FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I wrote a blog recently concerning just who exactly was the 2nd all time greatest receiver in NFL history. You can find it here: http://fannation.com/blogs/post/232177. Go ahead and read it, I'll wait....All caught up? Alright then, as you can see from my previous blog that I have to go with T.0. on sheer freakish talent and god given natural ability. T.O. has what I like to call gamebreakability. Its a mouthful but I think it flows. Anyway, I received a couple of comments that more or less stated Don Hutson as the 2nd greatest wide receiver ever, if not the first.

Now, I've been an NFL fan since 5th grade, right around the time when the cowboys triplets were ruling the NFL and all the kids at school wore their new cowboy jackets they had gotten for christmas. So I would say I've been a pretty serious fan for, what, 15 years. So imagine my face as I read those Don Hutson comments and I went "Whaaa?"

Seriously, who in the world was Don Hutson? I had never, in my 15 years of fanatically watching the NFL (I even watch pre-season games of teams I hate) heard of him before. It turns out for good reason. Completely clueless as to who exactly this person was I decided to do some research (and by research I mean I Googled it).

Turns out Hutson was a great receiver for the packers back in the dark ages. Okay maybe not the real dark ages, but certainly the dark age of the forward pass. Turns out that Hutson was a phenom and wrote the record book for receivers. Turns out that I still think that T.O and Randy Moss are better wide receivers.

So the challenge is this: I openly challenge anybody to convince me otherwise. Make me believe that Hutson is a better wide receiver than Owens or Moss. Sure, Hutson ruled when the pass was in its infancy, but how complicated do you think the pass defenses of the time were? Did Hutson really see bracket coverage, zones and constant triple teams like Moss or Owens?

Oh, that leads me to my one and only requirement for this challenge. In order to challenge me, I would like you to have actually watched a game that Hutson had played. Live. Or at least have lived in the era to honestly see him play in his prime. If you can't do that, then you're basically just reading stats from a reference book or Googling "Don Hutson" on the internet and reading someone else's opinion of him.

So are you up to the challenge? And if you are, how did you sneak out of the nursing home and figure out how to use that internet "thingie"?