by Tony | Aug 10, 2015 | Hall of Fame
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
With the Hall of Fame induction this past weekend comes the annual tradition of the large media outlets chiming in on future HOF elections (what a concept), often seemingly displaying less knowledge of the reality of the voting process than virtually all of our regular HOF commenters.
In fact, during Sunday Night’s Hall of Fame game, I heard Al Michaels mention that Adrian Peterson will one day be giving a speech in Canton (after Peterson himself told reporters that he thinks he’s got a good case for the Hall even if he didn’t play another snap).
So I grabbed a couple of articles that I saw on larger sites to put up for debate here.
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by Tony & Andy | May 30, 2015 | Hall of Fame, I Said, He Said
Well, it’s that time of year again. Actually, it’s well past that time of year – we decided to take a little time this year,
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
before presenting our guesses for the Hall of Fame. But here we finally go…
Andy: Picking Hall of Fame classes in recent years has been a little easier, as there have been at least a few candidates in each class who stood a head taller than their peers. That changes a bit this year, as the voters have put many of those top notch candidates in. Not that there aren’t great players remaining, but there are a lot of guys with similar resumes to consider.
Tony: There are three first-time eligible players who seem like obvious names to, at least, make the final 15 – starting with the only player probably guaranteed a ticket to Canton in 2016 — former Falcons, Jets and Vikings quarterback Brett Favre (what? He played somewhere else?). He held basically every quarterback record there is when he retired, and with three MVP awards and a Super Bowl ring in addition to 11 Pro Bowls and six All-Pros, Favre’s bronze bust was cast before he walked away from the game…even the first time.
The other two seem likely to make the finalist list, but less likely make the final five—Terrell Owens and Alan Faneca. Owens finished his career second in all-time yardage and third in touchdowns, but six Pro Bowls and five first-team All-Pros won’t likely overcome his reputation in year one. And while Faneca was one of the best guards in the game in his time, he isn’t at the same level as Randall McDaniel or Will Shields, who both had to wait to get in.
Andy: Yep, I agree completely on the first-year guys. Favre may have played a year too long, but he was the model of greatness and a gunslinger throughout the years. Not to go all “John Madden” on it, but his personality is missed in today’s game. (more…)
by Andy | Apr 10, 2015 | Hall of Fame, NFL History
Troy Polamalu has announced that he’s retiring after a mostly spectacular 12-year career with the Pittsburgh
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Steelers.
During his career he racked up eight Pro Bowls and four first-team All Pro awards, one behind Ravens safety Ed Reed in both categories. Polamalu also was a second-team All Decade safety on the team of the 2000s. Reed and Brian Dawkins won first-team and Polamalu shared his honors with Darren Sharper.
So Polamalu’s credentials as a Hall of Famer should be without question, right?
Probably so. He’s a year behind Reed in eligibility, so I would normally think he’s a year behind Reed in induction – though Reed could go in slightly more quickly due to the additional honors. Still, Polamalu’s credentials are solid. He becomes eligible in 2020 and one would think he’d have a pretty good shot of making it then or, at least, shortly thereafter.
However, it’s been very difficult in recent years to figure out how voters view the safety position. There are several top-notch candidates from the last three All-Decade teams – among others – who have still not been voted into the Hall – guys with similar postseason profiles to Polamalu and Reed. So how long they wait really depends on how voters decide to sort out the backlog.
Here’s at least a partial list of guys who seem to be viewed as legit candidates: (more…)
by Tony | Mar 10, 2015 | Hall of Fame
Half an hour ago (ok, the news leaked yesterday), Patrick Willis shocked the football world when he retired after eight years in the league.
As I sit hear watching NFL Network, they are having the same debate that was my first thought–was Patrick Willis a Hall of Famer?
We’ll update this post in a few minutes, but we wanted to start getting comments from our Hall of Fame community, since we think this is amongst the most informed Hall of Fame communities online…
Willis was a starter for the 49ers from Day one after being selected 11th overall in 2007, after a strong performance at the NFL Combine.
He amassed an incredible 174 tackles in his rookie season, along with four sacks. Over his first seven seasons, he only missed six games, and he compiled over 900 tackles and 20.5 sacks. In 2014, he ended his season after six games due to an injury to his toe that required surgery.
In his career, he was named to 7 Pro Bowls, voted first team All-Pro five times (and one second team), led the NFL in tackles twice, was the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, was a three time NFL Alumni Linebacker of the Year (whatever that is), was twice named the 49ers MVP, and was in the NFL Top 100 as named by NFL Network each year since they started naming the list in 2011.
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by Tony | Mar 7, 2015 | 10's, By the Numbers, Hall of Fame, NFL History
Nearly a year later, and we’re finally back with our latest number segment. In the last 358 odd days, a lot has happened—including a certain popular pro football website absconding with our idea. Of course, they actually pay their writers, so they’ve already made it quite a bit further (maybe even all the way) than we have with five numbers in three years…
Of course, our posts our still better. And the original.
Interestingly enough, when I Googled their site to see if I could find an example, the first one I came across just happened to be the same number that we randomly drew today—the number 14.
There have been a lot of famous players to wear #14 in the history of the NFL, including Hall of Famers (and the best #25 in NFL History) Fred Biletnikoff, who wore #14 for the first two years of his career, Curly Lambeau, who was better known as #1 (according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame) and as the Packers owner/coach than a player, and John “Blood” McNally who apparently wore whatever number he could find.
As for players who wore (or are wearing) #14 as their primary number, here’s the best: (more…)
by Andy | Jan 31, 2015 | Hall of Fame
The late Junior Seau highlights the 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Charger and Patriots great is the lone first-year eligible enshrinee. He’ll be joined by seven others, including senior candidate Mick Tingelhoff and two contributors in the first year that category has existed: Ron Wolf and Bill Polian, both of whom built multi championship teams.
Other enshrinees will include: Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Will Shields and Charles Haley.
The selections mean that despite having four semifinalists, the Greatest Show on Turf – including first timers Kurt Warner and Orlando Pace – were left out of the final selection. Three coaches – Jimmy Johnson, Tony Dungy and Don Coryell – were also not selected.
Marvin Harrison was another notable candidate not selected. Harrison, Pace, Warner, Tony Dungy and Kevin Greene were the final five modern era candidates eliminated from consideration by Hall voters. (more…)
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