The Pro Football Hall of Fame is inducting seven new members this weekend. There are probably 700 others who feel they have a legitimate case to be in, as well. Which eligible player, coach, owner or contributor to the game do you feel has the biggest gripe about NOT having his bust in Canton?
I will never understand why Don Coryell is not in already, and frankly not long ago. He is a true innovator and a man who changed the game.
You can trace his lineage from Dan Fouts to Kurt Warner and from Joe Gibbs to Mike Martz. He changed the way people think about offensive football. He also was a helluva head coach on top of that, who came close to the Super Bowl on more than one occasion.
His impact on the game cannot be trivialized, and it amazes me the stewards of the Hall didn't find a way to rightly honor him while he was still with us.
Cris Carter has done just about everything a player could do, ranking fourth in history with 130 touchdown receptions and eighth with 13,899 receiving yards. But as a wide receiver, he's been put on hold. There are so many good wide receivers up for induction every few years, a great player at that position gets snubbed. Carter eventually will get in. For his sake, I hope it's soon.
Willie Roaf should be in the Hall of Fame. He was an 11-time Pro Bowl selection who was named to the 1990s and 2000s All-Decade team at offensive tackle. It would be hard to name a more dominant player at the position during his time in the league. He was a solid anchor at left tackle for two franchises -- New Orleans and Kansas City -- and deserves to be recognized for his accomplishments and contributions to the game. If the voters poll any of Roaf's oppponents, I'm certain he would be a unanimous selection.
I have nominated Gil Brandt for the Hall in the past. I feel very strongly that personnel people should be represented. Brandt was a pioneer of personnel work. Many of his innovations with computerized scouting, a grading system and club structure to scout the country have been used by many teams in the NFL. Spend one weekend with Brandt at the ceremonies in Canton and see how many HOF members come up to him and thank him for all he did. Brandt belongs in Canton.
It's hooey and applesauce that Cris Carter isn't in the Hall yet. He had an unorthodox career that saw him do very little in his first half-dozen seasons in the league, but in 1993 -- at the age of 28 -- he went on an eight-year tear of remarkable success: more than 1,000 yards annually, five seasons with at least 90 catches (including back-to-back 122-catch years!), and five seasons with double-digit touchdowns.
Maybe he's being dragged down by the very good -- but not great -- players who put up similar career stats. Whereas almost all of the career leaders in passing and rushing are truly legendary players, the statistically best receivers are hardly better than the practical best. Would anybody rather have had Henry Ellard over Michael Irvin? Tim Brown over Charley Taylor? Isaac Bruce over Lance Alworth? (If you answered "yes" to any of those three questions, you are wrong.)
Either way, Carter wasn't just one of the most statistically productive receivers -- he was also, in spite of his relative lack of speed, one of the most spectacular. With the possible exceptions of John Jefferson and Lynn Swann, who made more diving, one-handed, tip-toe-on-the-sideline catches than Carter? No one -- so toss him a gold blazer, wouldya?
Considering that the only thing left for my complete conversion to the dark side is getting into a light-saber fight with Obi-wan Kenobi on Mustafar, I have to say that it is a complete outrage that Jim Plunkett is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Answer this bit of trivia, who is the only quarterback to start and win two Super Bowl games and not be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- excluding non-eligible candidates?
That's right, it's Plunkett.
And not only should Plunkett be in the Hall, Ken Stabler deserves an induction, too, as his numbers are very comparable to Joe Namath's. I don't want to say that there is an anti-Raiders bias, mainly because I haven't fully taken the role of a Raider Sith, but something weird is going on.
