Former Denver running back Floyd Little was one of Tom Mackie’s favorite players while the latter was growing up watching the Broncos. He was so dedicated a fan, in fact, that for years after Little retired he wrote letters and compiled statistics arguing for his idol’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And as Little and Mackie suffered through years and years of disappointments, Mackie even got to write Little’s biography, which was titled “Floyd Little’s Tales from the Broncos Sideline.”

Little’s induction later this summer has been supported by some and panned by others both here at this site and elsewhere. Those who support him say his numbers don’t tell the entire story of what he meant to the Denver Broncos and the National Football League. Those who disagree with his enshrinement say he didn’t play long enough or put up dominant enough statistics.

Whether you agree with it or don’t, however, you can’t knock the efforts Mackie put forth in supporting his friend and one-time hero. SportsIllustrated.com penned a fascinating story this week that looked at the relationship that developed between the two and at the steps Mackie took to ensure that Little would one-day be memorialized in Canton.

It’s a good read. I’d suggest checking it out.

I stumbled across this old profile on former Atlanta Falcons center Jeff Van Note at sportsillustrated.cnn.com today. I often check that site but only occasionally actually click on the stories they have in their “vault,” which for those who don’t check the site, is really a repository for old, interesting stories that seem to randomly pop up from time to time.

I started reading it because of Van Note. I can’t completely explain why but he’s one of my favorite players from the early 1980s when I started watching the game. And the profile was very interesting. It was written as his career wound down. He had lost his starting job at center but was sticking around for a final season or two for no other reason than he really loved the game.

If Wikipedia (and my math) is correct, Van Note is 64 now. He played in the NFL from 1969 to 1986, all of which was with the Atlanta Falcons. When he retired, only Jim Marshall of the Vikings had played in more games with one team (246).

He played mostly for teams that weren’t very good, though he was a solid contributor on the Atlanta teams in 1978, that made and won the team’s first playoff games, and in 1980, that won the NFC West and had arguably the league’s best team before falling victim to a Dallas Cowboys comeback in the the playoffs.

He made five Pro Bowls and strikes me as one of those guys who will not make the Hall of Fame but who will more than occasionally be brought up for consideration.

I was very young and just learning about the game back then but everything I remember and everything I read indicate that he was, at worst, a very solid, workmanlike player and, at best, during his prime, memorably good.

One of the things that struck me about the profile was that he broke the picket lines during a 1974 labor issue only to decide later that he made a mistake. He became a vice president to the NFL Players Association and then the union’s president from 1983 to 1984.

One of the issues of the time was rookie salaries. “We’ve got to stop paying all this money to rookies,” he told Sports Illustrated’s Ralph Wiley at the time. “Salaries are fine, but earn them. What do rookies know about winning in the NFL? Tilt the scales to the proven veteran.”

As top picks like JaMarcus Russell, Tim Couch, David Carr and Ryan Leaf continue to sign massive contracts and fizzle out after a few years, that continues to be one of the main issues in today’s labor discussions as well. Of course it wasn’t a billion dollar institution at the time Van Note played, but it’s still instructive – the league has been fighting about some issues for as long as 25 to 30 years and still hasn’t figured out how to get it right.

Van Note may never make the Hall of Fame. But it was blue collar guys like him who came unheralded from the University of Kentucky to play for just short of two full decades who helped turn this league into what it is today.

His voice was instructive in 1986 when this profile was written. And it strikes me that if you got a half-dozen or so of his contemporaries into a room in an effort to solve the labor issues of today that you might have more success than the league and the union are having with some of the out of touch owners and players of today.

Funeral services were held Monday for former Arizona Cardinals and San Diego Chargers head coach Don Coryell, who died last week at 85.

He was a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year but was not selected for enshrinement, a fact that John Madden apparently took issue with during his eulogy.

Madden, who coached under Coryell at San Diego State in the early 1960s, pointed into the crowd at Dan Fouts and Joe Gibbs, and said all three were in the Hall because of Coryell, according to the Associated Press.

“There’s something missing,” he continued.

Coryell never won a Super Bowl. His playoff record was 3-6. But he led some high-powered offenses that changed the game in the 1970s and 80s.

That, reportedly, is what most likely has kept him out of the Hall. My inclination is that he is right on the borderline, but he was coaching just as I was starting to watch the game. So I’d be interested in hearing people’s thoughts on the influence he had on the game and whether or not he eventually will make it to Canton, Ohio.

Few players in the last quarter century have been more gifted than Lawrence Taylor.

Few stars have been more troubled off the field as well.

Taylor has fought drugs, among other issues, and now he stands accused of paying a 16-year-old girl for sex.

Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN this morning had an interesting conversation about Taylor. I didn’t catch the entire conversation but the gist of it was this: Should he be unenshrined form the NFL Hall of Fame?

At the end of the day removing him from the Hall is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Mike Florio cites Peter King citing rules against using character flaws to determine whether a player gets into the Hall or not.

But are it presents an interesting argument. Should character be a consideration? Are there players you think are being kept out because of character flaws or issues they had off the field? Jim Tyrer is the player I’ve most often heard connected, at least loosely, with this theory.Are there others?

And, then the big one, if it were up to you, would Lawrence Taylor remain a Hall of Famer?

Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com trashed Jim Kelly a few weeks ago when the old Bills quarterback said he’d have no problem recommending Florida quarterback Tim Tebow to the Bills.

Florio criticized Kelly for the recommendation because Kelly has never been a scout – despite the fact that Kelly acknowledged in his answer to a question that he had never been a scout and couldn’t guess where Tebow should be drafted (Then just a few days later Florio chipped in with draft advice of his own … who are you going to listen to more? Florio or Kelly? I thought so.).

Today Florio puts 49er Hall of Famer Joe Montana in his sites. Montana was asked by NFL.com about Jimmy Clausen, the Notre Dame quarterback who could fall in the draft due, at least in part, to concerns about his attitude.

Montana’s response? “He came in with a little bit more of an attitude than most people wanted, but if you don’t have an attitude, you don’t make it in the league,” Montana told NFL.com. “You can’t be timid and shy.”

ProFootballTalk’s headline, “Montana has a bias” leads to a piece where Florio again makes the claim that Montana shouldn’t be recommending draft picks … despite the fact that Montana didn’t recommend a spot in the draft where Clausen should be taken. Montana actually doesn’t say Clausen should or shouldn’t fall – just that between Tebow, Clausen and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford that Clausen’s college performance will be the most telling because he played in an NFL offense.

Someone please tell me why former NFL quarterbacks – Hall of Fame quarterbacks for that matter – shouldn’t be able to offer opinions on how they think other up-and-coming quarterbacks might perform when they get to the NFL.

Kelly and Montana were both asked questions and they both answered them using their backgrounds and histories as former quarterbacks. Damn good quarterbacks. Quarterbacks who might have a hint of a clue what it takes to make it at that position in the pros.

I don’t know if Clausen will drop in the draft. I don’t know if Clausen should drop in the draft. But I do know that when it comes to which quarterbacks are worthy of being drafted or what attributes it might take to be a star in the NFL I am far more likely to put credence behind the thoughts of someone who has done it before.

Contrary to the pathetic and idiotic point that Florio has failed at least twice to make with any convincing evidence other than some thoughts from one anonymous, sniveling scout who apparently had his or her feelings hurt, neither of these guys is undermining scouts by doing offering these thoughts either.

And Florio is lessening any iota of credibility he still has by insisting that they are undermining scouts. Furthermore, he fails to mention the most convincing piece of evidence that there might actually be a bias involved in Montana’s thoughts — the fact that both Montana and Clausen attended Notre Dame.

Come on, Mr. Florio. Think this through a bit.Why do a lot of former players become studio hosts or game analysts? Because they know a lot about the game. Why do reporters go to former players to hear their thoughts about potential draftees? Because they know a lot about the game.

To think that is a conflict of interest is foolish and moronic. Kelly and Montana are former players with sometimes insightful opinions. And I for one enjoy reading them.

OK, getting caught up on some recent Hall of Fame articles I’ve seen, and putting a couple names out for debate.

First, a name that I’m sure we’ve discussed before–but possibly a bit of a new spin on it, and a name that I think will get a lot of debate once he retires…Donovan McNabb.

Leave it to an Eagles fan/blogger, but Bob Cunningham over at 2 Minutes to Midnight Green believes that McNabb is a Hall of Famer–simply because his stats are better than Troy Aikman’s, and because (he believes) that Aikman was surrounded by better talent than McNabb ever has been–making McNabb’s stats that much more impressive.

Of course, Cunningham also points out the biggest flaw in his argument, that McNabb has not won (or even been to) three Super Bowls in his career.

And the comparison of talent around McNabb vs. Aikman is simplified reatly at best–saying it was Emmitt Smith vs. Brian Westbrook and Michael Irvin vs. James Thrash isn’t a true enough comparison to mean much of anything.

I will grant that Aikman probably did have better overall talent around him–but the difference was a lot closer than Irvin vs. Thrash.

And I’m still not sure where I land in the debate on McNabb’s Hall of Fame credentials…

And in a post that I found even more entertaining, someone at something called Frumpzilla.com posted an interesting argument last week that Herschel Walker deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Please note, I said interesting–not compelling, as he hopes.

Walker was an ok player in his day, and he did manage to put up decent overall numbers in his NFL career–in fact, his rushing yardage and TDs were better than a certain senior candidate going into the Hall of Fame in 2010, even if you just compare his first nine seasons in the NFL (Walker’s last three seasons didn’t amount to much).

So there’s an argument that actually holds a little bit of water–although, most people around here didn’t seem to think that Little deserved the nod in Canton.

But to compare Walkers total yardage (including kickoff returns) to Tony Dorsett’s total yardage (when Dorsett didn’t return kicks) is a bit of a stretch.

And while they’re right that this is technically the Pro Football Hall of Fame, not the NFL Hall of Fame, let’s be serious–the nearly 5,600 yards rushing Walker gained in the USFL, against mostly marginal players, doesn’t make him arguably the best RB in football history–nor will it help him into the Hall of Fame.

There are no exclusively Canadian Football League players in the Hall of Fame, no Arena Football League players in the Hall of Fame, and some people argue that even the AFL is under represented in the Hall.

If you look at the profile pages on the Hall of Fame Web site for Gary Zimmerman, Steve Young, Reggie White and Jim Kelly–the only four USFL players to make the Hall of Fame (to date), none of them list their USFL team/career in their summary at the top of the page, and only mention them playing for the ill-fated in their biographies in passing.

So could Walker make the Hall of Fame someday?  Sure, given this year’s senior voting, anything is possible. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

What do you guys think of McNabb after his 2009 season, and Walker’s credentials?

Well, for better or for worse the 2010 Hall of Fame inductees have been named. The debates over the merit of those inductees are taking place on other articles on this site.

Now, as per normal, it’s time for us to start looking ahead to next towards 2011.

Many great candidates – Shannon Sharpe, Cris Carter, Andre Reed, Tim Brown, Dermontti Dawson, Charles Haley, and Richard Dent, among others – were held over for at least another year.

Meanwhile the 2011 crop brings several more first time nominees. The most oft-mentioned of that crew is Deion Sanders, the brash, trash-talking cornerback who played in Super Bowls for Dallas and San Francisco after being drafted by Atlanta in 1989. In his first year of eligibility he could join three other top five picks from that 1989 draft in the Hall – Troy Aikman, Derrick Thomas and Barry Sanders.

A trio of upper echelon running backs in Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin and Jerome Bettis also will take their first turns in front of the Hall voters. Each is in the top 10 all-time leading rushers and both Faulk and Bettis have Super Bowl rings.

Among offensive linemen Willie Roaf gains eligibility.

The list would have been even more crowded if Priest Holmes and Junior Seau hadn’t changed their minds on retiring after 2005. But there’s plenty of competition for slots in the Hall again next year.

Do any of these guys make it on their first go-around? Or do the voters make this collection of players, which is good but not quite as star-studded as this year’s Emmitt Smith/Jerry Rice class, wait while clearing some of the logjam that has collected in recent years?

As always, we’re looking forward to seeing your thoughts.  But first, here’s ours:

Looking back quickly at 2010, we only actually nailed two of the inductees–the two most obvious inductees in several years in Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith.  One of our picks (Paul Tagliabue) didn’t even make the finalist list, while the other two (Dermontti Dawson and Shannon Sharpe) did make the final cut to 10, but not the final five.

So, here’s the list of 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalists to not be elected:

Tim Brown – Wide Receiver/Kick Returner – 1988-2003 Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, 2004 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Cris Carter – Wide Receiver – 1987-89 Philadelphia Eagles, 1990-2001 Minnesota Vikings, 2002 Miami Dolphins

Don Coryell – Coach – 1973-77 St. Louis Cardinals, 1978-1986 San Diego Chargers

Roger Craig – Running Back – 1983-1990 San Francisco 49ers, 1991 Los Angeles Raiders, 1992-93 Minnesota Vikings

Dermonti Dawson – Center – 1988-2000 Pittsburgh Steelers

Richard Dent – Defensive End – 1983-1993, 1995 Chicago Bears, 1994 San Francisco 49ers, 1996 Indianapolis Colts, 1997 Philadelphia Eagles

Charles Haley – Defensive End/Linebacker – 1986-1991, 1999 San Francisco 49ers, 1992-96 Dallas Cowboys

Cortez Kennedy – Defensive Tackle – 1990-2000 Seattle Seahawks

Andre Reed – Wide Receiver – 1985-1999 Buffalo Bills, 2000 Washington Redskins

Shannon Sharpe – Tight End – 1990-99, 2002-03 Denver Broncos, 2000-01 Baltimore Ravens

Making the final ten along with Sharpe and Dawson were Dent, Kennedy and Reed.

Given that only one finalist from 2009 did not make the list in 2010 (Tagliabue), and I think those were for some special circumstances, we’re going to operate under the assumption that all 10 players/coaches will make the finalist list again in 2011–the only name that gives me any pause from that list is Don Coryell.

That leaves five open spots for semifinalists from 2010, or newly eligible players.

Realistically, I think all five of the first time eligible players mentioned above have a shot at being finalists–although I don’t think that all five will, unless Coryell falls off the list.  Realistically, I see three of them making the finalist list for sure–Deion Sanders, Willie Roaf, and Marshall Faulk.

I give the edge to Faulk over Martin and Bettis due to his superior all-purpose yardage, touchdown production 130 to 100 to 94), and post-season award profile (7 Pro Bowls & 3 All-Pros to 5 & 1 and 6 & 2).  If a fourth first year player makes it, realistically I see it probably going to Bettis, due to the slightly better profile, his Super Bowl appearance, and the fact that he was a Steeler–although I actually like Martin a little better as a player.

So, assuming just three of the new guys make the list, who else joins the ranks of finalist, presumably from the 2010 semifinalist list?

Terrell Davis and Kevin Greene seem like they might have a shot.  Maybe Ray Guy in a last ditch effort. Or even Art Modell as an owner.

But the guy that jumps out most at me from last year’s list is Aeneas Williams, who I was surprised didn’t make the finalist list this year, especially given the 8/3 post-season profile.  The other guy that jumps out to me a bit is Chris Doleman, with his 8/2 profile and 150.5 sacks (I initially went Kevin Greene, but the profile swayed me at the last second).

So, that gives us a finalist list of:
WR Tim Brown
WR Cris Carter
Coach Don Coryell
RB Roger Craig
C Dermonti Dawson
DE Richard Dent
DE Charles Haley
DT Cortez Kennedy
WR Andre Reed
TE Shannon Sharpe
CB Deion Sanders
T Willie Roaf
RB Marshall Faulk
CB Aeneas Williams
DE Chris Doleman

And the Zoneblitz.com Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2011 looks like:

CB Deion Sanders – The lone first year guy to get elected.

C Dermontti Dawson – Got to have a Steeler every year, right?  Even if LaBeau technically isn’t going in as one…

TE Shannon Sharpe – Seriously can’t believe he didn’t make it this year.

DE Richard Dent – Gotta have one guy who played primarily in the 80′s, don’t we?

WR Tim Brown – I can’t believe Andre Reed finished higher than both Brown and Carter in the 2010 voting, and to be honest, I can’t believe that he gets into Canton ahead of them.  To be honest, I tend to think Carter was the better receiver–but my Minnesota bias might play a role in that, even though I never really liked Carter that much.  Even Pro-Football-Reference seems to give Carter the edge.  But I go Brown, if just because he might have more friends in the media.

We’re still ignoring the senior candidates for now-we might be back with another post in the next couple of weeks with our picks for those candidates, even though that seems to be a bit of a crap shoot…

So what do you think?

Drew Brees, not Peyton Manning, displayed the poise and leadership of a Super Bowl champion Sunday night in Miami, leading his New Orleans Saints to their first Vince Lombardi trophy.

Brees completed 32 of 39 for 288 yards and two scores, winning the MVP trophy in the meantime.

His career is far from over and he’s got a lot more history to write in the years ahead. But I asked the question two weeks ago – will Drew Brees make the Hall of Fame? His last four seasons have certainly been trending in that direction.

Super Bowl performances like the show he put on tonight certainly won’t hurt his cause. Sure, it took Tracy Porter’s pick of Manning late in the game to seal the deal. And Sean Payton’s onside kick was a gutty call. But Brees’ performance was nearly flawless. My guess is he leads the Saints to many more playoff victories over the next few years as well.

If he does it’d be hard to keep him out of Canton in a decade, give or take a year or two.

Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith were the two shoe-ins for election into the NFL Hall of Fame this year. The rest of the class was a crapshoot. But in the end another deserving class of players got the call they had been waiting for.

Stephen A. Perry, the president and executive director of the Hall of Fame, made the announcement this afternoon on the NFL Network.

The Class of 2010 is:
WR Jerry Rice
RB Emmitt Smith
DL John Randle
LB Rickey Jackson
OL Russ Grimm
RB Floyd Little*
DB Dick LeBeau*
*Senior candidate

While the entrants are deserving some of the guys who didn’t make it are surprising. Cris Carter was left out again, not even making the list of 10 finalists. Neither did Tim Brown. Shannon Sharpe made the final 10, but didn’t survive the final cut. Charles Haley and Richard Dent also have to wait at least another year.

Viking John Randle surprised both of us here at Zoneblitz, not because he wasn’t worthy, but because of other candidates along the defensive line such as Dent, Haley, and Cortez Kennedy.

Jackson, who was called Randy when Perry first read the list, was another surprise. But he gets elected on the eve of his team’s first Super Bowl appearance.

This year’s senior finalists, Floyd Little and Dick LeBeau, were controversial when they were announced in August. But in the end both made the cut.

As we wrote a few months ago, this was the first year the fans got a say in the polling. While it didn’t count in the induction process, Van Heusen counted fan votes all season. Rice and Smith were the top vote getters, followed by Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Haley and Cris Carter.

We’ll have more on the selections in the days ahead. We’ll also be posting a 2011 Hall of Fame preview in a couple days as well – the guys that got in this year were great players, but some of the ones who were left out coupled with the guys eligible for the first time in 2011 make for a crowded list of future finalists.

What do you think of this year’s list?

The NFL Hall of Fame Selection Committee announced its Team of the Decades for the 2000s last night during the Pro Bowl. There weren’t a ton of surprises on the list.

Comments at a few sites have made cases for guys like Priest Holmes and Torry Holt. I can see their points but I also have little disagreement with the players that were picked. Theirs seems largely in tune with the one we published a year ago.

Any major disagreements (Real ones, not complaints about the timing of the list being off because of the calendar starting at year one and not year zero)? Guys you think should have been on the list?

Here’s the list:

2000s ALL-DECADE TEAM
Chosen by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee members.
Offense
Wide Receiver Marvin Harrison
Wide Receiver Torry Holt
Wide Receiver Randy Moss
Wide Receiver Terrell Owens
Tight End Antonio Gates
Tight End Tony Gonzalez
Tackle Walter Jones
Tackle Jonathan Ogden
Tackle Orlando Pace
Tackle William Roaf
Guard Larry Allen
Guard Alan Faneca
Guard Steve Hutchinson
Guard Will Shields
Center Olin Kreutz
Center Kevin Mawae
Quarterback Tom Brady
Quarterback Peyton Manning
Running Back Shaun Alexander
Running Back Jamal Lewis
Running Back Edgerrin James
Running Back LaDainian Tomlinson
Defense
End Dwight Freeney
End Julius Peppers
End Michael Strahan
End Jason Taylor
Tackle La’Roi Glover
Tackle Warren Sapp
Tackle Richard Seymour
Tackle Kevin Williams
Linebacker Derrick Brooks
Linebacker Ray Lewis
Linebacker Joey Porter
Linebacker Zach Thomas
Linebacker Brian Urlacher
Linebacker DeMarcus Ware
Cornerback Ronde Barber
Cornerback Champ Bailey
Cornerback Ty Law
Cornerback Charles Woodson
Safety Brian Dawkins
Safety Troy Polamalu
Safety Ed Reed
Safety Darren Sharper
Specialists
Punter Shane Lechler
Punter Brian Moorman
Kicker David Akers
Kicker Adam Vinatieri
Punt Returner Dante Hall
Punt Returner Devin Hester
Kick Returner Josh Cribbs
Kick Returner Dante Hall
Coach Bill Belichick
Coach Tony Dungy