Tennessee football: Vols only school with two top 10 all-time NFL players

USA TODAY’s top 100 all-time NFL list had two Tennessee football players in the top 10. The Volunteers were the only school with that accomplishment.

This is one way to talk about the impact Tennessee football has had on the NFL. The Vols were the only school with two players to make the top 10 in the USA TODAY top 100 all-time NFL players list, the final batch of which was released Wednesday.

Reggie White came in at No. 7 on the list, and Peyton Manning came in at No. 8. The only defensive player ahead of White was Lawrence Taylor, who came in at No. 3. Meanwhile, Manning was the third quarterback on the list behind Tom Brady, who came in at No. 2, and Joe Montana, who came in at No. 6.

Taylor played for the North Carolina Tar Heels, Brady played for the Michigan Wolverines and Montana played for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Jerry Rice, who played for Mississippi Valley State, came in at No. 1 on the list.

Jim Brown, who played for Syracuse, came in at No. 4, and Walter Payton, who played at Jackson State, came in at No. 5. The top 10 was rounded out by Johnny Unitas, who played for the Louisville Cardinals, and Barry Sanders, who played for the Oklahoma State Cowboys, at No. 9 and No. 10 respectively.

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That means that Tennessee football was the only SEC school to have anybody in the top 10. The Big Ten had one player in Brady, and the Big 12 had one in Sanders (then Big Eight). Meanwhile, the Southwestern Athletic Conference had two players in Rice and Payton, both of whom played for HBCUs. And, of course, the Irish are independent, so nobody takes credit for them.

Surprisingly, the ACC led all conferences with three players from ACC schools and another playe from an ACC affiliate, the Irish. However, Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse were not in the ACC or connected to the conference when Montana, Unitas and Brown played for them. They all were simply independents.

That means the ACC only had one player from a school that was in the conference at the time. When you take that into account, the SEC and SWAC are the only two legitimate ones to have two top 10 players, and Tennessee football alone carried the weight for the SEC.

Now, the Vols had nobody else in the top 100, although a case could have been made for Doug Atkins and Jason Witten. And some might say that Manning should have been higher on the list since at one point he was a two-time Super Bowl champion with every possible record one could have at his position.

But either way, this is a good look for Rocky Top. There’s a reason Manning and White had their jersey numbers retired. They remain legends in Knoxville and in the NFL, and that likely won’t change anytime soon.