No organization in sports does more with its offseason than the NFL. The league has found a way to turn seemingly every week without football into news for fans and media outlets to follow. A good example of that is the NFL Network’s annual list of the league’s top 100 players.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady sits atop the 2022 list. It is the fourth time in the 12 year history of the list that he has occupied the top spot.
In an effort to put a spotlight on the real motivation behind the list, Dan Patrick had his crew try to guess number ones from the top 100 in years past. Some current stars like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson topped recent lists, but it wasn’t all that long ago that JJ Watt (2015) and Cam Newton (2016) were number one.
Patrick noted that like all lists, the Top 100 Players of 2022 is about engagement. It is something the league is very good at.
“I don’t like lists, but I’ve gotten about ten minutes of programming out of it,” DP said on his Monday radio show. “It’s all about content.”
To that end, the NFL accomplished its goal. The list and Brady’s spot at the top was debated on several shows across the sports media landscape.
