Here's a twist on the usual All-Time NFL Team. It's a team made up of my favorite players from the nearly hundred years of NFL football. Some might be among the best to ever play their position. Some might not be the best. They are just some of my favorite players. Also, none of them played for the Minnesota Vikings. No Alan Page, Cris Carter, Randall McDaniel, Randy Moss, Adrian Peterson, etc., etc. I can't have an All-Time team loaded with Vikings every time.
Here's an All-Time Team of My Favorite Players. Players that didn't play for the Minnesota Vikings.
Quarterback
Johnny Unitas
Unitas=Quarterback. He's kinda getting lost to history and Tom Brady's recent excellence. Unitas will always be synonymous with quarterbacking to me. I feel like I might've become a Baltimore Colts fan if I'd been born about a decade earlier. Lenny Moore, Jim Parker, Alan Ameche, Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti, Art Donovan, and especially Unitas. That's a team that's real easy to like.
Halfback
Earl "Dutch" Clark
Clark's more split-T tailback than halfback but I had to have him in my backfield. He's one of my favorites. He's a fantastic football player. His being a part of the inaugural Class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame was a clear sign of that. He may also have been the nicest man to ever play the game.
Fullback
Jim Brown
It's Jim Brown.
Receivers
Don Hutson
Mac Speedie
Hutson was so far ahead of his time that it didn't seem fair. NFL defenses simply weren't ready for a receiver like him. I wish that I had been able to see him play live. I grew up listenting to my father's tales of the All-America Football Conference. He was a San Francisco 49ers fan but he had a great appreciation for Paul Bown and the Cleveland Browns. Mac Speedie was one of my favorites. As a kid I loved his name. As a football fan I loved his game. He should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Tight End
Tony Gonzalez
My appreciation for Gonzalez started with his time at Cal. It was a year too short but he was a lot of fun while he was there. He was fun on the basketball court as well. Cal has sent a lot of players to the NFL but not a lot of great players. Gonzalez is one of the great ones.
Tackles
Jonathan Ogden
Joe Thomas
Ogden has intrigued me as a player and as a person. There was just something about him. It felt like football was just part of who he is and not all of who he is. Whether true or not, he sure was great at football. He was one of the best tackles of my lifetime. For nearly ten years I don't think I'd ever heard Thomas speak. Now that I've heard him speak, write, and tweet I find that he's a riot. On the field, he's been the only bright light in Cleveland for too long.
Guards
Jim Parker
Larry Allen
Parker could've been a tackle or a guard on this team. The fact that he could play both at a Hall of Fame level is remarkable. Allen crushed anyone in front of him. To see an NFL player come out of itty-bitty Sonoma State was a mild surprise. To see a Hall of Fame beast of a guard come out of itty-bitty Sonoma State was so surprising that it didn't seem possible. Great football players can come from anywhere.
Center
Mel Hein
For 15 years Hein never left the field. And he was named the NFL's MVP in 1938. A center!
Defensive Ends
Gino Marchetti
Reggie White
Not only did my father treat me to tales of the All-America Football Conference he treated me to tales of the University of San Francisco's great football teams of the early 1950s. Marchetti was one of four Pro Football Hall of Famers (5 with Pete Rozelle) that played on those USF teams and one of the best pass rushers in NFL history. White was simply a game-changing defensive football player. One of my most vivid memories of him was a game against the Vikings. For some reason the Vikings coaching staff thought that it'd be a fine idea to have Cris Carter chip White. I've never seen a grown man fly like that.
Defensive Tackles
Bill Willis
Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb
Willis was a terrific football player. Too fast and strong for the offensive linemen tasked with stopping him. He played a middle guard position that doesn't exist in modern defenses. He'll play a 3-technique position on this team. And he'd dominate. It's possible, maybe even likely, that the idea of "Big Daddy'" was better than the player. Who cares? It's "Big Daddy." Few players his size have ever moved like he could. Just the thought of dealing with "Big Daddy" impacted offenses before they and he stepped on the field.
Linebackers
Lawrence Taylor
Joe Schmidt
Jack Ham
Taylor changed the game more than any other player in my lifetime. He wrecked offenses. He terrified quarterbacks. "The Blind Side" became a thing. Middle linebacker might be the most contested position on this team. And the names are great. Huff, Butkus, Nitschke, Nobis, Lambert. I'm going with Schmidt. He often gets pushed aside in favor of Nitschke and Butkus but Schmidt was a fantastic football player on a really fun Lions team. Ham often played in the shadows of his own teammates on the Steelers "Steel Curtain" defense. Greene, Lambert, Blount. To these eyes, Ham was the best. Sometimes it felt like there were about four of him running around the field.
Cornerbacks
Dick "Night Train" Lane
Mike Haynes
Not only was "Night Train" an outstanding football player he has one of the best nicknames. Ever. He also has one of the best origin stories. Junior College to Fort Ord service football to "walk-on" NFL player to the Hall of Fame. I was tempted to pair "Night Train" with Mel Blount and have two linebacker-sized men playing a position that's meant for quicker, smaller players. Instead, Haynes plays opposite "Night Train." Haynes was the epitome of the perfect cornerback to this young fan. I thought that he was the best in the game when he was with the New England Patriots. He seemed to get even better when he got to the Oakland Raiders.
Safeties
Ed Reed
Troy Polamalu
These two players were so much fun to watch. They were both safeties but their games were so different. Reed was so smooth roaming the field. Polamalu played with manic fury. Each seemed to know the intentions of the offense before the ball was snapped. Each got to the ball in a very different manner.
Kicker
Glenn Presnell
Presnell was part of an outstanding Detroit Lions backfield that included Dutch Clark. He was also an excellent kicker. Perhaps ahead of his time. He kicked an NFL-record 54-yard field goal in 1934. A mark that wasn't surpassed until 1953.
Punter
Sammy Baugh
Baugh was close to making this team at a few positions. Great quarterback. Great defensive back. Great punter. Great football player.
Returner
Ollie Matson
Aanother one of my father's USF pals.
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