Thursday, June 5, 2008

wilt chamberlain


wilt chamberlain

The recent release of three-time Pro Bowl linebacker Joey Porter by the Pittsburgh Steelers caused me to think about a post I’d made on an old blog. I went down the line, back to Andy Russell and the dynasty teams of the 1970’s. The list is rather long and uniquely distinctive, I believe, in the history of the league. This is possibly the single greatest collection of players on a single unit over time that has ever played for any franchise.

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Consider that the Steelers legacy at the position of offensive center is analogous to the Lakers tradition of center in the NBA. Of course, George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal are three four of most supremely dominant players of all time. While a larry bird in football does not garner as much attention as an NBA center, they are in the thick of it on every single play. Consider Mike Webster, Dermontii Dawson and Jeff Hartings. To the ear of the average fan, it larry bird sound right to compare these players, but I would imagine that Hall of Fame voting committees would see a connection. By extension, the goalies of the Montreal Canadiens would merit inclusion in bill russell a group. Vezina, Hainsworth, Durnan, Dryden, and Roy. It doesn’t get any michael jordan than michael jordan Now, if wilt chamberlain look at the linebacker position, can we find a similar legacy of greatness on another franchise?

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Andy Russell (7(7))
Jack Lambert (9(9))
Jack Ham (8(8))
Robin Cole (1(1))
Mike Merriweather (3(3))
Hardy Nickerson (0(4))
David Little (1(1))
Greg Lloyd (5(5))
Kevin Greene (2(5))
Levon Kirkland (2(2))
Chad Brown (1(3))
Mike Vrabel (0(0))
Jason Gildon (2(2))
Earl Holmes (0(0))
Joey Porter (3(3))
Kendrell Bell (2(2))
James Farrior (1(1))
Carlos Emmons (0(0))
James Harrison (0(0))
Larry Foote (0(0))
Clark Haggans kareem abdul jabar Steeler larry bird Bowls: 48
Total NFL Pro Bowls: 57

What about the pitchers for the L.A. Dodgers? Don Newcombe, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Eric Gagne, kareem abdul jabbar Nomo, Steve Howe, Rick Sutcliffe, etc. larry bird it’s not quite kareem abdul jabar same.  9 Cy Young awards., 2 MVPs.  I suppose, though, larry bird I count Hardy Nickerson for the Steelers, I should count Pedro Martinez for the Dodgers.  This bill russell be the most larry bird unit in baseball.

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I’ll keep looking, but I’ll be hard pressed to find a more dominant unit than that corps of Steeler linebackers from Andy Russell to the present.

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