There are many great RBs.  You cannot forget Thurman Thomas, Marcus Allen,Roger Craig, Emmit Smith, Barry Sanders, Christian Okoye just to name a few.
Week 1 2009

Quote from chiefsfan - "Barry shouldn't even be considered, because he had just as many runs for 20+ as he had -yd runs. He either went -2, 2 or 62 yards. All he was was fast. thats it"

You can't reasonably contend that point of view without being a hater. I am not, and never have been particularly fond of the Detroit Lions. However, I watched A LOT of football throughout the '80s and '90s and Barry is definitely one of the all time greats, if not the best ever. To say that the only talent he had as a running back was speed is just stupidity.

Barry brought a level of skill at finding open field and bouncing off tackles and willingness to go back, to go forward again that had not previously been seen. He was small and it was skill, stamina, speed, and durability that made his career what it was. He also had heart, and it didn't matter how bad the rest of the Lions were playing, he was still going full throttle.

Afraid to get hit? If you mean that he didn't try to bowl over opposing Defensemen in trying to gain yards in the way that guys like Riggins, Campbell, and Jacobs did/do, then you are absolutely right. He didn't have the size/bulk to do so. If you mean that he was afraid of getting tackled in a cowardly way in that he was a detriment to the success of his team by not challenging the Defense then you are completely wrong. Anyone who has a reasonably decent level of NFL knowledge can watch video and see that Sanders would run right at Defenders and then spin, or change direction rapidly to throw them off... the fact that he was able to move left and right as quickly as he was able to move forward does not make him a coward, but nothing less than a supremely highly skilled runner. Barry rarely ran out of bounds on the sideline except when it was needed, and quite frequently would do almost everything he could to stay in bounds on the sideline, even cutting back into the middle of the field from the sideline just to gain even a couple of extra yards on a play.

As for getting either -2, +2, or +62 yards on any given run, it's a common distortion of the facts that Sanders detractors often use. Per carry he did not get negative yards any more often than any of the other "Greats". The difference is that 99% of the backs out there get negative yards on plays in which they are stopped by the Defense before they get to the line of scrimmage going forward. Sanders would go forward, executing the running play as it was designed, but when he'd meet the defense and have no blocking or holes in front of him to exploit, would actually be fast enough to go backwards, often switching fields, in order to go forward again through a spot that wasn't stuffed. Sometimes the elusive Sanders would be caught behind the line of scrimmage, but more often than not, he'd not only get back to the line of scrimmage, but find a gap and gain yards as well.

Lastly, the guy would get tackled at times by as many as three to five players and get up like he had just walked off the bench. Sanders was tough and had heart.

There's no room for criticism of the performance of Sanders as a running back beyond his inability to fulfill specific roles such as that of Short-yard backs needed for high percentage short yard gains and blocking, being limited by his size.

it was between Sanders and Emmit,,Emmit played on great teams,,,Sanders played for bums,,even the bears won a SB

I'd say Jim Brown or Barry Sanders, although they didn't have the exposure of a guy like Walter Payton or E. Smith because they were on some bad teams.

Rank 'em on www.ultimatesportsrankings.com.

He started the west coast offense,,not Bill Walsh,,,he was way ahead of his time,,but couldn't win the big one,,too bad too,,,he would of definetly been one the greatest if he would of won 3 of those SBs for the Vikes