Leaving their mark: NFL legends make impressions that last forever

With Peter King on vacation until July 26, NFL Films president Steve Sabol took time away from getting ready for the 2010 season to write this week's Monday Morning Quarterback column. Sabol has received 34 Emmys for writing, cinematography, editing, directing, and producing. No one else in television has earned as many Emmys in as many different categories.

One question I'm asked more than any other is: Who is the greatest player in NFL history? I can't answer it. It's like asking me to name my favorite noodle in a spaghetti dinner. It's tough to name the top 10 players, even the top 100. But at NFL Films, we're taking a crack at it anyway.

Airing in September is our latest project for the NFL Network called The Top 100: The NFL's Greatest Players. The players were selected by a vote of 85 panelists, which consisted of Hall of Fame selectors, coaches, general managers, owners, scouts, journalists, TV analysts and statisticians. Ranking the great players is, in a way, like rating the saints. Is St. Peter better than St. Paul? Would you pick St. Mark over St. Matthew? Our show won't end any arguments, but it will certainly start some.

This season will be my 48th filming the NFL. I've watched, met, known, filmed or interviewed almost every player in our Top 100. What follows is a personal list of thoughts and observations about men, not all great, who in one way or another made a lasting impression on me.

Greatest Defensive Player: Dick Butkus

A force of unmanageable proportions, he was Moby Dick in a goldfish bowl. His career as the middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears stands as the most sustained work of devastation ever committed on a football field by anyone, anywhere, anytime. In 1969, the Bears won one game and Butkus was voted the Defensive Player of the Year. He stood for something just as important as victory -- he gave everything he had on every play. No one ever played harder or better than Dick Butkus.

Greatest Running Back: Walter Payton

Jim Brown was the greatest ball carrier, but no one ever played the position of running back as completely as Payton. He was a crushing blocker. I saw him lift blitzers off their feet. When it was required, he was an effective decoy who followed through convincingly on all his fakes. He once led the Bears in kickoff returns. He's Chicago's all-time leading receiver. When he threw passes, he completed most for touchdowns. The Bears threw enough interceptions for Payton's skill as a tackler to be noticed and, in addition to all of that, he missed only one game in his entire career. And when he retired in 1987, he had carried the ball more times for more yards than any player in history.

Most Uncoachable Player: Joe Don Looney

He was drafted in the first round by the New York Giants in 1964 and was proof that sometimes your name is your destiny. He was an outrageous non-conformist, even for the 60's. In scrimmages, he often ran one way when the play called for him to go another. His reason: "Anyone can run where the blockers are. A good ball carrier makes his own holes." Once after skipping several practices, Joe Don explained his absence to Coach Allie Sherman. "If practice makes perfect and perfection is impossible, why practice?" Sherman traded him to the Colts, who traded him to the Lions, who shipped him to the Redskins. After a tryout with the Saints, he quit the NFL and became a bodyguard for Swami Muktananda. He traveled the world doing anything from washing elephants' feet to sitting for hours at the Swami's feet, listening. Joe Don died in 1988 when he lost control of his motorcycle on a winding section of a Texas highway.