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The GOAT.

The GOAT.

On February 20th, Football Perspective hosted a “Wisdom of Crowds” election with respect to the question: Who is the Greatest Running Back of All Time?™ Well, Football Perspective guest commenter Adam Steele offered to count the ballots, and I’ll chime in with some commentary.

There were 41 ballots entered, with each person ranking his or her top 20 running backs. The scoring system was simple: 20 points for a 1st place vote, 19 for a 2nd place vote, and so on. As it turns out, the race for the top spot was heated, with three players running away from the pack.

This chart is sortable by total points, points per ballot (using 41 as the denominator), GOAT votes, top 5 votes, and top 10 votes. In the interest of statistical significance, a player needed to appear on at least five ballots in order to be ranked in the table below.

#Runnign BackPointsPts/BalTop 5Top 10
1Jim Brown76718.73840
2Barry Sanders74818.24041
3Walter Payton74218.13941
4Emmitt Smith60414.71939
5Eric Dickerson56113.7938
6O.J. Simpson55113.41534
7LaDainian Tomlinson54413.31435
8Marshall Faulk52812.9832
9Earl Campbell44710.91024
10Adrian Peterson3889.5321
11Thurman Thomas2726.6010
12Tony Dorsett2696.608
13Marcus Allen2606.307
14Curtis Martin2405.905
15Gale Sayers2225.427
16Terrell Davis1483.613
17Steve Van Buren1353.314
18Franco Harris1263.102
19Bo Jackson1202.946
20Jim Taylor1182.912
21Edgerrin James1152.801
22Joe Perry1002.403
23Marion Motley571.402
24John Riggins551.300
25Jerome Bettis511.200
26Marshawn Lynch511.212
27Priest Holmes40100
28Fred Taylor310.801
29Corey Dillon250.600
30Larry Csonka220.500
31Shaun Alexander210.500
32Tiki Barber190.500
33Jamaal Charles160.400
34Lenny Moore80.200

I’m not sure if the results here are surprising, but it is interesting how close the race at the top truly was. Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, and Walter Payton made basically every top 5 list, while no other back made that cut-off on even half of the ballots.

The next tier is probably 7 deep, giving us something of a consensus for the top ten running backs in history. I’m not surprised that Emmitt Smith, Eric Dickerson, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Marshall Faulk were four of the next five players, but I was a bit surprised that O.J. Simpson was in there, too. Given his post-playing career, you never quite know how he’ll do in these rankings, but he settled nicely into the tier following the Big Three.

A bit behind those five but ahead of the rest are Earl Campbell and Adrian Peterson. Both are in unique positions: Campbell has a pair of obvious black marks (short prime, receiving), while Peterson is both an active player and one coming off an ugly season off-the-field.

Let’s close with a table displaying the full distribution of votes, including the running backs who weren’t ranked on the previous list. Note that by default, only the top 20 running backs are shown, but you can change that number using the dropdown arrow on the left.

#Running Back1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10th11th12th13th14th15th16th17th18th19th20th
1Jim Brown211061111
2Barry Sanders9127931
3Walter Payton414135311
4Emmitt Smith16847253311
5Eric Dickerson114387635111
6O.J. Simpson14468713211
7LaDainian Tomlinson1139247351211
8Marshall Faulk1258474123111
9Earl Campbell311321423431222112
10Adrian Peterson3158441322311
11Thurman Thomas145165142112
12Tony Dorsett5122482112122
13Marcus Allen13331641833
14Curtis Martin1227232531111
15Gale Sayers11231723115
16Terrell Davis11121325511
17Steve Van Buren11111222311
18Franco Harris11312163111
19Bo Jackson2112111
20Jim Taylor11311312112
21Edgerrin James1121321351
22Joe Perry1232221
23Marion Motley111212
24John Riggins1111513
25Jerome Bettis11111413
26Marshawn Lynch111111
27Priest Holmes11332
28Fred Taylor1122
29Corey Dillon2113
30Larry Csonka1112
31Shaun Alexander111111
32Tiki Barber1141
33Jamaal Charles1112
34Lenny Moore32
Jim Thorpe1111
Red Grange1111
Roger Craig112
Clinton Portis1111
Herschel Walker211
Bronko Nagurski111
Steven Jackson3
Eddie George12
Leroy Kelly11
Ollie Matson11
Hugh McElhenny11
Jamal Lewis11
Frank Gore11
Ricky Watters11
Curt Warner2
Warrick Dunn1
Otis Armstrong1
Ricky Williams1
Le'Veon Bell1
Elroy Hirsch1
Chris Johnson1
Dutch Clark1
Ernie Nevers1

Some other notes:

  • Bo Jackson was your high variance back. He was named on just 9 ballots, but on those nine, he averaged an incredible 13.3 points.
  • Gale Sayers was the 20th choice on five ballots, almost like a “I don’t want to leave him off but don’t quite know where to rank him.” The Bears great did averaged 8.2 points/ballot on the 27 ballots on which he was named.
  • Thurman Thomas and Tony Dorsett came in at #11 and #12, but they feel like they belong in a different tier than the backs in the top ten. Neither Thomas nor Dorsett ranked in the top six in any ballot.

I’ll leave the rest of the discussion to you guys. And thanks again to Adam for doing the hard work.

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