Brad Oremland is a longtime commenter and a fellow 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.

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This is the third article in a twelve-part series profiling the greatest pro football players of all time. If you haven’t already read part one and part two, I recommend you start there.

Best Players of All Time: 91-100

100. Andy Robustelli
Defensive End
Los Angeles Rams, 1951-55; New York Giants, 1956-64
22 FR, 97 yards, 2 TD; 2 INT, 24 yards, 2 TD
1 consensus All-Pro, 10 AP All-Pro, 7 Pro Bowls

Other than his rookie year and his last two seasons, somebody named Andy Robustelli All-Pro every season of his career. For this series, I don’t treat Maxwell Club as a major organization, but they honored Robustelli with the 1962 Bert Bell Award for league MVP. AP had him second-team All-Pro that season. Maxwell Club was probably closer to the mark; historian and author T.J. Troup has suggested that Robustelli would have been a worthy Defensive Player of the Year candidate, though that award wasn’t offered by major publications until 1966.

Robustelli missed one game his rookie season, then never missed another for the next 13 years, a remarkable feat in the brutal 1950s and ’60s. As a rookie, he started in the 1951 NFL Championship Game, going on to start championship games not only in 1951, but in 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, and 1963. When the Giants traded their first-round draft choice to Los Angeles for Robustelli in 1956, the Rams dropped from the best record in the Western Conference to the worst, and the Giants, who hadn’t made a postseason appearance since 1950, became league champs. Robustelli’s teams had a winning record in each of his first 13 seasons, and he appeared in eight NFL title games, winning championships with both the Rams and Giants. Very few players have such a consistent record of success.

Robustelli’s highlight reel is striking. He was a great pass rusher, and he retired with the most fumble recoveries in history. Robustelli was also a leader, credited (along with rookie Sam Huff) with New York’s defensive renaissance that sparked a title in 1956. In his final three seasons, two of which saw the Giants reach the NFL Championship Game, Robustelli was a player-coach. Following his retirement he worked briefly in television and for many years in the Giants’ front office. Few players in history have amassed such a collection of both individual and team success.

99. Willie Wood
Safety
Green Bay Packers, 1960-71
48 INT, 699 yards, 2 TD; 16 FR, 39 yards
3 consensus All-Pro, 6 AP All-Pro, 8 Pro Bowls, 1960s All-Decade Team, All-Century Team

Last year, I rated the Vince Lombardi Packers the second-greatest dynasty in history. From 1960-67, they went 82-24-4 (.774), with five championships and six title appearances in eight years. Those teams, however, succeeded with an extraordinary array of talent. Head coach Vince Lombardi is often ranked as the greatest coach of all time, and more than half the starting lineup — twelve players — has been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Forrest Gregg, Paul Hornung, Henry Jordan, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nitschke, Jim Ringo, Dave Robinson, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, and Wood. Even that honor roll excludes a number of celebrated players. Other Packers who made at least one Pro Bowl during those years include: RB Tom Moore, WRs Boyd Dowler and Max McGee, TE Ron Kramer, OT Bob Skoronski, LBs Lee Roy Caffey, Dan Currie, and Bill Forester, DBs Bob Jeter and Jesse Whittenton, and K/P Don Chandler. With so many great players contributing, and a legendary coach overseeing the team, it’s hard to attribute extraordinary credit to any of the individual players. Three players from those superlative teams appear on this list, beginning with Willie Wood.

Wood was an unlikely success story. He was an option quarterback at USC, and pro teams wanted passers by then. More importantly, he was Black, and African Americans hadn’t been accepted as middle linebackers yet, much less as QBs. Wood went undrafted. He got a tryout with Green Bay, though, and in his second season became a defensive starter and returned two punts for touchdowns. Wood was already an all-star when he made a famous interception early in the second half of Super Bowl I. It was a game-changing play. The underdog Chiefs had the Packers on their heels, but Wood returned his pick to the 5-yard line, setting up Elijah Pitts’ TD run, and Green Bay controlled the remainder of the game. Starr was named MVP, but McGee and Wood were long remembered as heroes, too.

Wood was a good athlete with no weaknesses to speak of, and he had tremendous football instincts. He anticipated where the ball was coming, he had 5 or more interceptions in a season five times, and he was a good tackler if the ball got there first. After his playing career he became an assistant coach, and later the first Black head coach in both the World Football League (a short-lived league that attracted some major league talent but never got off the ground) and the CFL.

98. Larry Wilson
Safety
St. Louis Cardinals, 1960-72
52 INT, 800 yards, 5 TD; 14 FR, 173 yards, 2 TD
1 DPOY, 3 consensus All-Pro, 5 AP All-Pro, 8 Pro Bowls, 1960s All-Decade Team, 50th Anniversary Team, 75th Anniversary Team

Great safeties of the 1960s, back to back. Wilson and Wood were contemporaries, and they attracted similar honors during their careers. Wilson, who popularized the safety blitz, was named to the 1969 and 1994 All-Time teams, while Paul Zimmerman made Wood “a narrow choice over the Cardinals’ Larry Wilson as a deep patroller with tremendous instincts” on his All-Century Team. Wilson was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, inducted more than a decade before Wood. He also had more impressive statistics, though the difference is not overwhelming.

Today, he’s most famous as the first great practitioner of the safety blitz, but Wilson was also a great pass defender. He was a dedicated student of his craft who kept notes on opposing receivers. Wilson led the NFL in interceptions in 1966, when he was named Defensive Player of the Year, plus he scored seven defensive touchdowns in his career. He had tremendous instincts and his toughness was legendary, perhaps his most enduring legacy apart from the safety blitz. Wilson famously intercepted a pass despite having splints on both of his broken hands, but he also played through numerous other injuries. When he suffered a collapsed lung in a game, he returned to the field just two weeks later. Opposing QB Bobby Layne, himself renowned for toughness, marvelled, “Larry Wilson may have been the toughest guy, pound for pound, who ever played this game.”

Wilson was not especially fast, but he had good instincts, good hands, and he was a big hitter. Dan Dierdorf, a rookie in 1971, remembered Wilson as the player who made him understand the difference between the NCAA and NFL. In a preseason scrimmage, a Bears receiver caught a pass, “and Larry Wilson knocked the guy completely out. It was the hardest hit I’d ever seen in my life. I said, ‘Oh my Lord, welcome to the NFL.’ ” Wood was a better pure athlete and he covered more range, but Wilson probably played the pass a little better and he created more trouble in opposing backfields. Like Wood, he remained in football after his playing career, as both a coach (including a 2-1 record as the Cardinals’ interim head coach in 1979) and scout (he was the team’s GM for 17 years).

97. Dan Fortmann
Guard (Pre-Modern)
Chicago Bears, 1936-43
6 consensus All-Pro, 8 All-Pro, 3 Pro Bowls, 1930s All-Decade Team, 50th Anniversary Team

Danny Fortmann anchored the greatest dynasty in the proud history of the Chicago Bears, from 1936-43. In eight pro seasons, his teams went 69-17-2 (.802) and won three championships. His career aligns precisely with the most successful eight-year run in the century-long history of the franchise. Furthermore, Fortmann was All-Pro every season of his career, usually a consensus choice. He was undisputed as the greatest guard of his generation.

Drafted at age 19 and worryingly undersized — he was never listed over 210 pounds — Fortmann nonetheless was a powerful blocker and tackler, and more than made up for his size with superior technique. He was a standout on defense as well as offense, most remarkable for his intelligence and grasp of the game. Fortmann called the line signals on offense and was regarded as a master at diagnosing plays on defense. He was the Bears’ captain his last four seasons, and a medical doctor after his playing career.

Other than maybe Jim Thorpe and Red Grange, Pre-Modern players are mostly anonymous today. Serious history buffs (of which you may be one, since you’re choosing to read this profile of a player who died from old age in 1995) probably know a few others, but Fortmann is seldom remembered. I understand why modern sportswriters and announcers don’t rhapsodize about Pre-Modern linemen, but it’s a shame we’ve forgotten Danny Fortmann. He was a great player on offense and defense, a team leader on one of the greatest dynasties of all time, and he sacrificed his health for football: Fortmann was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1983.

His life story reads like Doc Graham from Field of Dreams. After his playing career, Fortmann served in the Navy Medical Corps during World War II, then as a surgeon for forty years, until the Alzheimer’s. He was a good man, a good teammate, and one of the greatest football players in history. If you remember one “new” player from this article, I doubt you could do better than Dan Fortmann. This rank could be regarded as conservative.

96. Willie Lanier
Middle Linebacker
Kansas City Chiefs, 1967-77
18 FR, 21 yards; 27 INT, 440 yards, 2 TD
1 consensus All-Pro, 4 AP All-Pro, 8-time All-Star, All-Century Team

When professional football was re-integrated in the 1940s, it didn’t take long to accept African American running backs or defensive backs. Three positions took longer: quarterback, center, and middle linebacker. Black players supposedly weren’t smart enough to handle those positions. Lanier quickly showed that skin color didn’t determine who could lead a defense. He was selected to eight straight all-star games, including the first six AFC/NFC Pro Bowls. Paul Zimmerman called Lanier a “run stuffer supreme,” but Lanier also intercepted multiple passes for nine seasons in a row (1968-76), including two seasons with over 100 INT return yards. He is one of seven LBs in history with at least 400 interceptions return yards.

Nicknamed “Contact” because he tackled so forcefully, Lanier was primarily a run stuffer and pass defender, seldom asked to blitz. Chiefs coach Hank Stram remembered him as “an instant hit, a fast and crunching tackler.” Lanier’s career substantially overlaps with those of fellow Hall of Fame MLBs Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, and Nick Buoniconti. With Butkus hogging most of the All-Pro honors, official recognition was limited for the others, but modern fans should consider Lanier the Brian Urlacher or Zach Thomas to Butkus’ Ray Lewis. If you’re willing to expand that principle beyond inside linebackers, Drew Brees might be a good comparison. Often overshadowed by Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers, no one doubts that he’s been an excellent player.

At the same time, reputations from that era need to be put in context. Middle linebacker was still a relatively new position, and its impact highly celebrated. “The 1960s and early 1970s was the great era for middle linebackers, and we used to have spirited debates about which were the best,” wrote Zimmerman. “Almost every team had a great one,” at which point he names 13 players before concluding, “The list is endless.” If every middle linebacker was great, are we measuring skill at the position, or the position itself? Was it uniquely demanding? Uniquely impactful? Was it so demanding and so impactful that we should regard it as the defensive equivalent of quarterback? If you get your history from certain sources, all of which are credible in a vacuum, it becomes possible to conclude that all the greatest players in history are from the 1960s and early 1970s. I don’t believe that, and I think it’s a perversion of the “all-time” designation. I am happy to consider players from that era among the greatest in history, and indeed, many rank very highly in the list that underlies this series — but I do tend to let a little air out of the glowing tributes from this era.

The Chiefs had a very good defense in the late ’60s and early ’70s; the 1969 Super Bowl team led the AFL in both fewest points and fewest yards allowed. There are two problems. (1) Kansas City had a good defense before Lanier arrived. In 1966, the Chiefs’ defense ranked 2nd in both yardage and scoring, and the Chiefs won the AFL Championship before losing to the Packers in Super Bowl I. (2) From 1968-71, the Chiefs’ defense had six Hall of Famers, and it was probably never the best in football during that time. Those teams also had a Hall of Fame coach (Hank Stram), a Hall of Fame quarterback (Len Dawson), a wide receiver often cited as a Hall of Fame snub (Otis Taylor), and an outstanding offensive lineman who would certainly be in the Hall of Fame if he hadn’t murdered his wife (Jim Tyrer). This incredibly decorated roster produced four playoff appearances and one Super Bowl win. There are dozens of teams in history that have been better than the Lanier-era Chiefs, without similar acclaim for the players. Lanier was a genuinely great linebacker, but he was protected by two HOF defensive linemen, he played next to the most athletic OLB of all time, he had a great defensive backfield behind him, and the Chiefs’ offense usually kept pressure off.

95. Adrian Peterson
Running Back
Minnesota Vikings, 2007-16; New Orleans Saints, 2017; Arizona Cardinals, 2017; Washington, 2018
13,318 yards, 4.71 avg, 106 TD; 272 receptions, 2,223 yards, 6 TD
1 MVP, 1 OPOY, 4 consensus All-Pro, 7 AP All-Pro, 7 Pro Bowls, Offensive Rookie of the Year

A star at Oklahoma, Adrian Peterson made immediate impact in the NFL. As a rookie, he averaged 5.63 yards per attempt, scored 13 TDs, gained more than 2,000 all-purpose yards, and broke the single-game rushing record, with 296. The next year, he led the NFL in rushing and yards from scrimmage. The following season, he led the league with 18 TDs. He came into pro football with a bang, and — apart from injuries and suspensions — never stopped exploding.

Peterson has rushed for over 1,250 yards seven times. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry or higher for seven years in a row, the first full-time running back to do so since Joe Perry from 1948-58. The only other player in history with seven straight seasons of double-digit rush TDs was LaDainian Tomlinson (2001-09). Last year Peterson became the first 33-year-old to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. That’s a little misleading, since a couple of 34-year-olds have done it, and John Riggins rushed for 1,239 yards when he was 35, but in any case it’s an impressive accomplishment.

Without discrediting any of those historic accomplishments, I do want to apply a grain of salt to Peterson’s dazzling All-Pro honors. Until 2016, the Associated Press and other major press organizations inexplicably continued to name two All-Pro RBs each season, even though no team used two-RB sets with any frequency. Peterson was All-Pro in several seasons in which he was clearly not the best RB in football. The most glaring example is 2009, when Chris Johnson rushed for 2,006 yards and broke the single-season record for yards from scrimmage. Technically, Peterson was a consensus All-Pro that season, but only because of an outdated voting system. Peterson is a historic player and he deserves numerous honors, but I want to put them in context.

All Day led the NFL in rushing three times, in rush TDs and YFS twice each. His crowning achievement was a 2,097-yard rushing season in 2012, which earned Offensive Player of the Year and MVP honors. Peterson’s calling card was speed, though he also had a freakish ability to minimize damage to his body. Even when he tore his ACL and MCL in 2011, he recovered in record time and rebounded with his MVP campaign. I continue to believe that Peterson’s exceptionally quick recovery is part of the reason Robert Griffin III rushed his own recovery and derailed his career. Peterson holds several minor records related to TD length, another tribute to his great speed. He played well in 2018 and could continue to rise in this ranking.

94. Ernie Nevers
Fullback (Pre-Modern)
Duluth Eskimos, 1926-27; Chicago Cardinals, 1929-31
25 pass TD; 38 rush TD
3 consensus All-Pro, 5 All-Pro, 1920s All-Decade Team, 50th Anniversary Team

Ernie Nevers holds the oldest individual record in NFL history. On Thanksgiving Day, 1929, he scored 40 points in a game: six touchdowns and four extra points. The Cardinals won 40-6, with Nevers accounting for every point. He was a good runner, good passer, good kicker, and good defensive player. Pop Warner, who coached both Jim Thorpe and Nevers in college, declared Nevers the better player.

Nevers, like Thorpe, was a versatile all-around athlete. He ran track at Stanford, and he played major league baseball. Nevers was the NFL’s top attraction when Red Grange left for the American Football League, and one of the stars who helped the NFL stay afloat through the Great Depression. The Duluth Eskimos were a barnstorming team; in 1926 they played 13 of their 14 league games on the road. They had a winning record, and Nevers ranked second in the NFL in points scored. The following season, all of their league games were played on the road. Constantly traveling, Nevers helped to fill stadiums across the league.

The Cardinals, who had been one of the league’s best teams in the early ’20s, were terrible when Nevers joined them. They were coming off three losing seasons in a row, including 1-5 in league play in 1928. The reality is even worse than that record implies: the 1928 Cardinals were outscored 107-7. ^[1]They lost 15-0 to the Bears, 20-0 to the Packers, 19-0 to the Frankford Yellowjackets, 19-0 to the New York Yankees football team, and 34-0 in a rematch with the Bears. Their lone win, 7-0 against … Continue reading With Nevers, the Cardinals immediately improved to 5-6 (they were outscored 84-80), going 16-16-3 during his tenure with the team. In 1932, with Nevers retired, they dropped to 2-6-2, then 1-9-1. Nevers single-handedly made the Cardinals a respectable team.

He was All-Pro every season of his career, and a legendary iron man, a true 60-minute warrior. Nevers played in an era when he was a football player first, and a running back only as part of his other duties. He was a great ball-carrier, but he excelled in other areas as well, chosen to the 1969 All-Time Team as a kicker. When the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in 1963, Nevers was a charter inductee.

93. Walter Jones
Offensive Tackle
Seattle Seahawks, 1997-2008
4 consensus All-Pro, 6 AP All-Pro, 9 Pro Bowls, 2000s All-Decade Team

Walter Jones was probably the best pass protector of his generation, but also a talented run blocker who cleared paths for Ricky Watters and Shaun Alexander. A top-10 draft pick (6th overall) out of Florida State, Jones anchored the Seahawks’ line during a time when it was widely regarded as being among the best in the NFL. He was the third Seattle Seahawk inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Following Steve Largent’s first-ballot induction in 1995, Seattle went over 15 years before Cortez Kennedy (2012) and Jones (2014) were enshrined.

Jones was particularly remarkable for his avoidance of holding penalties, averaging less than one per season. He had great feet, surprising quickness and agility for a player his size, but he was so strong that he never got tagged with demeaning “finesse” labels. Though he never lost the quickness, Jones did rely more on size and strength as his career progressed. Listed at 300 pounds early in his career, he was 325 by the end of it. Jones was a quiet superstar on the line, widely acknowledged among the greatest linemen of his generation, but with minimal ego. Coaches love players like that, the low-maintenance difference-makers. Mike Holmgren, who coached both the Packers and Seahawks to Super Bowls, identified Jones as the best offensive player he ever coached. Bryan Frye, of TheGridFe.com, named Jones the 2005 Offensive Player of the Year, the only lineman thus honored in the last 30 years.

92. Joe Schmidt
Middle Linebacker
Detroit Lions, 1953-65
17 FR, 82 yards, TD; 24 INT, 294 yards, 2 TD
1 MVP, 6 consensus All-Pro, 9 AP All-Pro, 10 Pro Bowls, 1950s All-Decade Team, 50th Anniversary Team

Joe Schmidt stood out in an era of great middle linebackers. Of the five LBs chosen to the 1950s All-Decade Team, Schmidt made the most Pro Bowls and the most All-Pro teams, and he was the only one chosen to the 1969 All-Time Team as a linebacker. Schmidt played on two championship teams and had a particular knack for generating turnovers. In his first scrimmage at the Lions’ camp, Schmidt intercepted three passes. Four times Schmidt had at least 4 takeaways in a season, including 8 fumble recoveries in 1955, the record for a 12-game season. He also intercepted six passes in 12 games in 1958, a remarkable feat for a linebacker. Equally remarkable, he earned co-MVP honors in 1960, the first defensive player so honored, and still one of very few.

Schmidt was the prototypical 4-3 middle linebacker, a new position he helped to define. A sideline-to-sideline presence who was always around the ball, Schmidt wasn’t known for brutal hits, but he was a good tackler, and he was the best of his era dropping into coverage. “A great tackler and a strong leader,” Vince Lombardi described Schmidt, “and he can diagnose plays in an instant.” Schmidt was the four-time team MVP of the Lions’ mini-dynasty, featuring fellow Hall of Famers Jack Christiansen and Yale Lary, not to mention HOF QB Bobby Layne. Schmidt was a respected leader on successful teams, the team captain his final nine seasons and the Lions’ first Players Association representative. Following his retirement, Schmidt became an assistant coach, and then head coach (1967-72) of the Lions. He was the last Lions head coach to have a winning record (43-35-7) until Jim Caldwell was fired with a 36-28 record following the 2017 season. Detroit went 8-5-1 in Schmidt’s final season and, after his firing, didn’t have another winning season until eight years later.

91. Bruce Matthews
Offensive Line
Houston Oilers/Tennessee Oilers/Tennessee Titans, 1983-2001
5 consensus All-Pro, 10 AP All-Pro, 14 Pro Bowls, 1990s All-Decade Team

The most decorated offensive lineman in history, Bruce Matthews made 14 Pro Bowls. For over a decade, that was the most of any offensive player, and it remains tied for the record, with Tom Brady, Tony Gonzalez, Peyton Manning, Ray Lewis, and Merlin Olsen. I have ranked all five of those fellow record-holders significantly higher than Matthews. Why? It’s not as though the Pro Bowl honored him disproportionately — Matthews was a perennial All-Pro candidate, across organizations. Everyone recognized him as being among the best interior linemen in the NFL, throughout his career.

Matthews, a consistently outstanding player at his positions — the plural is deliberate, since Matthews played extensively at both guard and center — ranks lower than his fellow Pro Bowl perennials mostly because interior offensive linemen are less impactful than other positions. If you could choose between a Pro Bowl quarterback and a Pro Bowl guard, you’d choose the QB in an instant. A tight end, linebacker, defensive tackle — the best players at these positions make more impact than the best guards and centers.

A related problem for Matthews is his longtime teammate Warren Moon. I’m mostly trying to avoid spoilers in this series, but Moon is ranked just slightly higher than this. I initially had Moon, a nine-time Pro Bowler, below Matthews. But when Moon left the Oilers after the 1993 season, the team collapsed, dropping from 12-4 to 2-14. Specifically, the offense collapsed, from 4th in scoring (368) to dead last (226). The Oilers went from one of the best teams in the NFL to one of the worst. Bruce Matthews started every game for that 2-14, worst-offense-in-the-NFL team. How could I possibly argue that Matthews was as great a player as Moon? Does anyone believe the team would have fallen apart like that if Moon stayed and Matthews left?

The ’94 season was an aberration, certainly not definitive of Matthews’ career. He was a great player, and his extraordinary versatility enhanced that value. Matthews started 99 games at left guard, 87 at center, 67 at right guard, 22 at right tackle, and 17 at left tackle. He was All-Pro at center and at both guard positions. He was also the team’s long snapper, saving a roster spot. He wasn’t as impactful as the best quarterbacks, but he was a player you very much wanted on your team.

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This series will continue here every Tuesday and Thursday for the next five weeks. I welcome your comments and questions below, but I hope to avoid spoilers in the comments, so please don’t take it amiss if I avoid questions that address the rankings of players not yet listed. However, I am also using this series to launch my Twitter account, and if you follow me on Twitter (@bradoremland), I’ll have some extra material there. Thanks for reading. Next article: Best Players in History, 81-90.