If you're like me and you watch and listen to the endless parade of football talk shows on the TV and radio, undoubtedly you've heard the "who's the best player ever" argument over and over and over again. It makes for great debate and keeps a lot of folks employed and paying top tax rates. Everybody loves a good argument. Endless statistical analysis is used to dissect every aspect of the top player's games, be they running backs, wide receivers, linebackers, or quarterbacks.

Next weekend Tom Brady takes the field for his 5th Super Bowl appearance. He'll have a chance to win his 4th, putting him in select company as an NFL starting QB. Is he the best QB ever? I'm a big fan of Tom and what he's done, but to me he could win 100 more and would never top my #1, Joe Montana.

Does that mean I'm right? Nope. Just because I write a blog doesn't make me any more right than the guys that have microphones in front of them on the TV or radio. The beauty of it is.... it doesn't really matter what you think.

To my eyes, nobody will ever be better than Joe Cool. To my Dad's eyes, nobody will ever be better than Johnny Unitas. My Dad is just as right as I am. Someone 10 years older than me might argue for weeks that Terry Bradshaw is the best ever, or Roger Staubach, or Fran Tarkenton. Ask somebody 10 years older than my Dad and you might get Sammy Baugh or Otto Graham. And to you, probably 15-20 years younger than me, nobody will be better than Brady...or Peyton Manning, or Drew Brees, or maybe even Tom's Sunday adversary, Eli Manning.

My suggestion..don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. Just enjoy watching the guys YOU think are the best YOU'VE ever seen, and leave the arguing to the politicians.

Enjoy the game, it should be another great one!

P.S.

For what it's worth, here is the unscientific list of Dan's all-time top 10. No mountain of statistics used, just an 'eyeball test' list through my 40 years of watching the NFL. You won't find guys that my eyes didn't watch 'live' anywhere on the list, such as Unitas, Namath, Starr, Dawson, or Baugh. 

10) Jim Kelly

9) John Elway

8) Dan Fouts

7) Peyton Manning

6) Troy Aikman

5) Roger Staubach

4) Terry Bradshaw

3) Tom Brady

2) Dan Marino

1) Joe Montana

Honorable mention: Ken Stabler, Bernie Kosar, Steve Young, Warren Moon, Brett Favre, Boomer Esiason, Jim Plunkett, Drew Brees, Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Doug Williams, Joe Theismann, Kurt Warner, Donovan McNabb 

Two down, one to go. Last weekend, much to many people's dismay (including my son's), the explosive defending Champion Green Bay Packers and their marginal defense were eliminated rather easily by the rejuvenated New York Giants. The high-flying New Orleans Saints went down the same week. The biggest reason, defense and lack thereof.

Thanks to rule modifications over the past few years that greatly favor offense, the NFL has gotten themselves into bit of conundrum. For 17 regular season weeks, every ticky-tack hit and insignificant bump a defensive player makes in the secondary or on a quarterback brings an immediate flag. During the regular year it is an extremely rare event that an offense is not rewarded for throwing an incomplete pass with a flag on the defense. Extremely rare. Search your feelings Luke, you know it to be true!

Then comes the post-season. The NFL would never admit it publicly, but I've watched enough football in my nearly half-century to know for sure that post-season games are officiated differently. Gone are the infuriating and game-changing ticky-tack interference and illegal contact calls. Heck, you can almost hit the quarterback without a flag! The regular season brand of ball wouldn't fly when so many of those calls have such an extreme impact on the outcome of a game.

So what does that lead to? Encroachment of the long-dormant defenses. I feel very sure the NFL really wanted Green Bay vs. New England, but I'm afraid they are about to get Baltimore vs. San Francisco. It would appear offense gets you to the playoffs, but you better pack your defense for when the rules change in January.

I guess if you live long enough you're bound to see everything, right? The NFL playoffs are about to get underway this weekend, and there is the possibility of a matchup I never thought I'd live to see.  

To the delight of NFL executives, the top seeded teams in both conferences are unstoppable offensive machines. The AFC features the thrilling New England Patriots and the surgeon Tom Brady as the top overall seed. The NFC sports the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers in the top spot, with the deadly accurate Aaron Rodgers at the helm of the offense. If the Packers can't win the NFC and earn a chance to repeat as Champs, the execs would be just fine with the new all-time yardage leader Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints making the trip to Indianapolis.

Imagine this...if New England makes it to the big game to face Green Bay, we will be witnessing the #32 (and last) ranked DEFENSE in the NFL facing the #31 ranked defense. This is something I never thought I'd live to see, but with the current rules making it nearly impossible to play solid defense and the epidemic of hideously bad officiating, it is (from my perspective) unfortunately the wave of the future. But from the perspective of NFL executives it would be like Christmas in February, and probably would be the largest TV audience to ever watch.

My opinion...I don't think the Earth will spin off its axis and the planets will remain aligned. The inevitable will happen and one or both of those teams will be 'upset' on the way to the champagne. Defense may not win championships anymore in today's 'pass-happy don't hit anybody too hard' NFL, but I still think you have to play at least a LITTLE defense.

I thought this was interesting...the DPS rankings in graphic/table form. With these pictures you have a quick vertical view of your favorite conference and compare how the rankings of all of the teams within that conference stack up against teams from other conferences. It helps draw a quick conclusion on the strength of your conference, and remember as always no opinions were used to create these rankings...just math.

Note: These are the DPS rankings prior to the bowl games. The final ranking will come out after the bowl games are completed.

The top 50: (click on each picture to expand and view)

The next 50:

The bottom 20: