Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The former's got the Rings (4 to 1) and the Pro Bowls (9 to 4) - both are equal in All Pros at one each - but the latter's got at least four 1,300 yard seasons with one of them being for more than 1,600 in '81; and also has the 4.3 to 4.1 Y/A advantage along with quite more receiving yards.

Dorsett's got the stats in his favor, but I'll take having Franco's career over his any day! And not to mention...'Immaculate Reception'! As much as that '74 Draft is seen as what brought the Steelers over-the-top into Dynasty-status, Franco's arrival immediately coincides with those initial 8-straight division titles (playoff berths-period) which also were eight of those very nine Pro Bowl selections.

Thoughts?

The knock on Dorsett was his fumbles. I was surprised to see that Harris had the exact same number of fumbles with 13 more carries and 91 less catches. I don't recall hearing people mention his fumbling.

Harris was one of the initial cornerstones that formed the base of the Steelers Dynasty. Dorsett was the missing piece for a Cowboy's team that needed speed at running back, their base had already been built so to speak. I saw Dorsett play in person in 1981. Watching from the end zone I watched the Rams try to string him out on a sweep. Tony kept biding his time running left parallel to the line of scrimmage, and then within a few feet of the sideline he found a sight crease and in a flash he zoomed through the opening to turn a loss into a four yard gain. I was thunderstruck at how he could accelerate to top speed on his first step forward. Harris also had break away speed but could also find room between the tackles. Two Hall of Famers to be sure, but with markedly different skill sets.

Harris was a very underrated receiver but Bradshaw liked to throw to the wideouts ...

Both could fumble but Dorsett did it at the worst times, especially in postseason

Franco indeed was a good receiver out of the backfield.

One thing I learned about him when I interviewed Oilers LB Gregg Bingham for my book about the 1979 Oilers -- Bingham told me that he thought Franco Harris was the best trap running back in NFL history. Several people have told me that Steelers ran the trap a lot and apparently the joke was that they even ran the trap getting off the airplane coming to the game. Franco was apparently the perfect back for that scheme.

Another thing that doesn't get talked about with Harris is that he was a super smart player, paid attention to game situations, knew to get out of bounds to stop the clock, he did a lot of little things right.

I loved Tony Dorsett as a kid. He was a superb runner and also a very good receiver. Has there been a smoother runner that you can remember? He often made it look easy. I guess Marcus Allen was kind of like that at times.

The difficult thing with this question is that the 70's Steelers had a bit better overall team than Dallas did. Probably the only place that Dallas was clearly better than Pittsburgh along the starting line up was at quarterback (and Terry Bradshaw was a hall of famer in his own right but really can't be considered to be as high on the mountain top as Staubach is).

I think a good way to judge Franco Harris vs Dorsett question would be if you have the two players swap teams which one then would look better.

I think the "best" RB of the two was Franco Harris before he injured his knee in the 1973 season. He ran with abandon, and he was so big people couldn't bring him down. A FB averaging 5.6 YPC with 6 straight 100-yard games is in the realm of Jim Brown. After Harris hurt his knee, he became a much more calculating runner. He was effective, it most likely prolonged his career, but he never really recaptured his 1972 form.

I think Dorsett was the 'better' RB over the course of his career. I'd rather have Harris' career than Dorsett's because of Pittsburgh's postseason success, though. I've always thought that Dorsett was one of the toughest RBs...he was a very small RB who could run inside and was really good in short-yardage. He took a pounding and rarely got hurt. If you watch SB XIII, in the 1st quarter the Steelers can't handle Dorsett. Inside traps, outside pitches, dump off passes...Dorsett was killing the Steel Curtain. Then Landry does his "flim-flammery", Drew Pearson fumbles the ball away on a reverse, and for some reason the Cowboys never really go back to feeding Dorsett the ball for the rest of the game. Shades of Don Perkins/1966 NFL championship.