NFL 100 All-Time Team: Receivers

The reveal of the NFL 100 All-Time Team continued Friday night with the receivers. These reveal shows with Rich Eisen, Bill Belichick, Cris Collinsworth, and guests have been a lot of fun. Belichick's commentary and conversations with the player guests are highlights. His football chat with Ed Reed was the highlight of those highlights. I've appreciated the voter's appreciation of pre-1950s players. For the most part, I've agreed with players selected to this team. Until now. I have a problem with the receivers that made the NFL 100 All-Time Team. In particular, I have a problem with one great receiver that didn't make the team. Here are the 10 receivers that did make the team.

1.   Jerry Rice
2.   Randy Moss
3.   Lance Alworth
4.   Paul Warfield
5.   Elroy Hirsch
6.   Don Hutson
7.   Raymond Berry
8.   Larry Fitzgerald
9.   Steve Largent
10. Marvin Harrison

That's an outstanding list of receivers. Cris Carter should be on the list. The one thing that a receiver has to do is catch the football. There's no receiver that I've seen that caught the football better than Carter. He could get open like few receivers that I've ever seen and he could catch the football better than any receiver I've ever seen. He's also the best to ever toe the sideline or back of the endzone. Some might tap Raymond Berry as the best to ever toe the line. At worst, Carter was his equal. It's easy to say that a player was snubbed from a list or team of greats. It can be really hard to remove a deserving player to make room for the snubbed player. Well, I'd swap Steve Largent for Cris Carter. And I loved watching Largent play football.

When I think of the great receivers of my lifetime I often think of the Vikings-49ers Monday Night game that I attended at Candlestick Park on Dec. 18, 1995. Sitting in the stands of an NFL game in 1995 was far different than today. The world wasn't as fantasy football crazed. There wasn't a computer in every fan's hand. Stats weren't blasted across flashy score boards. Sitting in the stands of an NFL game in 1995, it was pretty easy to not be aware of player statistics. In this game, Jerry Rice and Cris Carter put on a show. The 49ers jumped all over the Vikings from the start. The 49ers were up 21-0 in the first quarter. From that point in the game to the finish, sitting in the stands, it felt like Carter put his team on his back as the Vikings clawed their way back into the game. They got as close as three points in the third quarter but lost 37-30. With Steve Young throwing to Rice and Warren Moon throwing to Carter, this was a wildly entertaining game. And it revolved around the two great receivers. Since I didn't have access to statistical updates throughout the game, I guessed that Rice had about 10 catches, 180 yards, and three touchdowns and Carter had about 10 catches, 150 yards, and two touchdowns. When the newspaper arrived the following morning, I discovered that the two receiving greats had the following stat lines:

Rice: 14 catches, 289 yards, 3 TDs
Carter: 12 catches, 88 yards, 2 TDs

That's quite a disparity. Sitting in the stands that night I didn't think that there was any possible way that Rice had gained 201 more yards than Carter. The Vikings were in such a hole that every one of his 12 catches meant so much. He carried his team. Every one of his catches moved the chains or put points on the board. That night, I learned that a six-yard catch can be as big as a 60-yard catch. I sat in those stands knowing that I was watching two of the greatest receivers that ever played the game.

As much as I think that Cris Carter should be on this team, I understand how difficult it is to cut the greatest football players in the league's history down to only 10. At any position.

The final two head coaches that lead the NFL 100 All-Time Team were revealed:

1.   Paul Brown

2.   Bill Belichick

3.   Chuck Noll
4.   Joe Gibbs

5.   George Halas
6.   Tom Landry
7.   Curly Lambeau
8.   Vince Lombardi
9.   Don Shula
10. Bill Walsh

I have zero issues with that list.

The quarterbacks are up next week. Since it's the quarterbacks, NFL Network has doubled the time needed to reveal them. 2 whole hours.