Best I Ever Saw

My brother was talking about a team made up of the best baseball players that he'd ever seen play. That, of course, got me thinking about the best football players that I ever saw. The biggest miss of my life was not seeing Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame defensive tackle Alan Page. The team had released him earlier in the very same season that I finally saw the Vikings play, Dec. 17, 1978. My heart tells me to list the twenty-two Vikings that I saw start that day. Reason and honesty tell me otherwise. A couple of the players that lined up in silver and black that day make the list. So, here they are.
The Best I Ever Saw:

WR Jerry Rice, 49ers*
TE   Kellen Winslow, Chargers*
T     Art Shell, Raiders*
G    Randall McDaniel, Vikings*
C     Mick Tingelhoff, Vikings
G    Gene Upshaw, Raiders*
T     Ron Yary, Vikings*
WR Cris Carter, Vikings
QB  Joe Montana, 49ers*
RB  Emmitt Smith, Cowboys*
RB  Adrian Peterson, Vikings
K    Ryan Longwell, Vikings

DE  Carl Eller, Vikings*
DT  John Randle, Vikings*
DT  Bryant Young, 49ers
DE  Chris Doleman, Vikings*
LB  Matt Blair, Vikings
LB  Patrick Willis, 49ers
LB  Ted Hendricks, Raiders*
CB  Mike Haynes, Raiders*
CB  Deion Sanders, 49ers/Cowboys*
S     Paul Krause, Vikings*
S     Ronnie Lott, 49ers*
P     Ray Guy, Raiders

Just for fun:
Coach Bud Grant, Vikings* (Who's Bill Walsh*?)

*Hall of Famer

16 Hall of Famers. Cris Carter and Mick Tingelhoff should be. Adrian Peterson and Patrick Willis will be. There are bunch that think Ray Guy deserves it too.

I've seen eight of the Vikings nine Hall of Fame players. Only missing on Page. He'd easily make the list. Hell, he should make any all-time list. Tackle Gary Zimmerman loses out to Art Shell but Shell's in the argument of best tackle of all-time. It's terribly disappointing to pick against quarterback Fran Tarkenton but it's Montana and I never saw Otto Graham and John Unitas play. Those are the only two quarterbacks that might get the nod over Montana in my book.

Quarterback is rough. There's really no picking against Montana but I've seen Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Steve Young and Troy Aikman. I have to mention Cal's Joe Roth as well. His touchdown pass to Wesley Walker against San Jose St in 1975 was one of the most beautiful things my 11-year old eyes had ever seen. Little did anyone know at the time that Roth's body was fighting cancer. Sadly, a fight that he lost. Football lost too.