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Bill Belichick Names The Most Difficult NFL Offensive Player He’s Ever Faced

April 28, 2024 by The Spun

12 November 2023, Hesse, Frankfurt/M.: American Football: Professional League NFL, New England Patriots – Indianapolis Colts, Main Round, Main Round Games, Matchday 10, Deutsche Bank Park. Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, before the game. Photo: Federico Gambarini/dpa (Photo by Federico Gambarini/picture alliance via Getty Images)

picture alliance/Getty Images

In five decades of coaching in the NFL, Bill Belichick has gone up against nearly all of the greatest legends of all-time. But there is one player who stood out to him as the most difficult player to prepare for.

During his Thursday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, the former Patriots and Browns head coach got to sit at the table with Detroit Lions legendary running back Barry Sanders. He wasted no time singing Barry’s praises to him.

“Of all the players that I’ve defended as a coach, nobody was harder (to beat) than you… Thank god we had Lawrence Taylor (with the Giants). Nobody was harder to defend than you were. Barry, you were phenomenal. And a better person than a player. Loved you as a player,” Belichick said . 

Belichick has had the privilege of coaching the greatest quarterback (Tom Brady), greatest defender (Lawrence Taylor) and even some of the greatest special teams players (Adam Vinatieri and Matthew Slater) of all-time. But he didn’t have many all-time great running backs on his teams – and certainly none that were as elite as Sanders.

Sanders dominated as a running back in the 1990s and at one point was in a position to challenge for the NFL all-time rushing record. Had he not retired at the age of 30, maybe it would be him and not Emmitt Smith sitting on the top of the mountain.

Was Barry Sanders the greatest offensive player in NFL history?

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