What I have noticed lately is that so many of these un-retirees are from OTHER sports than football. You saw Lemiuex do it for the NHL, Magic tried in the NBA, Air Jordan has retired and come back twice now to the NBA, but you never see anyone coming back to the NFL.

Oh wait, there is one guy who is making a comeback… Mark Rypien.

Now don’t everyone flood the Colts’ ticket office all at once to get a chance to see this guy now, but it seems that he is the only one in recent memory. But there has never been a big name guy retire from playing and then make a comeback, with the exception of the Reggie White – Carolina Panther debacle. Even with that, there has never been a big name guy retire at the top of his game and try to come back, and if there were such a guy, I am sure he did not perform at the same level he did when he retired. In fact, Michael Jordan was the only one to do that, in any sport, after his return in ’95.

So all this un-retirement talk got me to thinkin… (yeah, I do that once in a while)

Who are the top five former NFL players I would like to see come out of retirement? I mean, who would I like to see play, that either I haven’t seen play in a while, or I never got to see play and would love to? And also, who among the active players would I like to see retire, in other words, who are my top five please hang ‘em up players? And finally, I asked myself, who is the all time greatest player who retired at or near his prime?

First off, for the question of who I would like to see play again, I came up with this list, and here it is:

QB: Joe Montana – Joe Cool retired after a brief stint in KC, after years of greatness with the Niners, if there were ever a player I would like to see play again, it would be him, for obvious reasons. A close second here goes to Steve Young, because his career was cut short by injuries.

RB: Barry Sanders – Are you kidding me? I am not, nor have I ever been, a Lions fan, but I definitely was a Barry Sanders fan. He was exciting to watch, and at least once a game he would do something that would make you say, “Wow…Did I just see that?” Barry walked away after years of greatness, less than 1500 yards away from the all-time rushing record, and no one really knows why. Had he had enough of the Lions futility? Did he want to keep Walter Payton’s record intact? No one knows, and it will be a while before anyone ever will.

RB: Jim Brown – Retired in his prime, and although he could have dominated the league for years to come, he chose to walk away healthy and successful. I have never seen an athlete be able to do that in my lifetime.

LB: Mike Singletary – His greatest years were a little before my time, but when I watch NFL Films and see those crazy eyes staring through the QB, it send chills down my spine. I would have loved to see him play in that vaunted Bears 4-6 defense of ’85.

T – Anthony Munoz – I got to see him play the downside of his career with the Bengals in the early to mid 90’s, but I would have loved to see the man - who many refer to as the greatest offensive Tackle to ever play the position - play a position that has become one of the most crucial in today’s NFL.

Now on the flipside, here is the list of the players that I would put in the hang ‘em up list:

QB: Mark Rypien – Ok, Rypien is a given right? He won a SuperBowl in ’92, but since then, he has been about as productive as a stubby-neck beer bottle factory. Now, this weekend we see him replacing Peyton Manning at the helm when the Colts were getting blown up by the Pats, and we say. “This guy is STILL playing?” That, my friends, is the reason he should hang ‘em up.

QB: Neil O’Donnell - Ever since he crapped the bed in SuperBowl XXX (where he tossed up three picks to the Cowboys, and cost the Steelers the game), he has not been the same, with failed stints with the Jets and Bengals, he now sits behind Steve McNair in Tennessee. If not for McNair’s injury prone-ness, we would not see O’Donnell at all, and that would be fine by me, he is too immobile and is anything but a team leader, plus, is there an uglier QB in the league right now?

RB: Terry Allen – Dude, give it up. Do you realize that you are the last resort of teams who’s real RB’s get injured and they are desperate? He needs to quit hanging on and just retire, but I doubt he will, because he has yet to play with every single team in the NFL.

G – Bruce Matthews – Bruce has been playing for 19 years now, and admirably all with the same team. Bruce has been coaxed out of retiring a couple times now, but I think it is time for him to retire. Granted, he is one of the best to ever play, and can still compete these days, but Bruce, get out now, because with all the injuries that lineman play with, I will be surprised if he will be able to walk in 15 years. Besides, every time I see him on TV (and you know the Titans are ALWAYS on TV), he looks more and more like Frankenstein, and that is just scary.

WR: Jerry Rice – I know a few of you will disagree with me here, but I must say that I would have loved to see JR hang ‘em up after last year, and not go across the bay to sign with the Silver and Black. The ultimate Niner in the anti-Niner uniform? Just doesn’t sit right, not with me, or anyone in the NFL for that matter. JR could have walked away the greatest Niner (he still will be) to ever play, but now there will always be that afterthought with his career, when he decided to sign elsewhere to play a couple more years. It is known that he will retire a Niner, but it still just isn’t right, and there really is no better way of putting it than that.

Now for my final thought on this topic. Who is the greatest player to have ever retired near or in his prime? Well this one is easy…

Barry Sanders

People make a strong case for Jim Brown, and I can see that, but if you look at Barry’s numbers throughout his career, you see that he is far superior to Jim Brown. Barry was #2 on the all-time Rushing list, until two weeks ago, and had he played even one more season, he would have been #1. Barry was so good, that even today, there is talk of certain GM’s trying to convince him to come out of retirement and play again.

Here is a brief look at Barry’s numbers:

153 games – 15,269yds – 3,062carries

Barry averaged a whopping 5yds per carry, often playing on teams who’s offensive line was terrible, plain and simple. They would just hand Barry the ball and let him make something happen, and Barry would, each game he played he averaged 99.8yds on the ground. That is amazing. Think about this, if you will, Emmitt Smith, who just passed Barry for #2 on the rushing list, has numbers that look like this:

174 games – 15,349yds – 3,583carries

If Barry had played the same amount of games that Emmitt has, he would have 17,365yds, which would far surpass the all-time record. If Barry had the same amount of carries Emmitt has, he would have an astounding 17,556yds, again, which would be good enough for #1 on the all-time list. So that alone, tells you how great Barry was, and still could be.

Anyway you break it down, Barry Sanders left the game when he was still the best at his respective position, he left for no one’s reasons but his own, and I doubt that he will ever be lured back to play again. But I can say this, had Barry kept on playing, there would be no discussion as to who the greatest RB of all-time is, there would be only one guy worth mentioning.

Until next time…