25 Best and Most Famous American Football Players of All Time

Our ranking of the 25 best and most famous American football players of all time, led by Tom Brady, Jerry Rice and Jim Brown, with stats and titles.

Each profile lists position, teams, birth date and the titles that matter, followed by what made the player stand out. Below the ranking you will find the best player at every position, the records these players still hold and the names that just missed the cut.

How We Ranked the American Football Players

• Peak: how far ahead of his own era the player was at his best.
• Longevity: how many seasons he stayed at that level.
• Titles and awards: championships, MVP and Player of the Year awards, All-Pro teams and the Hall of Fame.
• Impact: whether he changed how his position is played or how opponents game plan against it.

Players are measured against their own era rather than against modern statistics, which is why Don Hutson and Johnny Unitas sit among quarterbacks and receivers from the 2000s. The order is our own judgment, not an official one.

The 25 Best American Football Players at a Glance

#	Player	Position	Career
1	Tom Brady	Quarterback	2000 to 2022
2	Jerry Rice	Wide receiver	1985 to 2004
3	Jim Brown	Fullback	1957 to 1965
4	Lawrence Taylor	Outside linebacker	1981 to 1993
5	Walter Payton	Running back	1975 to 1987
6	Joe Montana	Quarterback	1979 to 1994
7	Reggie White	Defensive end	1985 to 2000
8	Peyton Manning	Quarterback	1998 to 2015
9	Barry Sanders	Running back	1989 to 1998
10	Johnny Unitas	Quarterback	1956 to 1973
11	Don Hutson	End (wide receiver)	1935 to 1945
12	Dick Butkus	Middle linebacker	1965 to 1973
13	Emmitt Smith	Running back	1990 to 2004
14	Deion Sanders	Cornerback	1989 to 2005
15	Ronnie Lott	Cornerback and safety	1981 to 1994
16	Anthony Muñoz	Offensive tackle	1980 to 1992
17	Joe Greene	Defensive tackle	1969 to 1981
18	Bruce Smith	Defensive end	1985 to 2003
19	Ray Lewis	Middle linebacker	1996 to 2012
20	Patrick Mahomes	Quarterback	since 2017
21	Randy Moss	Wide receiver	1998 to 2012
22	Aaron Donald	Defensive tackle	2014 to 2023
23	Tony Gonzalez	Tight end	1997 to 2013
24	Brett Favre	Quarterback	1991 to 2010
25	Dan Marino	Quarterback	1983 to 1999

#1 Tom Brady

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: August 3, 1977, in San Mateo, California
• 👕 Teams: New England Patriots (2000 to 2019), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2020 to 2022)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 7× Super Bowl champion (XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, LIII, LV), 5× Super Bowl MVP, 3× NFL MVP (2007, 2010, 2017), 15× Pro Bowl, NFL career leader in passing yards and touchdown passes
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Eligible from 2028

Brady was the 199th pick of the 2000 draft and retired 23 seasons later with more Super Bowl rings than any franchise has. He won six titles in New England and a seventh in his first season in Tampa Bay, and he played in ten Super Bowls in total.

What puts him above the other quarterbacks here is the mix of peak and length. He threw 50 touchdown passes in 2007, won league MVP at 40 and finished with career records of 89,214 passing yards and 649 touchdown passes. Since retiring in 2023 he has worked as the lead analyst on Fox’s NFL broadcasts and became a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

#2 Jerry Rice

• 🏈 Position: Wide receiver
• 🎂 Born: October 13, 1962, in Starkville, Mississippi
• 👕 Teams: San Francisco 49ers (1985 to 2000), Oakland Raiders (2001 to 2004), Seattle Seahawks (2004)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Super Bowl champion (XXIII, XXIV, XXIX), Super Bowl XXIII MVP, 2× NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1987, 1993), 13× Pro Bowl, 10× First-Team All-Pro
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2010

Rice came out of Mississippi Valley State, a small college program, and became the most productive receiver the league has seen. He retired with 1,549 catches, 22,895 receiving yards and 197 receiving touchdowns, all still NFL records, and his yardage total is more than 5,000 yards clear of second place.

His edge was preparation more than raw speed: his off-season hill runs became part of football folklore. He caught passes from Joe Montana and Steve Young in three Super Bowl wins, and when the NFL ranked its 100 greatest players in 2010, Rice came first.

#3 Jim Brown

• 🏈 Position: Fullback
• 🎂 Born: February 17, 1936, in St. Simons Island, Georgia (died May 18, 2023)
• 👕 Teams: Cleveland Browns (1957 to 1965)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: NFL champion (1964), 3× NFL MVP (1957, 1958, 1965), 9× Pro Bowl, 8× First-Team All-Pro, 8× NFL rushing leader
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1971

Brown led the NFL in rushing in eight of his nine seasons, never missed a game and averaged 5.2 yards per carry. He retired with 12,312 rushing yards and 106 rushing touchdowns, both league records at the time. At Syracuse he had also been an All-American in lacrosse.

He walked away in 1966 at age 30, at the height of his career, to concentrate on film work, and starred in The Dirty Dozen the following year. Away from the screen he was a prominent civil rights voice and founded the Amer-I-Can program for young people leaving gangs and prison. Brown died in 2023 at 87.

#4 Lawrence Taylor

• 🏈 Position: Outside linebacker
• 🎂 Born: February 4, 1959, in Williamsburg, Virginia
• 👕 Teams: New York Giants (1981 to 1993)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Super Bowl champion (XXI, XXV), NFL MVP (1986), 3× Defensive Player of the Year (1981, 1982, 1986), 10× Pro Bowl
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1999

Taylor changed how teams built their offensive lines. Coaches began treating the pass rusher off the edge as the first player to account for, and the left tackle grew in importance and pay as a direct response. In 1986 he had 20.5 sacks and was named league MVP, one of only two defensive players to win it, along with Alan Page in 1971.

He won Defensive Player of the Year as a rookie and finished with 132.5 official sacks, a figure that leaves out his first season because sacks only became an official statistic in 1982. Drug problems and legal trouble after his career, which he has spoken about openly, make the Giants’ greatest defender a complicated figure.

#5 Walter Payton

• 🏈 Position: Running back
• 🎂 Born: July 25, 1954, in Columbia, Mississippi (died November 1, 1999)
• 👕 Teams: Chicago Bears (1975 to 1987)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: Super Bowl champion (XX), NFL MVP (1977), NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1977), 9× Pro Bowl, 5× First-Team All-Pro
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1993

Payton retired as the NFL’s career rushing leader with 16,726 yards, a record that stood until Emmitt Smith passed it in 2002. His 275-yard game against Minnesota in 1977 was the single-game record for 23 years, and he missed one game in 13 seasons.

Teammates called him Sweetness, yet he was known for refusing to run out of bounds and for delivering the hit himself. He died of bile duct cancer in 1999 at 45, and that same year the league renamed its award for community work the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

#6 Joe Montana

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: June 11, 1956, in New Eagle, Pennsylvania
• 👕 Teams: San Francisco 49ers (1979 to 1992), Kansas City Chiefs (1993 to 1994)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 4× Super Bowl champion (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV), 3× Super Bowl MVP, 2× NFL MVP (1989, 1990), 8× Pro Bowl
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2000

Montana won all four Super Bowls he played in and threw 11 touchdown passes without an interception across those games. A third-round pick in 1979, he became the engine of Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, built on short, precisely timed throws.

The plays that define him came late in games. “The Catch” to Dwight Clark in the NFC Championship Game in January 1982 sent San Francisco to its first Super Bowl, and his 92-yard drive at the end of Super Bowl XXIII beat Cincinnati with 34 seconds left. That calm earned him the nickname Joe Cool.

#7 Reggie White

• 🏈 Position: Defensive end
• 🎂 Born: December 19, 1961, in Chattanooga, Tennessee (died December 26, 2004)
• 👕 Teams: Philadelphia Eagles (1985 to 1992), Green Bay Packers (1993 to 1998), Carolina Panthers (2000)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: Super Bowl champion (XXXI), 2× Defensive Player of the Year (1987, 1998), 13× Pro Bowl, 198 career sacks
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2006

White retired as the NFL’s career sack leader with 198, a total since passed only by Bruce Smith. In 1987 he had 21 sacks in a strike-shortened 12-game season, and offenses routinely built their pass protection around him.

His move to Green Bay in 1993 was one of the first big free agent signings in league history and helped turn the Packers into champions: they won Super Bowl XXXI four years later, with White recording three sacks in the game. An ordained minister, he was known as the Minister of Defense. He died in 2004 at 43.

#8 Peyton Manning

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: March 24, 1976, in New Orleans, Louisiana
• 👕 Teams: Indianapolis Colts (1998 to 2011), Denver Broncos (2012 to 2015)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Super Bowl champion (XLI, 50), Super Bowl XLI MVP, 5× NFL MVP (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2013), 14× Pro Bowl, 7× First-Team All-Pro
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2021

Manning holds the record for MVP awards with five, and he ran his offense from the line of scrimmage like no quarterback before him, changing plays after reading the defense. In 2013, at 37, he threw 55 touchdown passes for 5,477 yards, and both numbers are still single-season records.

He missed the whole 2011 season after several neck operations, and Indianapolis released him. Denver signed him, he was named Comeback Player of the Year for 2012, and he won Super Bowl 50 in his final game. The first overall pick of 1998 is the son of quarterback Archie Manning and the brother of two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning.

#9 Barry Sanders

• 🏈 Position: Running back
• 🎂 Born: July 16, 1968, in Wichita, Kansas
• 👕 Teams: Detroit Lions (1989 to 1998)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: NFL MVP (1997, shared with Brett Favre), 2× NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1994, 1997), 10× Pro Bowl, 6× First-Team All-Pro, Heisman Trophy (1988)
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2004

Sanders made the Pro Bowl in all ten of his seasons and averaged 99.8 rushing yards per game, second only to Jim Brown. In 1997 he ran for 2,053 yards, including 14 straight games of at least 100 yards.

In July 1999, on the eve of training camp, he retired at 31 by sending a fax to his hometown newspaper, 1,457 yards short of Walter Payton’s career record. His highlight runs, full of stops, cuts and reversals of field, are among the most replayed in the sport.

#10 Johnny Unitas

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: May 7, 1933, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (died September 11, 2002)
• 👕 Teams: Baltimore Colts (1956 to 1972), San Diego Chargers (1973)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× champion (1958 and 1959 NFL titles, Super Bowl V), 3× NFL MVP (1959, 1964, 1967), 10× Pro Bowl, 5× First-Team All-Pro
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1979

Unitas was cut by his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers in 1955 and played semi-pro football for $6 a game before Baltimore gave him a tryout. Three years later he led the Colts to the 1958 NFL title in overtime against the New York Giants, a game often called the Greatest Game Ever Played and a turning point for pro football on television.

He set the template for the modern passer: dropping back, reading the field and calling his own plays. His streak of 47 straight games with a touchdown pass lasted 52 years until Drew Brees broke it in 2012, and he added a third championship when the Colts won Super Bowl V.

#11 Don Hutson

• 🏈 Position: End (wide receiver)
• 🎂 Born: January 31, 1913, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas (died June 26, 1997)
• 👕 Teams: Green Bay Packers (1935 to 1945)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× NFL champion (1936, 1939, 1944), 2× NFL MVP (1941, 1942), led the NFL in touchdown catches 9 times
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1963 (charter class)

Hutson is credited with creating many of the route patterns receivers still run, using fakes and changes of speed at a time when most teams barely threw the ball. He scored on an 83-yard play with his first NFL catch in 1935 and retired with 99 touchdown catches, a record that lasted until 1989.

In 1942 he caught 74 passes for 1,211 yards and 17 touchdowns, numbers far beyond anyone else in the league that season. He also played in the defensive backfield and kicked extra points, and he led the NFL in touchdown catches nine times in eleven seasons.

#12 Dick Butkus

• 🏈 Position: Middle linebacker
• 🎂 Born: December 9, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois (died October 5, 2023)
• 👕 Teams: Chicago Bears (1965 to 1973)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 8× Pro Bowl, NFL 1960s and 1970s All-Decade Team, 22 interceptions, 27 fumble recoveries
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1979

Butkus grew up on Chicago’s South Side and played his whole career for the Bears, and he became the model for the middle linebacker as the enforcer of a defense. He finished with 22 interceptions and 27 fumble recoveries, the second figure a league record when he retired.

Knee injuries ended his career after nine seasons. The Butkus Award, given each year to the best linebacker in college football, carries his name, and he later worked as an actor and broadcaster. He died in 2023 at 80.

#13 Emmitt Smith

• 🏈 Position: Running back
• 🎂 Born: May 15, 1969, in Pensacola, Florida
• 👕 Teams: Dallas Cowboys (1990 to 2002), Arizona Cardinals (2003 to 2004)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Super Bowl champion (XXVII, XXVIII, XXX), Super Bowl XXVIII MVP, NFL MVP (1993), 4× NFL rushing leader, 8× Pro Bowl, NFL career leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2010

Smith is the NFL’s career rushing leader with 18,355 yards and 164 rushing touchdowns. He was not the fastest back on this list, but vision, balance and durability carried him to eleven straight seasons of 1,000 yards or more.

In 1993 he won league MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season; in the regular season finale against the Giants he separated his shoulder and kept playing. With Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin he formed the core of the Cowboys teams that won three titles in four years, and in 2006 he won Dancing with the Stars.

#14 Deion Sanders

• 🏈 Position: Cornerback
• 🎂 Born: August 9, 1967, in Fort Myers, Florida
• 👕 Teams: Atlanta Falcons (1989 to 1993), San Francisco 49ers (1994), Dallas Cowboys (1995 to 1999), Washington (2000), Baltimore Ravens (2004 to 2005)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Super Bowl champion (XXIX, XXX), Defensive Player of the Year (1994), 8× Pro Bowl, 6× First-Team All-Pro, 53 interceptions
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2011

Sanders was a shutdown corner in the literal sense: quarterbacks often stopped throwing to his side of the field. He returned interceptions, punts and kickoffs for touchdowns, and he won back-to-back Super Bowls with two different teams, San Francisco and Dallas.

He also played nine seasons of Major League Baseball and is the only athlete to have played in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. In September 1989 he hit a home run for the Yankees and scored an NFL touchdown in the same week. He became a college head coach in 2020, first at Jackson State and then at Colorado.

#15 Ronnie Lott

• 🏈 Position: Cornerback and safety
• 🎂 Born: May 8, 1959, in Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 👕 Teams: San Francisco 49ers (1981 to 1990), Los Angeles Raiders (1991 to 1992), New York Jets (1993 to 1994)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 4× Super Bowl champion (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV), 10× Pro Bowl, 63 interceptions, NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2000

Lott made the Pro Bowl at three positions, cornerback, free safety and strong safety, and was the enforcer of the 49ers’ four championship defenses. He led the league in interceptions twice, finished with 63 and hit hard enough that receivers thought twice about crossing the middle.

The story everyone knows: his left little finger was crushed in a game in 1985, and rather than undergo surgery that would have cost him time, he had the tip amputated. Before the NFL he was a consensus All-American at USC.

#16 Anthony Muñoz

• 🏈 Position: Offensive tackle
• 🎂 Born: August 19, 1958, in Ontario, California
• 👕 Teams: Cincinnati Bengals (1980 to 1992)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 11× Pro Bowl, 9× First-Team All-Pro, Walter Payton Man of the Year (1991), NFL 1980s All-Decade Team, NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1998

Muñoz is the offensive lineman most often named the best ever at his position. Knee injuries at USC worried some teams before the 1980 draft, yet Cincinnati took him third overall, and he made eleven straight Pro Bowls protecting Ken Anderson and later Boomer Esiason.

Linemen rarely touch the ball, but Muñoz caught seven passes in his career, four of them for touchdowns, on tackle-eligible trick plays. He played in two Super Bowls, both lost to San Francisco, and his foundation has worked with young people in the Cincinnati area since 2002.

#17 Joe Greene

• 🏈 Position: Defensive tackle
• 🎂 Born: September 24, 1946, in Temple, Texas
• 👕 Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers (1969 to 1981)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 4× Super Bowl champion (IX, X, XIII, XIV), 2× Defensive Player of the Year (1972, 1974), Defensive Rookie of the Year (1969), 10× Pro Bowl
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 1987

“Mean Joe” Greene was the first draft pick of the Chuck Noll era in Pittsburgh and the cornerstone of the Steel Curtain defense. Before he arrived the Steelers had never won a playoff game; with him they won four Super Bowls in six seasons.

Greene often lined up at an angle in the gap between guard and center, a technique that wrecked blocking schemes and was widely copied. Outside football he is remembered for the 1979 Coca-Cola commercial in which he tosses his jersey to a young fan, one of the best-known TV ads ever made.

#18 Bruce Smith

• 🏈 Position: Defensive end
• 🎂 Born: June 18, 1963, in Norfolk, Virginia
• 👕 Teams: Buffalo Bills (1985 to 1999), Washington (2000 to 2003)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: NFL career leader in sacks (200), 2× Defensive Player of the Year (1990, 1996), 11× Pro Bowl, 4 Super Bowl appearances (XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII)
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2009

Smith holds the NFL record with 200 career sacks, and he got there by staying productive for 19 seasons, 13 of them with at least ten sacks. The Bills made him the first overall pick in 1985 out of Virginia Tech.

He anchored the Buffalo teams that reached four straight Super Bowls and lost all four, which is one reason his name comes up less often than his numbers deserve. He finished his career in Washington, where he passed Reggie White’s sack record in 2003.

#19 Ray Lewis

• 🏈 Position: Middle linebacker
• 🎂 Born: May 15, 1975, in Bartow, Florida
• 👕 Teams: Baltimore Ravens (1996 to 2012)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 2× Super Bowl champion (XXXV, XLVII), Super Bowl XXXV MVP, 2× Defensive Player of the Year (2000, 2003), 13× Pro Bowl, 7× First-Team All-Pro
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2018

Lewis played all 17 of his seasons for Baltimore and led the 2000 Ravens defense, which allowed 165 points, the fewest ever in a 16-game season. He was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXV that season and won a second title in his final game, Super Bowl XLVII.

Few linebackers covered as much ground from sideline to sideline, and his pregame speeches became part of the Ravens’ identity. His career also includes the 2000 murder case in Atlanta, in which the charges against him were dropped and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice.

#20 Patrick Mahomes

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: September 17, 1995, in Tyler, Texas
• 👕 Teams: Kansas City Chiefs (since 2017)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 3× Super Bowl champion (LIV, LVII, LVIII), 3× Super Bowl MVP, 2× NFL MVP (2018, 2022), 50 touchdown passes and 5,097 yards in 2018
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Active player

Mahomes is the only active player on this list, and his place rests on what he has already done: three Super Bowl wins, each with the game’s MVP award, and two league MVPs before turning 28. In his first season as a starter he threw 50 touchdown passes, joining Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks to reach that mark at the time.

His trademark is the throw other quarterbacks do not try, sidearm, on the run or without looking at the target. The son of former MLB pitcher Pat Mahomes, he also played baseball at Texas Tech, and Kansas City traded up to draft him tenth overall in 2017.

#21 Randy Moss

• 🏈 Position: Wide receiver
• 🎂 Born: February 13, 1977, in Charleston, West Virginia
• 👕 Teams: Minnesota Vikings (1998 to 2004, 2010), Oakland Raiders (2005 to 2006), New England Patriots (2007 to 2010), Tennessee Titans (2010), San Francisco 49ers (2012)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: NFL record 23 touchdown catches in a season (2007), Offensive Rookie of the Year (1998), 6× Pro Bowl, 4× First-Team All-Pro, 156 career touchdown catches
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2018

Moss changed defenses as soon as he arrived. As a rookie in 1998 he caught 17 touchdown passes, and safeties around the league began lining up deeper against him. Twenty teams had passed on him in that draft because of off-field concerns before Minnesota took him 21st.

His best season came at 30 in New England, where he caught a record 23 touchdown passes and Tom Brady threw 50 during a 16 and 0 regular season. Moss retired with 156 touchdown catches, second only to Jerry Rice.

#22 Aaron Donald

• 🏈 Position: Defensive tackle
• 🎂 Born: May 23, 1991, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 👕 Teams: Los Angeles Rams (2014 to 2023)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: Super Bowl champion (LVI), 3× Defensive Player of the Year (2017, 2018, 2020), Defensive Rookie of the Year (2014), 10× Pro Bowl, 111 career sacks
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Eligible from 2029

Donald was considered undersized for a defensive tackle at about 6 feet 1 and 280 pounds, and he still became the most disruptive interior lineman of his generation. He made the Pro Bowl in all ten of his seasons and won Defensive Player of the Year three times, a total matched only by Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt.

In 2018 he had 20.5 sacks from the interior, and in Super Bowl LVI his pressure on the final drive forced the incompletion that sealed the Rams’ win over Cincinnati. He retired in March 2024 at 32 with 111 sacks.

#23 Tony Gonzalez

• 🏈 Position: Tight end
• 🎂 Born: February 27, 1976, in Torrance, California
• 👕 Teams: Kansas City Chiefs (1997 to 2008), Atlanta Falcons (2009 to 2013)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: 14× Pro Bowl, 6× First-Team All-Pro, 1,325 career receptions, NFL 2000s All-Decade Team, NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2019

Gonzalez played basketball as well as football at California, and the footwork showed in how he boxed out defenders. He retired with 1,325 receptions and 15,127 receiving yards, totals no tight end had come near before him.

He played 270 of a possible 272 games over 17 seasons. Playoff success came late: his first postseason win arrived in his 16th season, with Atlanta in January 2013.

#24 Brett Favre

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: October 10, 1969, in Gulfport, Mississippi
• 👕 Teams: Atlanta Falcons (1991), Green Bay Packers (1992 to 2007), New York Jets (2008), Minnesota Vikings (2009 to 2010)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: Super Bowl champion (XXXI), 3× NFL MVP (1995, 1996, 1997), 11× Pro Bowl, 3× First-Team All-Pro, 297 consecutive regular season starts
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2016

Favre started 297 regular season games in a row from 1992 to 2010, a streak no quarterback has come close to. He was the first player to win three straight MVP awards and led the Packers to their first Super Bowl title in 29 years.

He played with a gunslinger’s freedom, which left him as the career leader in both touchdown passes and interceptions when he retired. In 2024 he told a congressional hearing that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

#25 Dan Marino

• 🏈 Position: Quarterback
• 🎂 Born: September 15, 1961, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 👕 Teams: Miami Dolphins (1983 to 1999)
• 🏆 Career Highlights: NFL MVP (1984), NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1984), 9× Pro Bowl, 3× First-Team All-Pro, 48 touchdown passes and 5,084 yards in 1984
• 🏛️ Hall of Fame: Inducted 2005

Marino’s 1984 season was decades ahead of its time: 48 touchdown passes and 5,084 yards, records that stood until 2004 and 2011. He was the sixth quarterback taken in the famous 1983 draft class and became its most prolific passer.

He reached the Super Bowl in only his second season, lost to Joe Montana’s 49ers and never made it back. That missing ring is the main reason he sits at the end of this list, even though he retired holding most of the league’s major career passing records.

Best American Football Player at Every Position

If you want one name per position, these are our picks. For what each position actually does on the field, see our guide to the positions in American football.

Position	Player	Why
Quarterback	Tom Brady	Seven Super Bowl wins and the career passing records
Running back	Jim Brown	Eight rushing titles in nine seasons
Wide receiver	Jerry Rice	Career records for catches, yards and touchdowns
Tight end	Tony Gonzalez	1,325 receptions and 14 Pro Bowls
Offensive line	Anthony Muñoz	Eleven straight Pro Bowls at left tackle
Defensive tackle	Joe Greene	Cornerstone of four Steelers title teams
Defensive end	Reggie White	198 sacks and the Minister of Defense
Linebacker	Lawrence Taylor	MVP as a defender and three Defensive Player of the Year awards
Cornerback	Deion Sanders	Shut down half the field on his own
Safety	Ronnie Lott	Pro Bowls at three secondary positions

Records Held by These Players

Several of the players above still hold the NFL’s headline records at the time of writing.

Record	Player	Mark
Most Super Bowl wins by a player	Tom Brady	7
Career passing yards	Tom Brady	89,214
Career rushing yards	Emmitt Smith	18,355
Career receiving yards	Jerry Rice	22,895
Career touchdown catches	Jerry Rice	197
Career sacks (official since 1982)	Bruce Smith	200
NFL MVP awards	Peyton Manning	5
Touchdown passes in a season	Peyton Manning	55 (2013)
Touchdown catches in a season	Randy Moss	23 (2007)
Consecutive starts by a quarterback	Brett Favre	297

Honorable Mentions

Nine more players who came close and could make a top 25 on another day.

• Jim Thorpe: Olympic pentathlon and decathlon champion in 1912 and the first president of the league that became the NFL.
• Deacon Jones: Rams defensive end credited with coining the word “sack”; his totals predate official sack records.
• Gale Sayers: Scored 22 touchdowns as a rookie in 1965, six of them in one game, before knee injuries cut his career short.
• Dick “Night Train” Lane: Intercepted 14 passes as a rookie in 1952, still the single-season record.
• Eric Dickerson: Ran for 2,105 yards in 1984, still the single-season record.
• Drew Brees: Retired in 2021 as the career leader in passing yards and completions, and won Super Bowl XLIV.
• Aaron Rodgers: Four MVP awards (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021) and MVP of Super Bowl XLV.
• J.J. Watt: Three Defensive Player of the Year awards in four seasons (2012, 2014, 2015).
• Larry Fitzgerald: Second in NFL history in receptions and receiving yards, behind only Jerry Rice.

More About American Football

• History of American football
• American football positions and roles
• American football lingo and slang
• American football equipment list
• Common American football injuries
• American football quiz
• American football Instagram captions

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