Either Way, It’s Not an Easy Choice

Who is the finest player in professional football? Not the fastest (Ron Brown?), fattest (Refrigerator Perry?), tallest (Ed Jones?), smallest (Little Train James?), wildest (Mark Gastineau?), weirdest (Lester Hayes?), roughest (Lyle Alzado?), toughest (Lawrence Taylor?) or luckiest (any Dallas Cowboy).

The finest.

The most valuable.

Now, wait a minute, you say. Those are two different things. The finest player in football may not be having that great a season. Or he may not be as valuable to his team’s success as some other player has been.

In baseball, Don Mattingly of the Yankees was voted the American League’s Most Valuable Player, but a lot of people thought George Brett of the Royals was more essential to his team. The Yanks could have done all right without Mattingly, but Kansas City would have gone nowhere without Brett.

Besides, the Royals won. Dave Parker of the Reds or Dwight Gooden of the Mets might have had seasons as good as that of Willie McGee of the Cardinals, but the Cards won. That helped make McGee the National League’s MVP. Some people think it should have worked for Brett, too.

In pro football this season, it does not take a genius to figure out who the most valuable player of each conference has been. Whether or not they are the finest players in their conferences is arguable, but valuable? These guys are the most.

The question is: Which one would be the MVP of the whole shooting match? MVP of the whole league?

Is it Marcus Allen of the Raiders, who has run for 100 yards or more for eight straight weeks while carrying his team to a division championship?

Or is it Walter Payton of the Bears, who ran for 100 yards or more for nine straight weeks while carrying his team to a division championship?

Is it Allen, whose team’s offense has been described as nothing much without him?

Or is it Payton, whose team finally has found an offense to go with him?

One man is clearly the hero of the American Football Conference this season. Of a team with a record of 11-4, Raider linebacker Matt Millen tap-dances out on a limb and says: “Take away Marcus Allen and basically we have nothing.”

The other man is king of the National Football Conference this season. Boasts his coach, Mike Ditka: “Walter Payton is the greatest player ever to play pro football. No other running back can carry his jersey.”

Remember now, we are not going to wait for the Super Bowl to be over before we hand out this award. Baseball dispenses its big hardware after the World Series, but the voting is done at the end of the regular 162-game schedule. Brett’s World Series performance was not an issue in the MVP voting.

For some reason, football does not get people worked up over its awards the way baseball does. Very few saloon fights break out over who the NFL Rookie of the Year should be.

(Quick, name five NFL rookies.)

There are a million awards these days. There is offensive player of the week, defensive player of the week, crunchman of the week, Tums neutralizer of the week and probably linebacker of the week, nose tackle of the week, placekick holder of the week, play messenger of the week and game films projectionist of the week.

None of it means very much. As most athletes will tell you, the accomplishments of a team are of far greater value than any individual tribute--unless you have a performance clause in your contract, in which case, bring on more of them there awards.

We do not care in the least who goes to the Pro Bowl or who wins it. If they canceled the Pro Bowl tomorrow, nobody would know about it until February.

Allen and Payton would not want to be pitted against one another, unless the date is Jan. 26 and the city is New Orleans. They have a mutual admiration society.

Before the 1984 Raider-Redskin Super Bowl game in Tampa, Payton, working for a Chicago TV station, approached Allen to do an interview and said, in that soprano Michael Jackson voice of his: “Now let’s have a few words from the greatest running back in football.”

To which Allen replied: “Better go interview yourself.”

Allen could not be doing much more this season for the Raiders than he is doing. He is running so well right now that Payton’s record for consecutive 100-yard games is likely to be Walter’s and Walter’s alone for only a few more days.

Millen is obviously exaggerating with his “basically we have nothing” remark. He is just trying to stress how well Allen is playing, which, come to think of it, is a pretty good way to stress it.

You could argue that Payton has been around a long time and deserves to have a year to himself. You also could argue that with Chicago’s defense and decent quarterbacking, the Bears would not have been too bad without old Walter.

Well, as the commercials say, you make the call. Allen or Payton.

You might even have a third player in mind. We would be happy to hear about him, just as long as he doesn’t play for Dallas.