And I’ve got six words for you, Ernie Boy. Playing the race card is despicable.

What those of us who think Floyd Little and Dick LeBeau were poor Seniors nominees and bad HoF choices are “smoking” are plain old facts. And we here who think this have plenty of company elsewhere. There are two good articles over on the blog section of the pro-football-reference website that outline cogently the cases against both:

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/?p=5757

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/?p=5592

The short versions, with a few things I’ve added in:

Against Little. His stats are pretty much identical to those of contemporary RB Larry Brown, and not far off from those of near contemporaries Chuck Foreman, Don Perkins, and Ken Willard — and no one’s beating down the door for these other guys. Little’s stats are sufficiently weak that at present he’s the worst RB in the HoF by a pretty good margin, adjusted to era. It’s not clear why the standards of HoF RBs needed to be lowered this far, especially when they’re far more stringent at other positions, notably safety, wide receiver, and pre-1980s outside linebacker, for three.

Against LeBeau. There appears to be a very good reason he got all those INTs. He was the CB playing opposite more HoF worthy CBs, first Dick Lane, then Lem Barney — and one reason a DB can get a lot of INTs is if QBs throw on him instead of someone else. LeBeau’s postseason honors profile is also the worst of any HoF DB — zero 1st team all pro selections by any organization and only 3 pro bowl squads in a very long playing career. Those making the case that he was a great coach (assistant or otherwise) need to look at what he accomplished in Cincinnati as well as in Pittsburgh — suffice to say that his head coaching reign in Cincy was both brief and terrible, and the quality of his defenses as defensive coordinator there was undistinguished. Some even go so far as to say that his Pittsburgh assistant coaching stint in Pittsburgh is overrated, that he was essentially the beneficiary of the work Dom Capers left him, which is admittedly more debatable. His biggest claim to the HoF is likely the fact that he’s credited with inventing the zone blitz. And if that’s enough to get him in, LeBeau should have been nominated as a contributor and elected this way instead of as a player, where he simply did not perform at a HoF level. Furthermore, as he is still an active coach and the HoF’s guidelines specify that coaches must be retired for 5 years before they are considered for the HoF, any coaching accomplishments LeBeau attained should have been off limits — though it seems that wasn’t the case here. Which Senior-eligible DBs (corners and safeties) would have been better HoF choices than LeBeau? Let’s start with Johnny Robinson, Jimmy Patton, Lemar Parrish, Cliff Harris, Abe Woodson, Bobby Dillon, Jack Butler, Dave Grayson, Bobby Boyd, Cornell Green, and Eddie Meador.

If you take time to look around I think you would find your overall opinion of the players you support or dislike is a minority position.

Most people aren’t saying Little and LeBeau were bad players but when we think of the HOF we believe the standard needs to be high. To me it says something really strong especially for LeBeau and Little that they were never Finalists in almost 35 years. They were both remembered just fine in the Voter’s memories five or ten years after they played and they said No, you’re not a HOFer and we don’t care that you have 63 ints. or 6.300 yds rushing. Those years after say alot to me. And for LeBeau it’s only now that he’s a high profile Defensive Coach on a winning team who everyone likes that he’s pushed out there with everyone saying look at Dick he’s a genius now and by the way look at what he did 45 years ago with 63 ints. He must be a HOF player now. In contrast after Johnny Robinson (57 ints) became eligible he was Finalist 6-times so I can see him coming into the picture again but not these guys.

It’s all about politics for these guys. Floyd Little has overwheming support from the Denver Broncos fans which are some of the loyalist fans in the NFL. As for LeBeau he was able to get Steeler Nation and one of the most admired and powerful owners in Rooney behind his nomination. Does anyone really think if he was still sucking as the Head Coach for the Bengals that this would be happening?

As for Emmitt, you don’t rush for as many yards as he did without being a great back. He had great vision like all the greats, had good moves and speed and was extremely durable. I’m someone who saw most of his games. I will tell you that there’s a lot of jealousy about him being the top rusher of all-time. Emmitt has never said he was the best RB of all-time but people love to pick apart his game anyway because of what he’s achieved. What are people complaining about now? Are they saying he doesn’t belong in the HOF? That is silly and people just hating because they can. To some degree they complained about Walter too when he passed Jim Brown. Everyone had to point out he was no Jim Brown. Many were critical of Franco Harris’s game too. Can you imagine if he was the top rusher? They hated that he would step out of bounds to avoid a hit. I think it’s called sel-preservation.

Remember, it’s just an opinion. Rarely will you find someone who will agree with you 100%. That would be boring, IMO. LOL!! You can take it or leave it. I appreciated your opinion.

I agree Jackson was not as good as Swilling in my book, but he was a great LB. Infact I think all the Saints LBs back then should be in the hall. Sam Mills, Vaughn Johnson, Pat Swilling and Rickey Jackson were all Pro-Bowlers. On a few occassions two or more went to the Pro-Bowl in the same year.

No question or argument on Rice or E.Smith. I never cared for Smith. He was behind a great OL. If Barry Sanders would have been behind that same line, he probably would have had double the yards he finished with in his career.

John Randle I never cared for. However, his defensive skills were of a cat, but a loud one.

Floyd did well on a team that lacked a rusher and finished high in the rankings for yards when he retired. Alot of guys have obliterated his stats by now, but he had good numbers for the time he played.

As for you folks who are disagreeing with Dick LeBeau or Little, what are you guys smoking?

I don’t agree with this sentiment, of course, as outlined above.

I’m saying that like several truisms, this is not worth the breath it takes to utter. You simply cannot write the history of the NFL draft without talking about Jay Berwanger. And Berwanger does not belong in the PFHoF. Therefore, the “write the history” truism isn’t necessarily true.

More importantly, what’s this “history” like? How in-depth is it? And who’s writing this history, anyway? The Ken Burns multi-part series on baseball, for example, does not once mention Eddie Plank but does talk about Moses Fleetwood “Fleet” Walker. Does Plank not belong in the baseball HoF? Does Walker belong in? I don’t see why in either case.