Submitted by Long Time Jet Fan, Jul 25, 2007 12:08

Unlike many professional athletes todays Curtis Martin is a good role model. He played his heart out for the Jets. By all appearances he's a good guy and a team player. However, he's not as good as Mr. Smith would have you believe. It's difficult to say anything bad about someome like Curtis, but he was just not as great as some would have you believe. I've seen almost all of Martin's games as a Jet and here's what I noticed. Curtis was not a power back and he was not an elusive running back. What he was great at was finding the holes and making his way through them. If the holes were there Curits would chew up the yards. However, if they weren't he wasn't the type of back who could bowl guys over or consistenly make them miss. Which, contrary to what Mr. Smith claims, is the reason he failed so often in short-yardage situations. He was never great at getting those one or two yards needed to keep a drive going, which is why the Jets consistently tried to come up with a short-yardage back, and frequently played Lamont Jordan in those situations when he was on the team. Martin picked up a lot of his yards because of the conservative play calling of the Herm Edward's regime; all those third and 10 draw plays.

In any case, Martin should and will go down as a very good, consistent back, who gave his all to his team, but to call him one of the greatest running backs ever, or even the best Jets running back, is not on the mark. If you want to watch the best Jets back check out some old Freeman McNeal clips. Again, nothing against Curtis who is a class act all the way; but he's just not in the upper echelon of all time running backs.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.