The thing that people like to memory hole about Emmitt is that what he did in the playoffs and his ability to be the offensive engine on multiple Super Bowl runs is unprecedented in NFL history aside from Terrell Davis, who made the HOF basically off just those 2-3 years of production alone.
So Emmitt had a similar run of production as Davis, which was enough to put him in the HOF despite barely doing anything else in his career, on top of having the most playoff rushing yards in NFL history, tied for the most 100 yard rushing playoff games in NFL history, 3 Super Bowls where 5 out of 9 games during those runs he had 100+ yards (the career playoff record is 7), and of course he has the most rushing yards in history.
I get the argument that he might not be number 1 but for me there's no argument whatsoever that he's anywhere outside of the top 3, and of course I'd put him 1.
The issue is that Joe Fan's love to overrate how pretty a RB runs basically, they overrate it when they see big, powerful, fast guys running over defenders and popping off 70 yard TD's like Adrian Peterson.
Adrian Peterson is certainly one of the best ever, but he's nowhere near Emmitt.