Playing Houston makes me think of Earl Campbell

[Lunchbox]

Roger Wehrli did and the Cardinals pretty well handled him and the Oilers.
But for some crappy lifestyle changes and advice to take the sideline from Franco Harris Otis Anderson was as good as or possible even better than EC.

Not sure what lifestyle changes you're referring to but the bolded part got my attention.

OJ was a helluva back but I'd never thought of him as being in the same class as EC before so I had to do some research.

Earl collected a bit more individual hardware in an 8 year career. He won the Heisman Trophy in '77 and became the #1 overall selection in the '78 NFL Draft after which he was named NFL Offensive ROY, 5X Pro Bowl, 3X All Pro, 3X NFL Offensive POY, 3X NFL Rushing Champ and '79 NFL MVP.

OJ was drafted #8 overall the year after Campbell but played 13 seasons and had 2 SB rings and a SB MVP to his credit. He was named NFL Offensive ROY, 2X Pro Bowl, 2 X All Pro and NFL Comeback POY in his 10th season!

Both rushed for 1,000 yards in 5 of their first 6 seasons, falling short in the strike-shortened '82 season. Career stats were very similar.

OJ was an outstanding pro for a long time for a RB and Earl was awesome to watch in his prime but his production really fell off after his 6th year due to his running style and the beating his body took.

Having seen both play I still don't know if I'd put OJ in Earl's class at least in their primes but right now I'd take either in a heartbeat. :cheese:

OJ ate and stank himself out of shape and lost his elusiveness but changed his running style to more N/S and as you said won a SB MVP running that way.

Look at OJ's stats vs Earls in their rookie years, Campbell had a far better team and coaching IMO IF Anderson had trained like today's players do he'd be known as one of the five best ever

Admittedly I've seen way more of Campbell than I have of OJ. Never saw much of him in his early years in the league. A 1,600 yard rookie season on a crappy team is pretty impressive. I did see his SB performance. Not easy to reinvent yourself as a professional athlete and succeed.

 

[Stranger]

You young guys probably never heard of him.
I watched this live on TV back in the day. This guy was a LOAD.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9y_KZwOq9g[/youtube]


Another angle of this shit...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsegJVLrmk8[/youtube]


I'm thankful he's not in the backfield this Sunday. Still have flashbacks about this one.

yup, was watching live as well. but when i think of oilers I think of white pom poms in the crowd, that incredible monday night game against the dolphins, and bum phillips. so cool to see his son as the DC now.