Peyton Manning, Eddie George help Tennessee all-time jersey list hold up vs any other state
Joe RexrodeFootball rules our state, and after examining the results of our jersey numbers project, I’m wondering how many other states our football would rule.
Yes, all those great college and pro players from larger pools of teams with longer histories would make states such Texas, Florida and California tough to beat. But if you did this project — picked the best college or pro athlete for each jersey number, 0 through 99 — in every state and built a fantasy football team from each list, I can’t imagine many could handle our team.
We’ve got shoo-in Hall of Famer Peyton Manning at quarterback. Protected by Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews. Handing the ball to near-Hall of Famer Eddie George. Or near-Hall of Famer Jamal Lewis. Or Chris Johnson, who, like Lewis, has rushed for more than 2,000 yards in an NFL season.
Manning can throw it to fellow shoo-in Hall of Famer Terrell Owens (he’ll get in, he just had to pay for his personality for a year). Or to fellow shoo-in Hall of Famer Jason Witten. Or to near Hall-of-Famer Isaac Bruce.
And if the opponent wants to put it up, we have four Hall of Famers to send at the quarterback — Vols legends Reggie White and Doug Atkins, and Tennessee State legends Richard Dent and Claude Humphrey. We would send a third TSU Tiger, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, but he was edged out for the No. 80 jersey by Owens. Remember, the fact that you can only have one representative per number levels the field against states with waves of great players.
And we’ve got some waves. Steve McNair, Johnny Majors, Steve DeLong, DeAngelo Williams, Peerless Price, Beattie Feathers, Jordan Matthews — even Larry Csonka, thanks to his brief stint with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League.
In all, of our 100 honorees, 72 are football players. Of those, 35 are Tennessee Volunteers — another indication of what that program has been and what it should be — and 17 are Tennessee Titans, which is pretty good for a franchise that got to the state in 1997. There are eight Vanderbilt Commodores, three TSU Tigers, including Joe “747” Adams, four Memphis Tigers (including Tony Brown, also a Titan), Middle Tennessee State’s Don Griffin and Steve McAdoo, Austin Peay’s Harold “Red” Roberts, Tennessee Tech’s Frank Omiyale and Chattanooga’s Owens.
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And there is someone missing that infuriates you. There must be. If so, let us have it. This should be fun, it should evoke memories and it should certainly spark arguments. We had a few good ones in The Tennessean newsroom when we met last year to put together the preliminary list. I’m still fired up that Keith Lee beat out Tamika Catchings for the No. 24 jersey.
Lee had a great career at Memphis, no doubt. He was a bigger scorer than Catchings was with the Lady Vols. But she won the Naismith Award for national player of the year. She won a national title. Her pro career absolutely blew away Lee’s pro career — she’s been WNBA MVP, finals MVP and a champion, while he was a journeyman — and we certainly take pro careers into account on this list.
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And then if you consider social impact, Catchings is one of the most community-active pro athletes in the world. That matters here, too. Condredge Holloway is on this list in part because he was the first black quarterback in SEC history. Austin Peay all-time legend James “Fly” Williams has a case over Pekka Rinne at No. 35, but Williams’ post-basketball drug involvement hurts him.
So I’ve got a problem with Catchings being excluded. Even without her … Candace Parker, Chamique Holdsclaw, Bridgette Gordon, Daedra Charles, Wendy Scholtens, Sheri Sam, Nera White.
Yeah, we’ll take your state on in women’s basketball, too.
Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.