I had that job in the summer of 1973 at Shriner Institute in Kerrville. No Earl but we had Matuszak and Bingham and Bethea and..... ah yes Bill Peterson!
Earl is the best I've seen in his prime. The rest of my top 5 is Ladainian Tomlinson, Bo Jackson, Jim Brown, and Barry Sanders. Not necessarily in that order.
Like giddy probably is, I'm old enough to have see Brown on the tube when he played. Maybe it's because Earl is a Texan, I don't know, but I think at his best, he was THE best, ever.
Hmm. Did I forget Walter Payton? Maybe I didn't put enough time into this list. I'll just make it a top 6 list.
I remember seeing that play, and here we are almost 30 years later, and I still can't believe Earl wasn't paralyzed after that. He had almost super-human strength and toughness on the field. My family owned a sports bar in San Marcos back in 1992, and Earl used to come by and have a beer and catch a game on occasion. Even old and gray, the man was huge, but he's such a friendly, kind, gentle guy. It pains me to see how much he deteriorated since then.
in 92, earl was like 37. hardly an old man, but i guess that shows you the toll football took on him.
I just checked you profile and... yeah. I'm your older (but not oldest) brother. shameless plug: Hey folks! - if any of you people like opera, BetterThanI performs in the Austin Lyric Opera and has been in The Barber of Seville and Waiting for the Barbarians. He can sing. He's good.
LOL, family reunions over the internet! Only at Clutchfans can that happen. Hopefully, my sister doesn't post here but you never know..
I will! He's got an eye infection right now (bummer), and she's trying to get her next loose front tooth out.
Jeez guys! You hijack a thread about the GREAT EARL CAMPBELL to talk family shop? You both should be ashamed. Pick up a phone. Back on track...
My middle name is Earl, so being 9 I thought it was cool that my favorite player and me shared the same name. That was one bad dude, and humble too. I loved it when he would score a touchdown and just give it to the ref. He was damn good.
Sadly, there's not any Earl Campbell highlights on youtube. I still would have to say the most amazing RB's I've ever seen in my lifetime was Barry Sanders with Earl Campbell right behind him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-szKE2FXDQ
I agree. Earl was, by far, the most powerful running back. But Sanders had it all: good power, sharp moves, great speed, and strong balance. He's probably the most deserving sportsman to never win a championship. (actually, that would probably be a good poll).
I had high hopes that Ricky Williams would be the second coming of Earl (similar size, strength and speed) since Earl spent so much time mentoring him in college. Maybe Ricky would get the championship that always eluded Earl, and would have a long, healthy career. At least Earl could get a little vicarious satisfaction from that. What a trainwreck Ricky's career has been. He could have learned a lot from the Tyler Rose. First advice Earl should have given him: lay off the wacky weed and chew Skoal, brutha.
I agree about Barry, except I don't think he had much power. The Lions seemed to get criticized for the same stuff that the Oilers did with their 4 WR offense. When they got in short yardage or goal line situations, they had trouble punching it in or picking up the first down. Barry Sanders was a phenom, but picking up short yardage when people know they wanted to run was not hit forte. Heck, I think he had more runs for negative yards than many or all of the other superstar running backs. But that's because he didn't want to give up on plays, and would try to turn nothing into something. It's that same ability and attitude that often provided some of his best highlight runs.
LOL! I remember Earl in that commercial:; "I chew Skoal the smokeless toe-bac-coe."
Barry Problem was that 9 people be on the line for short yardage cause the Lions never had any other options beyond barry kind of like Earl with the Houston Earlers!! Rocket River Houston Earler's Fan
