Stopping Deion Sanders

[DakotaKid]

I only skimmed some of the responses, but four is nowhere near enough people. I'd be surprised if four had a better than 1% chance of stopping him.

It would take four guys to be within 10 yards of Deion before there was a legitimate chance that two of them made contact and he went down. I firmly believe that even one well placed tackle attempt would only slow him down. One average guy would not tackle him 50% of the time, even with a decent approach and contact.

Deion only has to aim for the sideline at the 50 yard line, and when the guys converged to that 10 yard radius, just stop and run a reverse loop around towards the other sideline. He's only got to beat the one guy nearest the middle of the field to the sideline and he's gone, and this would be very, very easy (he's got a full second advantage on a 40 yd dash).

I'd say 6-8 would be about right with no blocker, and 10 minimum with a blocker.

However, that may even be low depending on how well the average guys worked together. It wouldn't surprise me if the number were 15+.

[Kibby]

This makes me wish Primetime played cards and cared what people here thought. Then we could have a great YouTube video of every on this forum who thought he could be stopped with less then 12 men trying to do so. I played rugby back in college without any football experience. I can tell you first hand that tackling someone much larger and faster then you without any experience even when you're in the best shape of your life is ridiculously hard. Let alone one of the best kick returners in NFL history.

[Luke]

Have any of you guys watched the Reggie Bush highlight video that his High School coached compiled to nominate him for the All-American game? You can watch it here if you haven't... Reggie Bush Dominating

The way Reggie Bush just plows over people in that video is the sort of the thing that a "in his prime" Deion Sanders will do to 30 year olds of average athleticism.

For those in the < 10 camp, have you ever tried tackling a good (fast & strong) football player in a competitive environment? It can be very difficult for the average guy.

Frankly, I'm an above average athlete at 28 years old and there's no way only a handful of my clones could take down a full speed ahead Deion Sanders more than half the time. It would have to be at least 8 or so.

As for avg 30yr olds vs Deion + a blocker, the number is ~14, imo.

But throw that number out the window if any of these 30 year olds were HS Seniors in '95 and All-County Defensive linemen. Then the number would be clearly be one, sup bro?

[El Diablo]

[Brocktoon]

[ QUOTE ]
no blockers 3 guys are on the fifty yard line. Deion wouldn't have a chance.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is hilarious.

Dude, when we used to play 2 hand touch in grade school the fast kids were bringing back returns against 4 man teams on narrow fields (usually marked with trash cans, sweatshirts, baseball caps, etc) about half the time.

You stick 3 avg guys on a regulation size field and have them try to actually tackle one of the all time great return men in NFL history and they will get him exactly 0% of the time. They'll be very lucky to get a finger on him as he turns the corner on them.

[jogsxyz]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know anything about football, but I see that hasn't stopped others contributing to this thread. However, I do have a question: Would Dion Sanders be tougher than Emmit Smith, for the 30 year-olds? I'm guessing two 30 year olds converging on Dion simultaneously is what you'd need to stop him. For Emmit, I think you need three - but like I said I know nothing about football. Anybody care to enlighten me?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that's the only way to tackle him. And it'll take about 20-25 men to have any chance of two converging together. Also the other guys better pile on before Deion gets away.

[w_alloy]

Many of the replies in this thread are ludicrous.

"Any contact, and the men will have 99% chance of stopping him every time."

WRONG. As a few others have said, he will brush off most of these fools like they are nothing. I've played against a lot of people who werent experienced tacklers and who i had a physical edge on. In 1vs2 or 1vs3 situations I wouldnt even try to go around people, just try to get an angle so they were hitting me from the side, and just use my legs to just power through. This is super easy to do for someone who is fast. They wouldnt even slow deion down. You would need 3 people to hit him in quick succesion, or 2 people with direct hits. I'm positive there would be times if this was done where 5 people would touch him and he would still score. The fact that he doesnt have a size advantage doesnt matter. His strong legs and momentum would rip through these average Joes. And if they either don't have practice tackleing, as many people dont, or if they arent properly motivated (how many average people are going to really get low and hit a world class athlete running at them at full speed?), forget about it.

"All they need to do is funnel"

This would be true if 3 things werent the case: 1, his blocker would rip holes in the funnel, deion would run through, and everyone would be way out of position. 2, he can just break though the line himself, unless they make the line thick in which case 3, he just runs out and around. He should be able to run for 200 yards without losing anything as long as he's not full out sprinting the whole time.

There are a few more things but this is getting long. I think with a defensive coach, and practiced defenders, and no blocker, the number is around 9. Add a blocker, 12-14. Take away defensive practice and the blocker and the coach, 15-17 (just putting random, motivated, in shape, 180lb 30 year olds on the field and telling them to get him). Add a blocker to this and you're looking at 20+.

[primetimenole]

"Any contact, and the men will have 99% chance of stopping him every time."

This is ridiculous. Deion is 6-1 and weighed 200 lbs during his career. You know how much force a 200 lb man running a 4.3 40 yd dash is???

He would truck a BUNCH of average 30 year old men

[Carded]

If the group practiced extensively before attempting. I would suspect around 8-11.

With no practice. 12-15.

[pete fabrizio]

[ QUOTE ]
In his prime he returns a kick that he takes at his goal line and the defenders are 180 lb thirty year old decent shape average guys who line up at mid field. How many of them are required to make it less than fifty percent that he will score? Suppose he is accompanied by one NFL expert kickoff return blocker?

[/ QUOTE ]

In Madden 93 the answer is >11.