Biggest NFL star ever

[Boston Red]

Cameron basically said that O.J. was too nice and no one would really believe that he was a cold blooded killer.

Apparently he was right (at least for the most important 12 people).

[ThornWithin81]

Joe Montana or Johnny Unitas. The Namath thing is a joke.

[RedsBaron]

The Biggest NFL Star Ever almost by definition has to be a quarterback. QB has been the glamour position for at least the last 50 years. I don't necessarily believe that Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Bret Favre and Peyton Manning are the four greatest QBs of all time, but they may be the four most famous quarterbacks of the last half century. It's probably "pick 'em" between those four for the title of Biggest NFL Star...if not ever, at least in the last fifty years. I'm not sure where to rate players such as Red Grange or Sammy Baugh, who played while pro football was not nearly as big a sport as it is now, and without all of the media we have today.

[westofyou]

The Biggest NFL Star Ever almost by definition has to be a quarterback. QB has been the glamour position for at least the last 50 years. I don't necessarily believe that Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Bret Favre and Peyton Manning are the four greatest QBs of all time, but they may be the four most famous quarterbacks of the last half century. It's probably "pick 'em" between those four for the title of Biggest NFL Star...if not ever, at least in the last fifty years. I'm not sure where to rate players such as Red Grange or Sammy Baugh, who played while pro football was not nearly as big a sport as it is now, and without all of the media we have today.

The 70's were the decade of the running back though, way more players in that bucket that decade than QB's

[Jack Burton]

Joe Mantegna

[improbus]

I think the most interesting thing about this discussion/argument is that the list is so varied. What that tells me is that the NFL's desire to put the "shield" over the individual players works and that the game of football really requires 53 men to win. If we were to ask the same question about basketball we would have a very short list and baseball's list would be pretty short too. Football's seems to be pretty lenghty.

[RFS62]

Namath was the perfect player for the perfect era in television. His endorsements were legendary. The white shoes, shaving his fu manchu, wearing the pantyhose..... seems silly and insignificant now but were big stories back in the day. He was Broadway Joe, the spokesperson for the sexual revolution and the Playboy lifestyle.

His prediction of victory in Super Bowl III was legendary. Lying poolside in Miami Beach and calmly guaranteeing the win while the media didn't give the Jets a ghost of a chance was the essence of "cool".

Plenty of players were better, but no player ever had the social impact that Broadway Joe had, IMO. Maybe OJ because he was a black man accepted by the whole world in his endorsement deals was more socially significant, but I'll still give the nod to Namath.

[Kingspoint]

Player: "Broadway" Joe Namath

Overall: Vince Lombardi


(I typed this before reading any of the other posts.)

[Kingspoint]

I was running an errand tonight and had Brian Kenney's ESPN radio show on. He said he was talking to Mike Ditka about Favre and eventually the conversation got around to the biggest star in NFL history. This isn't necessarily the best player but the biggest star. It's easy to say that a current player would have that distinction in this 24/7 media and most of us not being able to remember stars back in the day. For my money, Joe Namath was the biggest star.

But you might have to adjust for eras. For example, Red Grange was a tremendous star when he first entered the NFL in 1925. He helped legitimize the NFL when he joined the Bears and they went on a 19 game 67 day barnstorming tour. He got in a salary dispute with the Bears and left to form his own league. How many players had the influence to form their own league? Someone like him would be the biggest star of the 20s. Maybe someone like Bronko Nagurski would have been the biggest star of the 30s. Maybe someone like Don Hutson or Sammy Baugh for the 40s.

Nice post. Couldn't agree more.

[GIDP]

Joe Mantegna

[15fan]

In fact if I were doing a Mt. Rushmore of sports (5 heads) it would go:

Babe Ruth
Michael Jordan
Wayne Gretzky
Jerry Rice
Muhammad Ali

Bill Russell (11) has as many NBA titles as Jordan (6) and Kobe Bryant (5) combined.

[ol'Sparky]

jim brown

[Captain13]

Akili Smith...no wait, Kijana Carter...no, David Klingler

[gonelong]

William "The Refrigerator" Perry was about as big a star as one could get in the mid '80s. Dude guested on the A-Team, had his own GI Joe:

For a year or two, I can't really think of anyone who he shared the NFL stage with. He had it pretty much all to himself and was everywhere.

GL

[Captain13]

William "The Refrigerator" Perry was about as big a star as one could get in the mid '80s. Dude guested on the A-Team, had his own GI Joe:

For a year or two, I can't really think of anyone who he shared the NFL stage with. He had it pretty much all to himself and was everywhere.

GL

Not to mention, he was clearly the BIGGEST star in the NFL, weighing in well over 300lbs. Love The Fridge.