A personal look at top players

247Sports stated, “with an estimated 5.3 million people having suited up in the game’s first 150 years, we had a lot of talent to choose from. To narrow the list, we looked first at players who’d been unanimous, first-team, All-America selections. Bonus points were awarded for Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and/or Outland Trophy wins. Inclusion in an ESPN-conducted coaches’ poll on the 10 greatest college football players of all time was big, and something that helped ensure the game’s trailblazers, including Jim Thorpe and Jim Brown, weren’t excluded. College Hall of Fame honoree status worked in a player’s favor, but wasn’t weighted too heavily so as to not skew the results in favor of older players.”

I’m not going to get into naming all the honorees. I do want to share personal stories for several of the top 51.

A list like this you obviously are going to have a lot of people going, Wait! What?

My Wait! What? has to do with Joe Burrow at No. 25.

Sure, he may have had one great year, but what a year that was. And it’s becoming more obvious that Burrow overcame questionable coaching by being a Heisman coach on the field, as well.

247Sports writes, “It’s easy to see why Joe Burrow, less than a year out of college, has climbed onto our list of all-time greats. The Ohio State transfer’s 2019 season for the Tigers was one for the history books. ‘I’ve not sure we’ve ever seen a quarterback have the high level of sustained and consistent excellence against a very challenging schedule that Joe Burrow had this season,’ Archie Manning said as he presented Burrow with the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Manning Award. 

Burrow’s other 2019 honors included the Heisman, the Maxwell, the Walter Camp -- and, oh, yes, a 15-0 season that culminated in a 42-25 victory over Clemson for the national championship.”

At No. 24 is LSU’s Billy Cannon.

OK, if someone asked me the greatest LSU player of all time I would definitely have Burrow above Cannon, although Cannon deserves a spot in the top 25 of all-time greats.

Says 247Sports, “LSU’s Billy Cannon was a dominant player of late 1950s. He was a Heisman finalist twice, winning the award in 1959 -- the same year he pulled off “the run,” a fourth-quarter, touchdown-scoring, victory-clinching punt return from the Tigers’ 11-yard line.”

At No. 51 is former Alcorn State great Steve McNair. I had the honor of being on hand for several of McNair’s games, including his senior year when I visited Grambling and Jackson, and his junior year going to a crowded and tiny Mumford Stadium press box at Southern.

I still say McNair is one of the most amazing athletes I’ve ever watched in person.

In four seasons with the Braves, McNair threw for 15,010 yards and 122 touchdowns. He also rushed for 2,295 yards. His senior season in 1994 was so impressive that he finished third in Heisman voting despite playing at what is now an FCS school, finishing behind running backs Rashaan Salaam of Colorado and Penn State’s Ki-Jana Carter.

It was at Alcorn that Steve McNair kept me spellbound with his incredible feats first at Henderson Stadium and then at Jack Spinks Stadium in Lorman.

He was part Harry Houdini and Elvis Presley.

Michael Strahan of Texas Southern and New York Giant fame was the only lineman I ever saw tackle the Mount Olive product behind the line of scrimmage.

I made the mistake only once of leaving Vidalia only two hours before heading to Lorman, some 40 minutes away in McNair’s sophomore year of 1992. After sitting on Hwy. 907 for about two hours, missing the first quarter while motorists passed me along the side of the road in ditches - I didn’t make that mistake again - arriving at the newly-built Jack Spinks Stadium some two hours before kickoff for the last three years.

And then there was the trip to Grambling in McNair’s senior year where traffic on I-20 was backed up three hours before kickoff. Sure there was construction (there’s always construction on I-20), but it was obvious where everyone was headed.

After another wild comeback win in which the Braves won 62-56 as McNair outdueled Grambling’s Kendrick Nord (now quarterback coach at Grambling), I arrived home at about 4 a.m., having to wait four hours to get off campus.

Before McNair arrived, Alcorn played in Henderson Stadium an old run-down stadium where bees swarmed the press box and desks were used for chairs.

Spinks Stadium seldom had an empty seat when McNair was playing, and it was revival time in Lorman on Saturday afternoons in Lorman and all God’s children packed the stands to watch McNair perform his magic.

McNair, who set a state record for interceptions as a defensive back at Mount Olive, was recruited by several Division I-A schools. Alcorn had coach Cardell Jones promised McNair he would play quarterback. McNair was also drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 35th round of the Major League Baseball Draft.

Seattle’s loss was Lorman’s gain.

Alcorn’s Sound of Dy-No-Mite band kept the crowd moving while Alcorn’s defense allowed another score, and then the crowd would be moving again when McNair went back on the field to put the Braves back ahead.

The Sounds of Dy-No-Mite would play “End of the Road” by Boyz to Men and the crowd would still be singing the song 10 minutes after the band stopped.

Woodstock had come to Lorman, and the loveliest was all about Steve McNair.

Alcorn won the SWAC in McNair’s junior year, but the Braves were embarrassed by Northeast Louisiana 78-27 in sub-freezing temperatures. But the NLU faithful knew they had seen something special in McNair.

McNair had a press conference before his senior year to announce he was staying (“I’m still an Alcornite”). I laughed at a couple of out-of-state media guys who looked like they just rode with Chevy Chase when they arrived haggard-looking after finally finding Alcorn State.

Alcorn P.A. announcer Emmanuel Barnes could hardly keep up with McNair his senior year. I remember one play where Barnes screamed, “McNair, McNair, McNair ... well, you saw it.”

McNair injured his ankle against Jackson State in his final regular season game, but still suited up in the Braves’ playoff game against powerful Youngstown State the following week. Alcorn suffered another big loss, but McNair’s courage in defeat found him more fans north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

McNair was 13-0 in home games at Spinks Stadium. He would finish his senior year with 14,496 passing yards and 2,327 rushing yards, breaking Portland State quarterback Neil Lomax’s mark for total yards in Division I-AA.

He broke that record fittingly against Southern, one of the best defensive teams in the SWAC. McNair had 649 total yards in that contest, and tossed the ball to his mom, Lucille, when he broke it. Lucille took the Heisman pose with the football as McNair went back out to lead another comeback win.

The Clarion-Ledger used a helicopter that day to get its photographer back to the office in time because they knew the circus atmosphere that would be surrounding the game.

I happened to be by the lone phone in the press box where then Alcorn Sports Information Director Derick Hackett placed me with a sly grin.

I found out why when the phone rang every 30 seconds as ESPN, CNN, New York Times, CBS radio, Mutual Radio Network and countless others were calling for updates on the game.

I felt as if I were doing a play-by-play.

McNair would go on to a great NFL career, earning MVP honors and taking the Tennessee Titans to the Super Bowl. And he would continue supporting charities, and even sent relief packages to his home state of Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

While McNair appeared anything but human on the football field, it may have been a human weakness that ended his life. I’m not even going to try to speculate what led to the tragic end to two lives in Nashville on July 4, 2009. The shame is that this humble, quiet, caring and blessed individual will be remembered for how his life ended - and not how it brought excitement, happiness and a strong sense of togetherness to a tiny Mississippi town and that will never see anything like those days again. 

I still correspond to McNair’s younger brother Tim, who was a wide receiver at Alcorn. If Steve would have had Tim’s charisma, his face would have been all over the television and in magazine ads.

At No. 32 is former Navy quarterback Roger Staubach. I was a huge Staubach fan, and always picked Navy for my Sports Illustrated board game because Staubach could rarely be stopped.

At No. 21 is Tony Dorsett of Pittsburgh.

Former Vidalia High great Keith Woodside was asked to come to Vidalia High football coach Dee Faircloth’s office in the gym for a phone call in his senior year of 1982.

Not knowing what to expect, Woodside walked anxiously to Faircloth’s office, crossing the locker room hall before entering into Faircloth’s office where the longtime Viking coach was holding up the telephone.

“I said, ‘For me, in your office?’” Woodside said. “Well, who is it? And he said, Tony Dorsett.”

Woodside was a lifelong fan of Dorsett. He wore No. 33 in junior high, high school, college and with the Green Bay Packers.

Dorsett played for Jackie Sherrill at the University of Pittsburgh. Sherrill was head coach at Texas A&M in 1982.

Tony showed where his allegiance was.

“He said you know you are dealing with a high profile coach who was my coach at Pitt,” Woodside said. “I said, ‘Yeah,’” He said “Coach Sherrill is coming to get you, you have to deliver. TD (Dorsett) said you gotta answer the bell, you have to perform. I told him that was not going to be a problem. They had me as highest recruit coming there even though they had (tight end) Rod Bernstine and (linebacker) Todd Howard. Those guys were way ahead of me strength-wise. That was big issue. It really took me almost two years to catch up to those guys.”

And Sherrill knew how to pursue Woodside.

“Coach Sherrill was very informative,” Woodside said. “Once he got word that I was crazy about Tony Dorsett, he told his people put TD on the phone, I want to talk to him and get him to call Woodside. That did it.”

At No. 18 is former Oklahoma bad boy Brian Bosworth.

Where Brian Bosworth was concerned, the hype was real. The 1984-1986 Sooners standout, known as “The Boz,” was the first -- and still only -- college player to win the Butkus Award, as the nation’s top linebacker, twice. In 1986, he notched 22 tackles in a single game, and finished fourth in Heisman voting. 

Two stories about Bosworth.

Long-time college referee Andy Pressgrove of Natchez worked the 1986 Orange Bowl between No. 2 Miami and No. 1 Oklahoma, won by the Hurricanes, 28-16.

Bosworth, however, set a school record with 22 tackles in that loss, and the Hurricanes rushed for just 53 yards on 36 attempts. 

With Bosworth and Miami, Pressgrove knew he had to take control early.

He met with players from both teams before the game, and let it be known he was not putting up with any shenanigans.

Pressgrove told me Bosworth told him, “You’re going to have a lot of trouble out of me.”

The Brian Bosworth mullet hairstyle was unique and stylish. It combined features of the mullet, flattop and the faux-hawk in a balanced manner that worked well for him. It did not take a great deal of effort to style the hair, as most of the work was done when it was cut.

So before the 1988 football season, I stated in a column that I would get a Box haircut if any team went through the regular season unbeaten, and add their initials and school colors.

Well, North Natchez goes unbeaten during the regular season, losing to Laurel in the second round of the playoffs.

Master hair extraodinaire Jason Nix does the honors of giving me the “Boz,” complete with green and gold NNs on both sides as Ram players Herman Carroll and Kelvin Knight, along with North Natchez assistant coach Robert Smith looked on.

This was a month before my wedding with my wife, Kathy.

Kathy was a great sport about it. But I’m having trouble finding wedding pictures.

At No. 17 is Michigan cornerback Charles Woodson.

The man who beat out Peyton Manning for the Heisman.

At No. 14 is Deion Sanders of Florida State - the man who coached a game in sock feet at ULM’s Malone Stadium.

At No. 12 is Pittsburgh’s Hugh Green of Natchez.

Pittsburgh landed Hugh Green when they went to watch a player from Pascagoula named Rooster Jones.

They kept wondering who the player was from North Natchez making all the tackles.

Green played four years at Pitt, each year more dominant than the previous one. By the end of his 1980 senior season, he was a two-time, unanimous, first-team All-America selection, and a breakthrough winner of the Maxwell and Walter Camp awards as the nation’s top all-around player. Green was the first defensive end to claim the Maxwell and Walter Camp honors. 

By the way, Jones  earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh where he lettered as a running back under then head coach Jackie Sherrill from 1977-1980. He gained just over 1,100 yards in three seasons with the Panthers, but was hampered by injuries throughout his college career.

Former Natchez policeman George Dunkley took Green under his wing in Natchez, and wanted to do a lot to promote the Natchez great.

One thing was inviting people to Green’s barn turned home in Jefferson County.

It rained heavily that day and my Plymouth Horizon got stuck in the mud. Green came out in new boots and helped get my car out. My Horizon didn’t stand a chance. Either did his boots. I believe I was the first one to leave.

At No. 7 is Texas running back Ricky Williams.

The only visual I have of Williams is in a wedding dress posing with Mike Ditka after the New Orleans Saints sold Lake Pontchartrain to get the running back with the No. 1 pick.

At No. 6 is Southern Cal running back O.J. Simpson.

The only visual I have of Simpson is in a white Bronco. I can’t believe I sat in front of a television for half a day watching Simpson joyride around Los Angeles.

For the record, Georgia running back Herschel Walker is No. 1, Ohio State running back Archie Griffin is No. 2, Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders is No. 3 and Auburn’s Bo Jackson is No. 4.

Two of the top four are from the SEC. Sounds like CFB playoff format.