Mount Rushmore of (Insert Your Favorite NFL Football Team)
 

I'm not sure if this has been done before (a quick search seemed to think not), but I saw this on a Steelers' messageboard and thought it would be interesting.

I'm going to do one for the overall ogranization and then one for just players.


Steelers Organization
Art Rooney Sr.
Mean Joe Greene
Jack Lambert
Terry Bradshaw

Steelers Players
Mean Joe Greene
Jack Lambert
Terry Bradshaw
Troy Polamalu

I think Greene and Lambert are locks for any list. Bradshaw's numbers are not great, but he was the QB on four Super Bowl teams. Polamalu gets the edge over modern guys like Bettis, Ward, Roethlisberger, and Woodson for me due to his individual awards and the two Super Bowl wins (although Woodson was a great individual player, as well).

New Orleans Saints
Drew Brees
Deuce McCallister
Rickey Jackson
Archie Manning

I think that the first three are locks. The fourth spot is more open for debate. Personally, I think that the Saints were actually so bad under Archie Manning that he ended up being a bit over-rated because of it. There was a sort of "We have no idea how good this guy is because his team is so horrible" vibe there, that caused his legend to grow locally.

That said, the Saints have been so bad for so long that Manning has to go up there as the only representative "good" player from two eras of Saints football.

Finally, I considered Sam Mills for the fourth spot, but it seemed a bit redundant to have two dome-patrol guys on there. That said, Mills would also probably make the Panthers Mount Rushmore. Which is interesting in itself. I wonder how many players could legitimately claim to be on the short list for multiple team's Mount Rushmores?

For the Steelers organization, I might suggest swap out Bradshaw and put in Myron Cope and/or a Terrible Towel, if that's allowable.

New England Patriots
Tom Brady
John Hannah
Andre Tippett
Steve Grogan

This is hard. Bruce Armstrong, Gino Cappalletti, Stanley Morgan, Mike Haynes, Drew Bledsoe, maybe Ben Coates, Mark Henderson (snowplow game driver), hard to leave them off. Heck, I'd personally put Mosi Tatupu up there as he sticks out when I was a fan as a kid, even though he was mostly fullback / special teams.

But I have to go with those four as key I think.

Chicago Bears
George Halas
Walter Payton
Dick Butkus
Mike Ditka

The first three are automatics if you ask me, and I doubt many people would argue with them. The fourth spot is really tough, however. I went with Ditka because he both played and coached the team, but there is a laundry list of others that would/should be considered as well: Gale Sayers, Sid Luckman, Mike Singletary, Bronco Nagurski, Red Grange...hard to decide really.

I was thinking about the Lions and it's interesting to think that two of the guys might be playing now, Megatron and Suh. Barry is obviously there. It would be interesting to think of an old school guy. Dick "Night Train" Lane comes to mind though.

I was thinking Barry and Night Train before moving on to something else, too.

Sacrilege, I know, but I'd put Dan in there above the Chief. Everyone reveres Art, but they didn't win a thing until Dan started running the show in 1969 and picked Chuck Noll (who goes in my list in place of Bradshaw).

The 49ers are a pretty easy one.

Joe Montana
Jerry Rice
Steve Young
Ronnie Lott

If I was just going with my personal list, I'd swap Bryant Young in for Lott.

Cleveland Browns
Jim Brown
Otto Graham
Ozzie Newsome
Paul Brown

The first 3 are locks in my opinion for this team, the last one was the tough choice. I had trouble choosing between Hall of Famers Lou Groza, Marion Motley, or more recent (and more sentimental) players Bernie Kosar, Brian Sipe, and Michael Dean Perry. In the end I went with Paul Brown as he was the first coach and the greatest coach in Browns history. I'd say Joe Thomas and Joe Haden could easily make this list in the future if they continue on their current paths.

Maybe this is because Mills played against the LA Rams in the old NFC West, but I would have rated him on this list higher than Deuce, and if it had to be him or Jackson, I actually would have taken him. Or Pat Swilling. Just as a fan of a team that always played these guys, it was Mills and Swilling I couldn't stand/worried about as a Rams fan.

Deuce of course was a good RB and good with the Saints, but I never felt he was strong enough to make a list like this. Could be I didn't respect his contributions as much because he did his thing after the Rams left for St. Louis and the Saints left for the NFC South.

Denver Broncos

John Elway
Terrell Davis
Randy Gradishar
Steve Atwater

This was tough. Shannon Sharpe, Floyd Little, Rod Smith, Louis Wright. You could make an argument for Gary Zimmerman, but I left him off because he spent the first seven years of his career with the Vikings.

Dallas Cowboys

Tom Landry
Bob Lilly
Emmitt Smith
Larry Allen

I think we had a thread about that once, not about Mt Rushmore in particular, but team hall of fame type things. I'm sure there's a few but nobody's jumped to my mind yet.

Easy:


1. Tony Boselli
2. Jimmy Smith
3. Mark Brunell
4. Maurice-Jones Drew

Mount Rushmore of the Los Angeles Rams
 

F the St. Louis teams (although I would include Kurt Warner on just about any list of great Rams players or great players period)

Jackie Slater
Deacon Jones
Jack Youngblood
Kevin Greene

I left a lot of good to great players off of the list to include these four, including the rest of the Fearsome Foursome, Dickerson, Everett-Flipper-Ellard, Fred Dryer and Vince Ferragamo. But it's an impressive four.

Maybe, but for Panthers mine might be:

Jake Delhomme
Steve Smith
Muhsin Muhammad
Kevin Greene

Sam Mills maybe with his coaching, but Kevin Greene was huge. Smith and Muhammad HAVE to be there, you could consider Kerry Collins pre-breakdown but Delhomme got them to the big dance. Wesley Walls would be another high candidate. John Kasay (ironically enough with the Saints now). Mills is in the mix, not sure if he cracks top 4.

Dolphins

Don Shula
Dan Marino
Zach Thomas
Bob Griese

My exact 4 as well!

though Joe Robbie may deserve a place

The Bengals have one guy that isn't arguable, then a whole bunch of other guys in the mix... here's what I would go with:

1. Anthony Munoz
2. James Brooks
3. Ken Anderson
4. Sam Wyche

Although Boomer Esiason and David Fulcher, among others, were close to getting on the list. Corey Dillon, Willie Anderson, and Chad Ochocinco have to be close as well.

Would be interested to see lists from the other Bengal fans... it really could be all over the place. The team has so few true icons.

I love me some Young, but Walsh has to replace him, unless you're doing just players.

Green Bay Packers Staff
Curly Lambeau
Vince Lobmardi
Ron Wolf
The Owners (though I don't know how you carve that many faces into stone...they'd have to be tiny, I guess?)

Green Bay Packers Players
Bart Starr
Don Hutson
Jim Taylor
Brett Favre
---------

Regarding the players: this is incredibly tough. You could probably fill out a couple of Green Bay Mount Rushmores given the Packers' history, and a good part of me wants to disqualify Favre from the mountain on the grounds that he behaves like a teenage girl most of the time (unless he has a cell phone in hand - then he behaves like a teenage boy). There are a number of players I wouldn't mind replacing him with (e.g., Reggie White, Fuzzy Thurston, Forrest Gregg, Herb Adderley, Willie Wood, or Donald Driver just for starters), but his record-breaking career numbers and early dominance keep him in place (for now).

I can easily see Aaron Rodgers displacing Favre eventually, even if he never matches the overall career numbers of Favre. I can also see Ted Thompson and/or Mike McCarthy possibly getting in on the staff side in a few years. I'd likely have one of them displace the "owners" on that list, which would save the sculptor a lot of time and headaches.

No Czonka?

His best years came with Mercury Morris and Jim Kiick running beside him. When it was just Larry, he was pretty good at best.

Shula and Marino are automatics. I actually wouldn't put Griese on there. I've always felt he was extremely overrated. The other two I'll have to think about.

Seahawks

Walter Jones
Steve Largent
Cortez Kennedy
Kenny Easley

Kills me not to put Hasselbeck in there and Alexander likely warrants consideration as well but I think the first 3 are all no brainers.

For Dolphins, Zack Thomas is greater than Jason Taylor or any defensive players from the Killer B's defenses? Just surprised to see first list and immediate agreement from second poster on that foursome.

I had put my Dolphins list together in my head and it matched up.

No defensive player from the Killer B's., nor from the 70s championship teams, really stand out.

I do think you can make a case for Larry Little, Bob Kuchenberg, or Dwight Stephenson however.

Denver Broncos
John Elway
Terrell Davis
Steve Atwater
comedy Justin Armour response

No Curt Warner? I was thinking he was probably the only guy who had a shot at being on the Mount Rushmore of three teams (Seahwaks, Rams, Cardinals).

I would put Zach over Jason because he was more the heart and soul of the team for many years. And he gets total respect from me for refusing a contract offer from the Patriots because he refused to play for a Dolphins rival. He is by far my favorite player in the post-Marino era.

I picked Griese because I wanted someone to represent the 70s dynasty and he played for a long time. I agree that he's not even close to Marino (unless you're a moronic "rings" person), but he was still a really good QB and the two of them combined represent 30 years of Dolphins history.

How dare you not list Tim Tebow already.

Giants

Eli Manning
Eli Manning
Eli Monning
Brandon JAcobs

Hell, I'm trying to find Jarious Jackson's phone number so he can come back. I believe he wrote it for me on a napkin at Denny's after he served me my pancakes.

Giants

LT
Strahan
Simms
MAnning

let's hear more about eli monning

Detroit Lions
A guy who played before I was alive
Another guy who played before I was alive
That other guy who played before I was alive
Barry Sanders

Hopefully, if things work out, in the future we can add Stafford, Suh and/or Calvin Johnson.

LT
Simms
Carson
Tunnell

Next closest: strahan, Gifford. Thorpe was a giant for a year. Summerall, bavaro maybe. Not Eli, not yet at least. I feel like I am forgetting somebody very prominent. Tittle and Tarkenton would probably be for another team I guess.

Chicago Bears
Walter Payton
Gale Sayers
Dick Butkus
Mike Ditka

I'm watching Payton's A Football Life on NFL TV right now. I'd forgotten just how great of a player he was. He did everything well and was running over people with no regard to his body. Truly a great player.

Also, didn't know Ashton Kutcher is a Bears fan.

I would go beyond players to add Bill Parcels.

Darren Bennett
Tom Nütten
Adam Vinatieri
Kurt Warner


Yeah, that was a fairly easy list to make. :D

Jake Delhomme
Steve Smith
Mushin Muhammad
Julius Peppers

Kasay and Walls were the other two names I thought of as I was trying to come up with a reason to keep Delhomme out, but I can't do it. Peppers is as much of a lock as Muhammad to me.

My mind refuses to comprehend a Bears Mount Rushmore without Papa Bear on it.

Nice. :)

I thought of Gifford but I went with guys from the more modern era. I think Strahan has to be on there, set single season sack record and is somewhere in the top 5 all time. Eli is a bit of a stretch, but won a superbowl, has made us relevant almost every season he has been with the team, and will likely break every Giants QB record by the end of his career. Carson was the hardest to leave off.

Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers
Warren Moon
Earl Campbell
Bruce Matthews
Mike Munchak

I couldn't justify leaving either Matthews or Munchak off to recognize some of the new Titans or the old AFL championship guys, though I hate not having McNair up there. Those are the 4 best players the franchise has had, and it's a step down from there.

Titans/Oilers Mount Suckmore
Al Del Greco
Nick Harper
Denard Walker
Chris Brown

I hate all these players for various reasons. Al Del Greco sucked in his later years, and singlehandedly cost maybe our most talented team of all time (2000) a game against the Ravens in the playoffs by missing a 31-yard FG and having 2 blocked, one that got returned for a score. Nick Harper was the worst cornerback I've ever seen, I can't ever recall him breaking up a pass or even having the ball thrown to his guy and the receiver not be wide open. Walker is just on here for falling down on the Issac Bruce TD play that preceded the 1 yard short drive. And Chris Brown is on here for fumbling inside the redzone like he had money on the other team.

Jessie Tuggle
Steve Bartkowski
Jeff Van Note
William Andrews

I wondered about Dion (only there 3 years), and Michael Vick.(probably #5)

Really no Fred Taylor, that guy was a beast..

Fair point. I can't see him being on there ahead of Jones/Tez/Largent but that 4th spot is a tough one. I got caught up a bit in Easley/Hass for that spot. Even Alexander vs Warner would make for an interesting argument.

Bears (in order of importance):
George Halas
Walter Payton
Jim Finks
Mike Ditka