Woodson v. Sanders

I promised this yesterday, so let's go ahead and have at it. Someone--can't remember who--made the case that Rod Woodson was ultimately better than Deion because he was such a vicious hitter. Indeed. But whenever I think of Deion, I think of that great quote which I am about to mangle--"Water covers 3/4 of the earth. Deion covers the rest." In his prime, dude could basically shrink the football field. He is the only true shut-down corner who I've seen, in my lifetime.

I always held his lack of hitting against him. But there was this one game in the mid-late 90s against the Redskins that made me forgive him. Old School Skins fans will remember Albert Connell one half of the dissappointing Connell/Westbroook reciever tandem. Earlier in the year the Cowboys had been outclassed by the Skins, but had come back and won in OT with an improbable bomb to Rocket Ismail. The week before the teams played again, Connell trash-talked Deion nearly every day. Deion, not known for humility, said nothing, But the first play of the game, he runs into back-field and nails Stephen Davis. The next play he runs up and throws a vicious forearm at Connel, right in the mouth. I think Connell had like two catches for nine yards that day. I think in that same game, he got concussed but then ran a punt back for a TD.

Deion is the only player who I know of that I attribuite two Super Bowls to, on different teams in back to back years. That 49ers team was merely good wiithout him, and the Cowboys likely would have made it three straight. The very next year, the Cowboys were also merely good (two years under Switzer) but Deion made the champions. Maybe I just didn't see enough of Rod Woodson, given that he was in the AFC. But man, from my perspective, Deion Sanders is the greatest CB I've seen in my time, and possibly the greatest of all time.