We see people make lists of the top players to ever play the game of football, whether it’s overall or just by a certain position. At the top of most overall lists, the general consensus is that quarterback Tom Brady is at the top. He’s obviously the most accomplished player of all-time and the closest player that could catch him one day is Patrick Mahomes, whether we want to hear it or not.
However, there are so many players that are pretty much guaranteed to be on these kinds of all-time lists based on how they played the game and what they have accomplished as well. However, we see players who don’t get recognized yet they should be. Players of the Buffalo Bills, both current and former, shouldn’t be shocked when they get left off these lists because the Bills endure a lot of disrespect from people.
Bills' legend Bruce Smith is latest player to be recently disrespected
Bryan DeArdo from CBS Sports put together a list of the top 25 players in NFL history and for some reason, Bruce Smith wasn’t listed. Players like Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor were the only outside pass rushers who made it onto this list. Now this is not me saying that Smith deserves a spot over White or Lawrence, I’m just simply saying that Smith deserves as much credit as them.
In 19 seasons with Buffalo and Washington, Smith finished his stellar career with 200 sacks, 1,224 combined tackles, and 43 forced fumbles. There were only six seasons where Smith didn’t record 10+ sacks. As an 8-time All-Pro and 11-time Pro Bowler, Smith was the best player for the Bills for a very long time. In addition, Smith was also named to the all 1980s and 1990s All-Decade team.
Sometimes we get caught up in Buffalo’s offense that had Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed. However, Smith was a game-changer for the defense and for him to be completely ignored when it comes to DeArdo’s list is just wrong. Very wrong.