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Philadelphia Eagles running back and K-State legend Darren Sproles climbed into the NFL’s top 10 for career all-purpose yards Sunday in a 34-3 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he did it in style.
Sproles caught 6 passes for 128 yards, including an electrifying 73-yard touchdown reception from Carson Wentz. (You can see his touchdown here.) He also returned two punts for 16 yards and rushed twice for -1 yard. The 143 all-purpose yards give him a career total of 18,208 yards, passing Herschel Walker for 10th in the NFL all-time.
One way to put that in perspective is to look at the guys ahead of Sproles on the list. Out of nine guys ahead of him, six are in the Hall of Fame and all-time greats:
- Jerry Rice
- Walter Payton
- Emmitt Smith
- Tim Brown
- Marshall Faulk
- Barry Sanders
Read that list of names again. I’ll wait.
Of the three in the top 10 who aren’t hall-of-famers, Steve Smith is still playing, LaDainian Tomlinson hasn’t been retired long enough to enter the Hall of Fame, and Brian Mitchell was almost strictly a return specialist.
Another way to put Sproles’ NFL productivity in perspective it to frame it in a different scale. In a 12-year career, Darren Sproles has given his teams 10.3 miles of field position.
In addition to his NFL production, Sproles racked up 6,812 all-purpose yards (3.9 miles) at K-State from 2001 to 2004.