rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
I agree here. It's hard to describe exactly. In some ways, it's basically "QBs are more important, and people pay to watch QBs" mentality.different things - we're not talking about level of play here - no one's suggesting that ray and ed aren't 2 of the greatest to ever play the game and ed's probably the undisputed best safety of all time and ray's in the conversation for best linebacker
but there was never an aura of excitement about them in that they became must watch tv even for non-nfl audiences
no one who doesnt watch the nfl was turning on the tv because of ed reed or ray lewis as much as i love them
but people already do that with lamar - he's a mercurial talent that's "must-see" - we're not even talking about legacy or quality of play - we're talking about transcendental impact
People will pay money from everywhere to watch Lamar play. I don't think that was the case with Ed or Ray. They were among the greatest to ever play their positions, and will almost certainly be "better" than Lamar long term, but that's not the impact on the sport. That's just how somebody ranks at their position.
Michael Vick was a transcendent player. He wasn't the best player. There's a lot of QBs that were better than him. And there's a lot of QBs that people wouldn't pay to see that are better than him.