unpredictability. Page is very intelligent, and he guessed a lot as a player: where to line up, where the ball was going, when the snap was coming. He anticipated the snap as well as anyone at that time, and he was incredibly quick for his size, often blowing past offensive linemen before they’d gotten out of their stances. He wasn’t huge, he wasn’t a space eater, and he didn’t have great power. As time went on, he became increasingly devoted to distance running, which led to his weight loss. Page completed his first marathon in 1979, three years before he retired from the NFL, and went on to run many more. He compensated for his lack of size with quickness that linemen couldn’t match, with endurance that allowed him to go hard on every play, and with intelligence that facilitated blowups in the offensive backfield. Despite his light weight, Page also had good height and long arms which he used to beat blockers, intimidate quarterbacks and deflect passes, and block 28 kicks in his career. He was perhaps the best kick blocker ever. Twenty-eight.
Page attended law school during the offseason and became a judge on the Minnesota Supreme Court following his retirement as a player. He’s a remarkable man, a true pillar of his community, and I’m sure Page is more proud of what he’s accomplished off the field than on it. But in this series, I don’t want Page’s legal career, or his uncommon decency as a human being, to overshadow his excellence as a football player. Aaron Donald is the perhaps the best player in football today, but I think it’s premature and even disrespectful to suggest that he has already overtaken Page as the greatest pass-rushing DT in history. Donald has 59.5 sacks, only 40% of Page’s total. I don’t think he needs to get to 149 before we pass the crown, but surely he should get at least halfway there before we rank him ahead of Page. Donald has been brilliant in every season of his five-year career, but it’s not obvious to me that he has played better than Page did in his five best years, and Page had a lot of other good seasons, too. Part of what made Page so impressive is that he was so good for so long, winning postseason honors in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. Make no mistake, Aaron Donald is coming for everyone ranked ahead of him. But by the same token, make no mistake: Alan Page was a truly excellent player for many years, a terror to opposing linemen and quarterbacks, and the standout on some of the greatest defensive teams of all time. [continue reading…]