The greatest players of every decade in pro football history — from the AFL-NFL merger to the current game
Pro football has been played at the highest level since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. In the decades since, the game has been transformed multiple times — by rule changes, by the emergence of the forward pass as the primary weapon, by the athletic evolution of the players themselves. The legends of the 1970s played a fundamentally different game than the legends of the 2020s. But greatness is recognizable across all of them. Here are the players who defined each era.
The 1960s were the decade when professional football established itself as America's game. The AFL-NFL rivalry created a competitive war for talent that elevated both leagues. Players were bigger, faster, and more specialized than their predecessors, and a handful of players from this era could compete with anyone who came after them.
The original master of the two-minute drill. Unitas played without a huddle before no-huddle was a concept, and his performance in the 1958 NFL Championship — still called "The Greatest Game Ever Played" — launched professional football into the national consciousness.
Brown retired in 1965 at 29, while leading the NFL in rushing, to pursue an acting career. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry over nine seasons. His case as the greatest running back in history has only grown stronger with time.
Jones invented the term "sack" and would have led the NFL in the category every season he played if it had been an official statistic. The most dominant defensive end of his era, his motor and hand technique influenced every pass rusher who followed.
One of the most feared corners before rule changes opened up the passing game. His 75-yard interception return in Super Bowl XI defined his career and his reputation.
The 1970s NFL was defined by physicality and defensive dominance. The Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls. The Dallas Cowboys were "America's Team." The Miami Dolphins completed the only perfect season in history. Rules limiting defensive contact with receivers hadn't yet taken effect, and the result was some of the most punishing defense the game has ever seen.
Staubach won two Super Bowls and was known for his composure in late-game situations — a trait that produced 23 fourth-quarter comebacks in his career. He threw for 153 touchdowns before retiring at 38, when most quarterbacks are just hitting their stride by today's standards.
Campbell was 232 pounds and ran a 4.6 forty — numbers that would be elite today, and were unheard of in 1978. He won the Heisman, won the NFL MVP as a rookie, and was so physically dominant that defenders simply bounced off him. His body paid a steep price for his style of play, but during his peak years, nobody was more imposing.
Swann's acrobatic catches in Super Bowl X — four receptions, 161 yards, one touchdown, against a Dallas Cowboys defense that was specifically designed to stop him — are among the most beautiful plays in football history. He was small, quick, and absolutely fearless over the middle in an era where such fearlessness had real consequences.
The snarling heart of the Steel Curtain. Lambert played middle linebacker with a ferocity that defensive coordinators dream about, leading a unit that included Mean Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, and Mel Blount. He was voted to nine Pro Bowls and is the standard against which intimidating linebackers are still measured.
In 17-0, you build a roster across all seven eras of pro football history. Can a 1970s Steel Curtain defender anchor a 2020s offense?
Try It Free →Bill Walsh and Joe Montana brought the West Coast offense to San Francisco and changed professional football forever. The 1980s were a decade of offensive innovation — short, precise passing replaced the run-first philosophies of the 1970s, and defenses scrambled to adapt. The Chicago Bears provided the decade's most memorable defensive counterpoint.
Four Super Bowl wins. Zero Super Bowl interceptions. A passer rating in championship games that remains the highest in history. Montana's defining moment — the 92-yard touchdown drive in Super Bowl XXIII with 3:10 remaining, no timeouts — is the most clinical clutch performance in football history.
Sweetness ran for 16,726 yards, missed one game in 13 seasons, and blocked with the enthusiasm of an offensive lineman. He was the complete running back — between the tackles, in the open field, as a receiver, and on special teams. The Bears' offensive line was often below average during his career. He produced anyway.
Rice was drafted in 1985 and quickly became the standard against which every wide receiver has since been measured. His route running was precise to a degree that seemed impossible at game speed. He won three Super Bowls, set every major receiving record, and continued to play at an elite level into his late 30s. Some of his records may never be broken.
LT won the NFL MVP in 1986 — only the second defensive player ever to do so. He changed the position and, with it, the entire structure of offensive line assignments. No individual defensive player has had a larger impact on how the game is schemed and played at every level.
The 1990s produced three separate dynasties: the Dallas Cowboys won three Super Bowls; the San Francisco 49ers won one and could have won more; and the Denver Broncos closed the decade with back-to-back championships. The passing game continued to evolve, and a new generation of skill players — Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders, Jerry Rice in his prime — made the decade the most talent-rich in history at the skill positions.
Young threw for 33 touchdowns and ran for 293 yards in 1994 — the season that ended with the most dominant Super Bowl performance a quarterback has ever produced: 6 touchdown passes, 325 yards, a 134.9 passer rating in a 49-26 victory over San Diego. He spent most of his career waiting behind Joe Montana and still assembled a Hall of Fame résumé.
Sanders retired at 30 with 15,269 rushing yards, needing 1,457 more to break Walter Payton's record. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry behind offensive lines that were, charitably, not excellent. He made tackles look foolish in ways that still don't look real on video. He never played in a Super Bowl. Football didn't deserve him.
"Prime Time" was at his apex in the 1990s, winning Super Bowls with San Francisco (1994) and Dallas (1995). Quarterbacks genuinely stopped throwing to his side of the field — game plans were built around avoiding him, not matching up with him. His 53 career interceptions are particularly remarkable given how rarely he was targeted.
Woodson recorded 71 career interceptions — second all-time — while making six different teams' All-Decade teams across a 17-year career. He started as one of the best cornerbacks in history and transitioned to safety at 31 without losing a step. His Super Bowl XXXV performance with Baltimore at age 36 is one of the most extraordinary things a defensive back has ever done.
Professional football in the 2000s was defined by a single rivalry: Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning. Together, they produced the most compelling decade-long quarterback duel in NFL history. Brady won four Super Bowls. Manning won one, set passing records, and changed how quarterbacks communicate at the line of scrimmage. The decade also produced some of the most memorable defensive players in history.
Manning was a five-time MVP and the most complex pre-snap communicator the game had ever seen. He diagnosed defenses in real time and adjusted every play at the line. His 2004 season — 49 touchdowns, 4,557 yards, a 121.1 passer rating — was the benchmark for quarterback performance for three years, until the 2007 Patriots happened.
Moss's 2007 season — 23 receiving touchdowns, an NFL record — was the defining performance of his era. But he was already a legend before that: his 1998 rookie season with Minnesota produced 17 touchdowns, and his pure deep-field speed made defenses commit safeties in ways that opened up the entire field for everyone around him.
Freeney's spin move was the most reliably devastating pass rush technique of the decade. He won a Super Bowl, recorded 125.5 career sacks, and was the primary reason offensive tackles spent extra time in the film room during the week before an Indianapolis game. He made the spin move into an art form.
Lewis was the engine of a Baltimore defense that allowed the fewest points in a season since the merger in 2000. He was Super Bowl XXXV MVP. He was Defensive Player of the Year twice. In 17 seasons, he missed four games. The Ravens built their entire organizational identity around how he played football.
The 2010s were the decade when rule changes fully transformed the NFL into a passing league. Quarterbacks threw for 4,000 yards routinely. Receiver records fell constantly. The Seattle Seahawks' Legion of Boom provided the decade's most memorable defensive counterpoint, and Patrick Mahomes emerged in 2018 as the defining player of what came next.
Rodgers won a Super Bowl, won four MVP awards, and threw 442 touchdowns against just 93 interceptions over a career in which he set the all-time single-season passer rating record twice. His ability to extend plays, improvise outside the pocket, and deliver accurate passes at any angle from any arm position gave him a ceiling that no other quarterback of his era could match.
Gronkowski is the only tight end who was simultaneously the best blocking and best receiving player at the position in the same era. Three Super Bowl rings with New England, one with Tampa Bay. His five seasons without missing significant time due to injury were the five most statistically dominant tight end seasons in NFL history.
Donald finished his career having recorded more sacks from the interior defensive tackle position than anyone in history. He won three Defensive Player of the Year awards. He won a Super Bowl in his final season. His combination of initial quickness, strength, and motor at a position where just one of those attributes typically defines a great player made him the most disruptive defender of the decade.
Sherman was the vocal centerpiece of the Legion of Boom, the most dominant secondary unit of the decade. He led the NFL in interceptions in 2013 and his tip in the NFC Championship Game that year — redirecting a Colin Kaepernick pass into Malcolm Smith's arms — was the single play that sent Seattle to its championship.
The 2020s have been defined by Patrick Mahomes's dominance and a new generation of quarterbacks rewriting passing records. The game has never been faster, more complex, or more pass-oriented. A new generation of defenders — Micah Parsons, Myles Garrett, Sauce Gardner — is attempting to keep pace with offenses that have every structural advantage.
Mahomes won three Super Bowls before age 30, was named Super Bowl MVP twice, and won the league MVP at 23. His ability to throw off-platform — sidearm, backhanded, across his body while falling — has expanded what quarterbacks are expected to do. His next fifteen years will determine whether he finishes as the greatest quarterback in NFL history.
Jefferson broke the NFL record for receiving yards in a player's first two seasons (3,016) and followed that by setting the all-time single-season receiving yards record in 2022 with 1,809. He combines elite route running, contested-catch ability, and after-the-catch yards in a package that has no obvious comparable player from any previous era.
Garrett has led the NFL in sacks multiple times on a team that has rarely had the talent around him to make defenses pay for double-teaming him. His combination of length, explosiveness, and technical refinement has produced comparisons to Lawrence Taylor — the only previous player anyone has seriously put in that conversation.
Put Jim Brown in the backfield with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. Put Lawrence Taylor next to Aaron Donald. In 17-0, any combination is possible — draft legends from seven different eras and simulate a full season.
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