Sports Central's all-time draft (Part 1)

By Brad Oremland Sports Central Columnist

I don't just write about the NFL.

I study it.

Whenever I have free time, there's a decent chance that I'm doing something football-related. Maybe it's watching one of the old Super Bowls I have on tape. I might be reading about Johnny Unitas. Or entering statistics into a spreadsheet on my computer. The point is, I love football, past and present. So when I got the go-ahead to put together a Sports Central all-time NFL fantasy draft, I was more than a little excited.

The idea actually came from SI.com, Paul Zimmerman, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The Hall put together it's own all-time fantasy draft, and Zimmerman -- Sports Illustrated's legendary Dr. Z -- wrote about it for SI's web site. We took that idea, then changed the rules, expanded the draft, and used four SC football writers in a chatroom on a Sunday night -- but the principle is the same.

Each team has 14 players: quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, center, guard, offensive tackle, defensive tackle, defensive end, outside linebacker, inside linebacker, cornerback, safety, and kicker. One at each position: no more, no less.

Even though it's a "fantasy draft," there's no season on the way. Our teams are designed to take the field. There is no "winner."

One of the rules in the original exercise was that no one could pick more than one player who isn't in the Hall of Fame. But of course, the guys in Canton were organizing that one, and since we're not affiliated with the Hall of Fame, we dropped that requirement. Gone.

Like the Hall's group, though, we chose in snaking order: 1-2-3-4, 4-3-2-1, 1-2-3-4, etc. After hammering out a few more details, we put everything together, and the names of great players started flying off four sets of keyboards. Joe Montana. Jack Lambert. Ronnie Lott. The drafters were myself, Kevin Beane, David Martin, and Eric Poole.

I drew the first-pick, but I didn't really want to choose first; I like to go second or third in this kind of thing, so that I never go six turns without a pick. With the third- and sixth-overall picks, I could probably get Walter Payton and Lawrence Taylor and build from there. Or Taylor and Deacon Jones, creating a pass-rush no one could withstand. Even though I don't like going first, as soon as I found out I was, two words rushed through my head faster than I knew I could think: Jim Brown.

Brown is to football what Wayne Gretzky was to hockey, or Babe Ruth to baseball. Basketball doesn't even have a comparison, except maybe George Mikan when the game was in its infancy. Brown was the best player the NFL has ever seen, and it will never see a better. With the first-pick in our draft, I selected Jim Brown.

All the players you'd expect to go early, did. Payton and Jones were both gone when my second-pick finally came around, but L.T. was still there, so I took Lawrence Taylor and Dick Butkus to control the middle of the field on defense.

By this time, two quarterbacks were gone, but my top two, Otto Graham and John Unitas, were still around. I didn't have a terribly strong preference for Graham, so I knew I could wait on quarterbacks. Running back is my favorite position, and I had that covered. I could surround Taylor and Butkus with a bunch of junior high kids and I'd be okay on defense. But I needed a receiver.

Jerry Rice was gone, but I had my pick of the field after that, and Don Hutson was an easy choice. Every year of his career, Hutson led the NFL in receptions, receiving yards, or receiving touchdowns. For four-consecutive seasons, he led the league in all three. In 1942, when he made 74 catches for 1,211 yards and 17 TDs, no one else had more than 27 catches, and Hutson's TD record, established in an 11-game season, stood for 42 years, more than twice as long as Payton's all-time rushing record.

My picks were always back-to-back, and with Hutson, I took Reggie White. Even with Jones gone, I now had a fearsome pass-rush in place. L.T. and Reggie White? Quarterbacks shudder to think of it.

In the sixth-round, I grabbed a guy I considered taking right after Taylor, legendary cornerback Dick "Night Train" Lane. I also tabbed my favorite center, Pittsburgh iron man Mike Webster, to anchor the o-line.

I took my guys just in time, because Eric and David followed up with a cornerback and a center. There was kind of a run at the offensive line at that point, and with my eighth-pick, I grabbed Jim Parker at guard and chose the first kicker, Jan Stenerud.

In the 10th-round, I finally picked Graham, and I took Ken Houston at safety. With Butkus and Houston patrolling behind the line, no one's going to run on my team or go over the middle against me. I'd been waiting out defensive tackle because I didn't have a strong preference between my third- and fourth-choices, Alan Page and Bob Lilly (my first two were long since off the board). But as I was waiting for my pick to come back to me, I suddenly got anxious when I realized how perfect Page was for my team. Lilly was an all-around star; he could do anything. But Page was a better pass-rusher. If I lined up Page with White and Taylor, I'd get to the quarterback on every play. No one else took a DT that round, and I made Page my 12-pick.

I spent unlucky 13 on Forrest Gregg, who was Vince Lombardi's favorite player. Gregg was actually my first-choice at offensive tackle, but that's one of those positions where 10 guys have 10 opinions, and the people taken before him are nothing to scoff at: Joe Jacoby, the king of the Hogs, Anthony Muñoz, the premier offensive lineman of the last 20 years, and Art Shell, whose Super Bowl XI performance is still held up as the most perfect game an offensive tackle can play. Gregg won six NFL titles and was named to eight All-Pro teams and nine Pro Bowls, though, and combined with Lombardi's endorsement, that's enough for me, so I was thrilled to get him late in the proceedings.

My final choice was at tight-end, and for total package, I took Mike Ditka. Iron Mike was a player of legendary toughness, but his receving really set him apart. Ditka transformed the "third tackle" into the weapon that Kellen Winslow and now Tony Gonzalez have come to typify. Ditka combined catching skills with surprising speed, and his rookie record for receiving TDs stood until Randy Moss broke it 30 years later in a 16-game schedule.

Judging this sort of thing is all in the eye of the beholder, but I love my team. One of the selectors took Dan Marino and Lynn Swann, and I get goosebumps thinking about that combination, but I'll put Graham and Hutson out there against anyone. For summary, my team is listed below by position.

QB: Otto Graham RB: Jim Brown WR: Don Hutson TE: Mike Ditka C: Mike Webster G: Jim Parker OT: Forrest Gregg

DT: Alan Page DE: Reggie White OLB: Lawrence Taylor ILB: Dick Butkus CB: Night Train Lane S: Ken Houston K: Jan Stenerud

My offensive line and "skill" players make me want to giggle like a schoolgirl, but I think I love my defense even more. The defensive backfield combines for 117 interceptions. Lane, my top-rated corner, holds the NFL's single-season record for interceptions (14, in a 12-game season, which is like 18 or 19 in today's schedule.); Houston (who could have made it to Canton just on his tackle of Walt Garrison) holds the NFL record for interception returns for touchdowns.

And that pass-rush. Oh, that pass-rush. With Butkus and Houston to clean up the leftovers? I'll send that defense out against anyone and like my chances. With Graham, Brown, and Hutson -- I feel like I've just named the NFL's Holy Trinity -- behind a Hall of Fame line, my offense should be unstoppable, too. And Stenerud's around for extra points and kickoffs. Wow.

Don't forget that this piece is the first part of a four-part series. Later this week, Eric Poole, who chose second, will present his team.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.