The NFL Hall of Fame: Who Belongs In?
Here’s the list:
Discussions of sports “immortality” are always fun; even though I’m quite soured on baseball, if you want to get me going, ask me if I think Bill Mazeroski deserved induction (NO!) or if Ted Simmons isn’t perhaps the most underrated baseball player of all time (well, he and Dwight Evans—both of which would get my vote).
Football has become my favorite sport (well, along with them boys what drives real fast), but candidly, I’m not quite as qualified to make the call on who belongs in there as I feel like I can be with baseball; in part, this is because there aren’t many stats for, say, offensive linemen, whereas you can measure just about everything there is with baseball.
But I digress…which off this list belong in Canton?
Here’s my short list, in order of deservedness:
Reggie White
Troy Aikman
Warren Moon
Gary Zimmerman
Derrick Thomas
Good arguments can be made for most of the other guys on the list, but I just calls ‘em as I sees ‘em, and those are the five most deserving, it says here…
This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
9 Responses to “The NFL Hall of Fame: Who Belongs In?”
I’m shocked! Utterly shocked, that you would leave L.C. Greenwood off your list of candidates for election into the Hall of Fame. And you call yourself a Stealer’s fan. Of all the nerve. How could you? A two time All Pro defensive lineman who six times lead the Stealers in sacks, Greenwood was hugely important in anchoring the left side of a “Steal Curtain†defense that won four Super Bowls in the 70’s. I say he’s WAY overdue to be fitted for the ugly yellow sport coat.
Don ~ Feb 4, 2006 at 2:20 pm
I think he’s been smoking something!! Leaving off L.C. Greenwood and INCLUDING Gary Zimmerman….Gary Zimmerman??
Paul - SteelerDirtFreak ~ Feb 4, 2006 at 2:43 pm
I knew it…I knew it…knew I’d catch heck for leaving L.C. off the list. I love L.C., but I can’t drink the Kool-Aid on this one. He was a very, very good player; in my heart, he’s a HOF’er…but with my head, he’s just a tick or two shy. Gary Zimmerman, on the other hand was named All-Pro 1st or 2nd team 8 times (L.C., twice) and he played in 7 Pro Bowls, and was named to two All-Decade teams. He was a dominant offensive lineman for a long time, in other words. With my heart, L.C.; with my head, sorry. Close, but no ugly yellow jacket.
Then again, if the HOF voters elect him, I’ll be thrilled.
Byron ~ Feb 4, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Art Monk – Redskins.
Nancy ~ Feb 5, 2006 at 3:30 pm
I thought about including Art, but my reluctance is based upon the fact that I don’t think there was a very long period of time when you’d have thought of Art as the top 1 or 2 active WR’s in the game. He was always a very good player, but in my mind, just a tad short of HOF caliber. That said, I don’t think he’d be a terrible pick either.
The ones selected yesterday who I didn’t name were John Madden, Harry Carson, and Rayfield Wright. Wright’s selection shocked me. Madden? A pretty good coach, but if he hadn’t been a broadcaster all these years, would his coaching credentials alone have gotten him in? Not a chance. Carson? I don’t know…he certainly was a great player on a fabulous defense, but he played alongside the greatest LB of all time in Lawrence Taylor; was he made the better because of that connection (same argument could be made against L.C. Greenwood—a reason I included neither on my list). I just always (admittedly subjectively) thought of Derrick Thomas as a better player than Carson. Gary Zimmerman might have been a stretch on my part; I relied on the ESPN summaries of Pro Bowls, All-Pro teams, etc; before reading that, I’d have (subjectively) probably ranked Bob Kuechenberg ahead of him, and maybe another. He just had a nice, quiety, great career—and it still seems to me that he deserves induction.
Byron ~ Feb 5, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Art Monk has the 5th most catches in NFL history !!Lets do a comparison for you Steelers fans…..
Swann….336 catches..5462 yds…51 tds
Monk…..940 catches..12,721 yds..68 tds
Are you kidding me ??? Swann is in and Monk isn’t ? In this era Swann is Randel-El. In 10 years he averaged 33 catches a season ??????
Let me go vomit now
bILL ~ Feb 19, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Bill, you’ve fallen for the “all stats from all eras are equal” myth. Compare, for instance, the passing numbers of Terry Bradshaw with those of Dave Krieg—Krieg statistically comes out way ahead, but nobody thinks Krieg should be in and Bradshaw out. The game changes—sometimes dramatically—and these things have to be factored in significantly. Plus, pure statistics don’t tell the whole tale.
The “Swann rationale” for Hall of Fame inclusion has to do with several things: playing on a “run first, run second, throw as a last resort” team, he nonetheless made a significant impact. Two, he did play on 4 Super Bowl winning teams (don’t remember if the Skins won any during Monk’s tenure or not, though I’d guess that they did win one or two). Third, strange as it sounds, I think that Lynn Swann gets “style points”, much in the way Gale Sayers, say, would. Fourth, and I understand that this is subjective, but Bill James, the baseball guru, would give this a lot of weight, there is the question of “how was the player perceived during his time in the league.” I think that during his time, Lynn Swann had several years when he was considered to be either the best or one of the couple of best WR’s in the game—compared, again, to the best in his own era. Stats just don’t tell nearly the whole story.
I think that a pretty decent argument can be made for Art Monk’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame—but it has nothing to do with Lynn Swann. Thus, I’ll pass on the vomiting…
Byron ~ Feb 20, 2006 at 9:50 am
It’s interesting that L.C. Greenwood did not get in, and Rayfield Wright, whom he ate up in Super Bowls X and XIII, did. Granted, Wright was a heck of player, but he failed miserably against Greenwood in both Super Bowls. There’s been a lot of talk that Wright was denied earlier admission because of an anti-Cowboy bias, which is bunk, in my opinion.
As for Art Monk, he should be in. I think his exclusion lies in the fact that he wasn’t spectacular, just steady. When the Redskins needed seven yards for a first down, he got eight. He never was known for aerial acrobatics or turning short passes into long runs ala Jerry Rice. Still, without him, the Redskin offense would have suffered, and probably would not have won three Super Bowls.
Greg ~ Feb 26, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Yeah, Greg, I don’t get the Rayfield Wright pick either, truthfully. Whether L.C. deserves in ahead of him, I don’t know, but he’d not have made my next five, truthfully.
On balance, I think now that I’d vote for Art Monk.
Byron ~ Feb 26, 2006 at 2:57 pm