by Andy | Jul 20, 2010 | Business of Football, Hall of Fame, NFL Random Thoughts
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.
by Andy | Jul 13, 2010 | Hall of Fame
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.
by Andy | May 11, 2010 | Hall of Fame
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?
Photo by jacorbett70 
by Andy | Apr 22, 2010 | Hall of Fame, NFL Draft, NFL Random Thoughts
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.”
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by Tony | Mar 12, 2010 | Hall of Fame
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.
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by Tony & Andy | Feb 9, 2010 | Hall of Fame
***UPDATE: 2011 Hall of Fame Finalists Announced Here***
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:
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Yep ... also heard she was considered for freakin Dancing with the Stars but wants to work with Belichick's publicity-branding…
Brian your right I get what your saying I do have other interests and hobbies like the National Baseball Hall…
Yeah your right it’s just the Pro Football Hall of Fame was wrong to make these changes and I guess…
Lets hope Andy P, you have other interests and hobbies that dont stress you as much. Everytime I hear todays'…
Andy thats a bad idea on so many levels