EVERY record holder is cheering for their record to be held by them alone ( Secretly or otherwise ). Another player breaking your record makes you irrelevant. Nobody cares who #2 is
Sweetness was 100% class as a player and a person and could do everything.
Sanders was the most exciting back since Jim Brown.
Emmitt was a winner - probably 5th or so on my list of RBs just ahead of Dickerson.
Jim Brown was an amazing talent who left the game at his peak - could have easily have pushed the records if he stuck around to play until his mid 30s and had a 14-16 game regular season.
It’s still a big deal - as just 8 guys eclipsed the mark - but half in the 2ks, 2 in 90s and one each in 80s/70s.
1k was once all-pro caliber back - now it’s everyone.
1k over 14 games is just over 70 yards a game.
1k over 16 is 62.5
1k over 17 is below 60.
18 rushes per game average - not hard to figure out what you need to average to be a 1k rusher. It’s YPC that matter - 4 is “good”.
You can be a part time back in the NFL today and getting 13 carries per game and be approaching that figure. The lesser workload helps boost that YPC figure too in general.
Too much emphasis on stats to me - part of a RB job is blocking too - but these days it’s a given stars don’t do that.