Warren Sapp didn’t leave much room for debate when he laid out his top five players from Miami and Florida State. He also didn’t leave any space for quarterbacks.
That fits Sapp’s style. The former Miami Hurricanes star and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle has never been the type to soften his opinions, and when he spoke with Chris Simms, he even made a point of leaving himself out of the conversation.
His respect for the Seminoles came through, too, even if it was the kind of respect only a longtime rival can give. And because Sapp played on the defensive line, the lists were built entirely without quarterbacks.
For Florida State, Sapp went with:
CB Deion Sanders
LB Marvin Jones
LB Derrick Brooks
OT Walter Jones
RB Warrick Dunn
The list tracks with Sapp’s own football life. Brooks and Dunn were both teammates of his with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Sapp won a Super Bowl with Brooks in the 2002 NFL Season.
Since Sapp played at Miami from 1991 to 1994, he also lined up against three of the players on that list: Jones, Brooks and Dunn. Three of Sapp’s five selections - Sanders, Brooks and Jones - are already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The biggest snub on the Florida State side looks like Charlie Ward. As quarterbacks go, he was ahead of his time. But since Sapp wasn’t picking quarterbacks, the case could be made for another standout Seminoles defender, such as Peter Boulware or Corey Simon, and the list still holds up just fine.
On the Miami side, Sapp’s five were:
LB Ray Lewis
DB Ed Reed
DE Ted Hendricks
C Jim Otto
WR Michael Irvin
Every name on that list is a Hall of Famer, and Lewis and Reed can credibly be argued as the best ever at their positions. Sapp also reached back deeper into Hurricanes history with Otto, who played for Miami in the late 1950s before becoming one of the NFL’s premier offensive linemen in the 1960s.
Hendricks was a three-time All-American at Miami in the late 1960s before building a decorated NFL career that included six All-Pro honors and spots on the NFL All-Decade teams of the 1970s and 1980s. Irvin was an easy call, too, serving as one of the defining faces of Miami’s iconic 1980s run.
The surprise omission was Jerome Brown. Sapp has often talked about Brown as one of the biggest influences on his career, and Brown is already one of his top five Hurricanes.
Brown was a two-time All-American in 1985 and 1986, the ninth overall pick in the 1987 NFL Draft, and a two-time All-Pro before dying in a car accident in 1992 at age 27. Sapp wore No. 99 in the NFL in Brown’s honor.
Even with Brown left out, there’s no shortage of Miami names that could have forced their way onto a list like this. Russell Maryland and Vince Wilfork are two more defensive line greats who belong in the conversation, and a top-five or even top-10 discussion for Miami defensive linemen could stand on its own.
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