Of course we know that Barry Sanders would have owned that record had he chosen to. Fact is, though, he didn't , and you can't say that he was "more deserving" of the record when he didn't bother to go out and break it. You can always play the "what if" game. While I preferred Sanders to Smith, I still wouldn't go calling Smith a "poseur." He was still a pretty good back in his own right, and I always thought he was very gracious about the record.

I also think it's a compliment to Sanders when a young running back is compared to him. Why else should we mention him? He retired in 1999, so we have to move on.