Andre Reed vs. Jerry Rice.

Here is a very simple argument, in case you were looking for one, why Andre Reed was better than Jerry Rice.

You read that right; I believe today, as well as I did throughout each of their entire careers (of which I personally witnessed), that Andre Reed was the superior wide receiver.

Instead of engaging in rigmarolic (yes, I made that word up and I like it and you'll probably see it again) banter based on their individual statistics, my argument is one of reason. First, you probably think it's ridiculous to have this discussion and not base it on statistics, but I think statistics are just part of the picture when you're determining a player's greatness. My rebuttal to that is that there are so many factors that make the career statistics of both receivers generally incomparable (except in the broadest sense), namely:

Conditions: (remember, I told you before I'm not looking any of this shit up) There is no argument to the fact that the majority of games that Jerry Rice played in his career were of extraordinarily better weather conditions than those in which Andre Reed played.

NO. ARGUMENT.

That said, there is also no argument to the fact that pristine weather conditions (70 degrees and up, little wind or precipitation) greatly increase passing in football. Jerry Rice played in San Francisco. Andre Reed played in Buffalo.

Statistical advantage: Rice

Role in Offense: This one is more easily debatable, because I have seen much more of the great Buffalo offense of Andre Reed's career than the offense of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice (other than highlights and Super Bowls, lol), but my position is that Jerry Rice was a significantly bigger part of the San Francisco offense than Andre Reed was in Buffalo. Andre Reed was one of several dangerous passing targets, including (variously) James Lofton, Don Beebe, Chris Burkett, Keith McKeller... remember, I'm not looking anything up, but I bet if I did, I would find Jerry Rice was targeted a whole hell of a lot more than Andre Reed. Just a hunch.

Statistical advantage: Rice

But the basic argument I'd like to make that proves that Andre Reed was the superior wide receiver is much simpler. Just ask yourself, if you theoretically swapped players, and gave it honest thought in your mind about how each's career would go, I think you would agree that Andre Reed's numbers would be much better than they are (which are already pretty goddamned amazing, considering above)- whereas Jerry Rice's numbers would be significantly worse than they are.

Just think. Andre Reed was generally considered to be one of the toughest, most dangerous over-the-middle receivers ever... and he also had every bit of the speed, route-running, and catching ability of Rice. In fact, I think Reed was most likely even faster than Rice. Careers swapped, I think Reed's numbers would have been better than Rice's are, and Rice's numbers would be lower than Reed's.

You know I'm right.