I had a Buckeyes fan tell me Cappeletti one of the best from Mn while visiting the Shoe. I had no idea who he was. He raved about Leo the Lion Nomelini who I only knew from pro wrestling. I would agree with poster about Larry Fitzgerald, one of the best WR blocking, catching in NFL. He has brought players for years to train at the U.
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Leo the Lion, lol, you actually knew about him from Pro Wrestling and not football? That's awesone!!!
Both he and Bobby Bell are tied for 25th EVER in # of 1st Team All-Pro Teams made with 6.
Eller with 5 and Nagurski with 4, Mecklenburg, Sanders and Upchurch all with 3 give the Gophers 7 of the Top 200 in all of NFL history. BUT, not a one of them were born in Minnesota, lol. And who says the Gophers struggle to recruit out of state, lol.
Cappelletti was a great player, All-Time #1 point scorer in AFL history. If only he had been a better kicker he could have easily made this list as he led the entire NFL in scoring 5 times while only making 53% of his field goal attempts. And 5 Pro Bowls is nothing to sneeze at, but with zero 1st Team All-Pro Teams made, I'd say he's barely Top 5.
Suggs with 7 Pro Bowls and 1 All-Pro team made would get the nod over Cappelletti.
But there are THREE others who I'd rank higher/better than Suggs. AT LEAST!!! I wouldn't even give Suggs a Bronze Medal in this event, much less name him the best ever from the state??? What were they thinking?
I wouldn't call it a 3 way tie, for 1st, maybe a 2 way tie?
3rd I'd give to Dave Casper, "The Ghost". Sh1t man, he's got a cool nickname. And his FOUR All-Pro teams, NFL HOF and Cfb HOF status all more than make up for his only getting to 5 Pro Bowls. And anyone from Bemidji that can garner himself a cool nickname like he did, well, sorry Suggs. And honestly, Jim Langer might even beat out Casper, with 4 All-Pro Teams and 6 Pro Bowls, so call it a tie for 3rd. Bumps you down even further Suggs.
And the reason I have these 2 tied for 1st, is because they are from totally different eras and for me, how do you judge them?
But Ernie Nevers only played 5 years in the NFL, the only guy EVER, with only 5 years in, to make the NFL HOF. Cfb HOFer, too. Not sure why he left the NFL when he did, but it might have had to do with it being much more low paying of a gig back then, can you imagine if he'd played for 10 or 15 years???
But even in just 5 years of playing, he made 1st Team All-Pro all 5 years. And the guy got named to so many All-Time teams, he might have made Nagurski jealous? Or maybe not, lol. But both Nevers and Nagurski were named the Greatest Football Player EVER by more than one source, each. Both rank way up there in all lists of All-Time best players ever.
And of course I'm sure you have all figured out the other guy is Fitz. 11 Pro Bowls? Come on. His one 1st Team All-Pro matches Suggs but 11 Pro Bowls way outdoes Sugg's 7.
Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2016?
So I'm not sure how they figured Suggs was the best? I mean, I understand that the old timers rarely get their due these days, that happens, and they got plenty of theirs back in the day and modern readers want to read about the guys they know and maybe when its not hugely obvious, they like picking the guy who will stir up more controversy? Look, its got all of us talking about it, lol.