True words. When Walter started fading with age, the Bears went to shit. He carried that team. Even good players like Jim McMahon and Willie Gault wouldn’t be remembered if it wasn’t for the run threat of Walter.

jonah lomu would smoke these fools!!

The greatest running back in NFL history is talking on this video.

nope!!! Mr. Barry Sanders!!!!

Wrong!!! Greatest running back of All-Time Barry Sanders by a long shot. Only thing #1 about Emmitt Smith is his O-Line

Berry was a quitter. Top 3 are easily Smith, Brown and Payton and Jim and Emmitt think Walter is the best and I can't argue with them.

Respect. A Packers fan likes Payton. Cool!

To be fair, Emmitt reached Walter's record in the same number of years. But I do agree, Payton was the better running back, not by a country mile as Emmitt was great but he was. Walter was relatively healthy when he retired, he could have conceivably hung around another year or two and made it to 18000 or 19000 yards. But at the time there was no reason to. He had the record by a good margin and he had a Super Bowl ring too, the Bears were fading by 1987 and he knew the chances were slim he'd get another one. He figured he might as well retire while he was still healthy, no need at the time to hang around and pad his stats.

HiFi5280 🙏

Abdul-Haiy Muhammad emmit is not the goat, he had the best o-line ever and a great defense, he's the 3rd best back for sure th

Emmit NEVER passed for touchdowns like Walter though.

David Molina Emmitt does have 1 passing touchdown and Payton doesn't doesn't have as many rushing titles, touchdowns, rings, or leader in scoring, playoff yards and tds, etc as Emmitt does.

LeGoat James Emmitt is the GOAT. The most productive and consistent back in NFL history.

Abdul-Haiy Muhammad really sucks everyone wants to discredit Emmitt because of the o line... that's a BS arguement

Yeah, that guy will never measure up to the man Walter Payton was. My high school defensive line coach played with O.J. Simpson in the NFL, he told us all about the "Juice" in an FCA meeting. O.J. was a horrible person. Walter Payton was not only great on the field but a great man off the field as well.

He's not lying to you. I saw his whole career. I grew up on the southside of Chicago.

No doubt! Hard not to respect Walter. Total legend.

@@davidfeltz8697 Indeed!

Some of you history revisionists make the tall tales of Barry Sanders sound like the fish catching stories that "got away" as the years get further behind us. It's such an insult to the good players Sanders actually played with. They weren't great teams but it's not like he was playing for the Cardinals either. Give me a freaking break! Let's start with the bullshit notion that he had "nobody" at offensive line. That is such a misconception, Barry Sanders had a line, he never had a quarterback. Barry had 7 time pro bowl tackle Lomas Brown from 1989-1995, 3 time pro bowl center Kevin Glover from 1989-1997, 2 time pro bowl guard Jeff Hartings from 1996-1998, 4 time pro bowl tackle Bill Fralic in 1993. Also Lions lost two quality lineman to freak accidents, guard Mike Utley was paralyzed in 1991 and guard Eric Andolsek was killed by a truck in 1992, both were with Barry his first three years. Other players he played alongside on offense: Multiple Pro Bowl WR Herman Moore who set reception records back then for 4 straight years and Brett Perriman as well as Johnny Morton were his receivers. He didn't have a great QB but guys like Mitchell, Peete and Kramer were more than capable of getting the ball out to have a somewhat balanced offense. Mitchell threw for over 4,000 yards in '95. The defense had Pro Bowlers like Speilman, Porcher, Ellis, Ball, Blades, and Swilling. Special teams had all pro Mel Gray and kickers Murray and Hanson. Detroit's main problem? Sanders played at a time when the NFC was probably the most dominant it ever was. Particularly, the NFC East division that claimed 5 SB trophies during Sanders' playing time, the Eagles were very good too, the Niners always had great teams, Green Bay was on top for awhile with Holmgren/Favre era and the Vikings were good under Dennis Green.

Hell yes the best of all time.

If Payton was on those teams with that line he'd rush for 2000 every season

Rip Walter I wish he was still alive he was such a good dude

Emmitt did NOT play 15 seasons with the "greatest offensive line". WTF? His last two seasons were in AZ with a pedestrian O Line. Emmitt had two rushing titles before any of his linemen ever went to a Pro Bowl. He made them better just as much as they helped him. The linemen most people refer to from Emmitt's best years were only all together for about a 4-5 year window.

Emmitt Smith's 15th and final season playing for a bad Cardinals team he rushed for the exact amount of yards as he did his rookie season with the Cowboys just under 1,000 yards. I believe it was something like 975 yards. As for who is the greatest of all time between Payton, Smith and Sanders. That is just a matter of ones opinion. We can speculate all we want about what one would've done had they played for another team or if they had played longer but that's all we can do with that argument there. Truth is Payton is no better than Smith is no better than Sanders. Each of these great backs (Great Men) played every down of football that they were physically or mentally capable of playing. Every time each of them took the field they played with everything they had for their team and their fans. I MEAN SWEETNESS AS ANYTHING BUT A CHICAGO BEAR . EMMITT IS THE ULTIMATE COWBOY AND BARRY WILL FOREVER BE THE HEART OF THE LIONS. EACH PLAYED WITH THE SAME HEART AND INSPIRATION AND AT THE END OF THE DAY DID IT AS GREAT AS IT WAS POSSIBLE TO DO BY ANYONE'S STANDARDS BOTH ON AND OFF THE FIELD......

Emmitt played on atrocious teams his last 5 seasons. Their record was 25-55. He certainly wasn't running behind any great lines at that point. Just for fun, I calculated the stats if Emmitt had retired after the game in which he broke Payton's record just to show there's not much of a difference. Payton (1 rushing title) Bears winning percentage during his career: .572 190 games played 3,838 carries 16,726 yards 110 rushing TDs 4.4 YPC 88.0 YPG Emmitt (4 rushing titles) Cowboys winning percentage during his career: .557 193 games played 3,929 carries 16,743 yards 149 rushing TDs 4.3 YPC 86.8 YPG Playoffs: Payton 9 games 3.5 YPC 70.2 YPG 2 total TDs Emmitt 17 games 4.5 YPC 93.3 YPG 21 total TDs

Since we're talking about Walter, his name is spelled PAyton and PEyton is Manning!!!!!!

Matthew Jay Evans always? Why? Even Tom Brady may be surpassed one day

@@brucelee6834 Because Walter worked harder than any other running back. He never gave up on plays. He literally played until the whistle blew...Emmit Smith was a good runner but he didnt play with the same tenacity and dedication as Walter.

@ Matthew Jay Evan's I agree with you. 💯

Walter would have had 25,000 yrds from scrimmage easily if he played on those Cowboys teams. Don't forget that in his prime, from 1975-1983, the offense of the Bears was a pile of excrement. The entire defense knew Payton was getting the ball 95% of the time and he still kicked ass. The guy is the greatest all-around football player that ever lived. Period.

Of course!!! Hands down. The game of football has evolved and I’m a fan that’s grateful for it. It was a lot more brutal in the 80’s, and atheletes were paid a lot less. With those 2 facts alone you can’t even compare no rb of today to Walter Payton!!!! He even blue out the ones of his time!!!!

After Walter

After walter

Racist Pale men would know more about it than anyone.. www.drugpolicy.org/issues/brief-history-drug-war

Payton, Smith , Sanders , bo, I feel lucky to have seen these guys back then myself they don't run like these guys anymore😞

Unfortunately WP is not w/ us, but Emmitt Smith still is & he deserves recognition too for breaking his "friend's" record. Someday someone may break Emmitt's too! (I doubt it'll happen soon). My point is, you can't hold on to a #1 record after someone else has already broke it.

Absolutely, same here 🏈 ❤ 👍

Neither one of us know either of these men. They present themselves like most people in the public viewpoint.

@JK 64 You're a bum

Nick Viola not even top 5. Brady, Rice, Brown, LT, Montana

@@brucelee6834 Someone is smoking meth. 😂😂

Nick Viola are we talking about football in general? Like all around

Blood Legion Barry was a joke all he could do was juke. He definitely wasn't an all around back and ran off field on 3rd downs

Thomas Davis I wouldn't voice your opinion if you don't know much about football then.

Best all around football player I've ever seen on the offensive side of the ball. Just a proper football player, period.

Smith is closer to Walter than Barry ever was.

Blood Legion Walter Payton could also kick and punt he did some in college at Jackson State the Tigers roar! He's if not the greatest football player ever one of the greatest I say him and Jim Brown

Me too! :-(

He’s my favorite human being.

Fullback too

Troy Naval He could run with power or moves, he could block, tackle, pass, receive, return punts, return kickoffs, punt, place kick, kick off, and long snap. All at an acceptable level. He could do anything on the field. Greatest "football player" of all time.