2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class

I have an understanding of how good Tommy Nobis was. You don't have to convince me in any way, shape or form.

I didn't put him on the top three of that list, but that's a really good list. Half of Fame even.

Nobis should be in eventually. How he is treated by the folks in Canton could determine how other linebackers such as Patrick Willis and Luke Kuechly – both of whom should eventually be in as well – are handled.

 

That Ken Riley wasn't in sooner was a flat-out joke.

I do agree that I don't really see a consensus guy, though Sharpe is a no-brainer IMO aside from the neck injury that cut short his career.

The kids don't understand that Sterling emerged as an elite player before his younger brother established himself out of Savannah State. Sterling Sharpe had triple-digit receptions back when that wasn't fractionally as common. Second to Jerry Rice in receiving statistics during that era is still Hall of Fame-worthy.

 

I was ten years old and living in Atlanta when the Falcons drafted Tommy Nobis. He was the first NFL player that I was a fan of. I remember how good he was, and there's a sentimental attachment as well. There wasn't much else for Falcons fans to cheer about.

 

I was a little kid when they were playing but Nobis and Gradishar seemed like big names (they were the kind of guys who would have chapters about them in those paperback books you ordered from Scholastic), so I'm surprised it took that long. But that there's also a bias that blows up the guys who were playing when you first started watching. I mean, Dan Pastorini, Brian Sipe, Pat Haden and Steve Grogan seemed like huge stars at the time too but today's equivalent would probably be guys like Derek Carr or Jared Goff. Kirk Cousins at best.

 

I don't normally buy into the idea that a player being a jackass to the media hurts his HOF chances--nobody was a bigger jackass to the media than Jim Rice, but he wouldn't be in the Baseball HOF if not for the Boston media writing hosannas on his behalf for the 15 years he was on the writer's ballot--but I can't think of any other reason why Sterling Sharpe isn't in. He "only" had the five or six great years, but unlike someone like Terrell Davis (who was great), he signified a new era at his position and was cut down in his prime at a position where he still had projectable great years ahead of him. Davis had three straight 340+ carry seasons, so he was probably about done as an elite back even before the knee injuries. But Sharpe was the first guy w/multiple 100-catch seasons...and TWENTY-SIX PLAYERS have done it since then. He was and probably still is an asshole (and a hypocritical one at that jumping right into broadcasting) but he's a rock-solid HOFer.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/ric-...-battling-als-enter-pro-football-hall-of-fame

Steve McMichael was a two-time All-Pro on an all-time great defense, which is similar to LC Greenwood's resume. Greenwood was named to the All-1970s team, but McMichael wasn't on any all-decade team. Great players, both, but I think both fall a bit short and I wouldn't vote for them. Plenty of more deserving players.

 

Who cares about Ric Flair’s opinion on the pro football HOF?

It really is a shame to see what kind of shape Mongo is in these days, though. Unimaginable.

 

It was just an opportunity to discuss a candidate. I don't put any stock in what he said.

 

Fair enough. I just know enough about Flair to know he’ll say anything just to get people talking about him again.

 

Sterling Sharpe was brilliant. The one-off 1989 season with Majkowski is largely down to him. Early days Favre would likely have sputtered without Sharpe to throw to/bail him out. He could beat you deep or over the middle and produced at a stupid level. HOFer all day long.

As for the rest, all of whom are estimable …

Ken Anderson - Absolutely deserves to be in. Efficient in an era where it wasn’t valued. The original so-called West Coast QB. Bengals of the 70s are like the Bucks of the 80s, very good without reaching the title round.
Ottis Anderson - Weird career with his out of nowhere revival in NY. Very good on mostly lousy Cardinals teams, but if those teams produced a HOFer, it would be Roy Green, and he’d be borderline.
Carl Banks - Never struck me as a HOFer, ever.
Maxie Baughan - Before my time. Problem with guys like Baughan (and Banks) is sifting out who was truly the catalyst on great defenses? Who complimented whom to make the other better? I have no call to judge Baughan on that.
Larry Brown - Before my time, though other RBs have gotten in for less.
Mark Clayton - Hall of Good for me.
Charlie Conerly - Way before my time.
Roger Craig - An extremely versatile threat for quite a long time. Strikes me as HOF worthy.
Henry Ellard - Hall of Good.
Randy Gradishar - Should be in. One of the premier LBs of his time.
Lester Hayes - Interesting. Maybe I’m imagining this, but he seems to get dinged for his famous love of stick-em. Which is stupid because for stick-em to have any effect, you have to be on top of your man. He seemed to perpetually be near or at double-digit interceptions. Be interesting to know what opposing WRs of his time thought … once the stick-em bitching is filtered out.
Chris Hinton - Saw him up close. Fantastic player, but will struggle to get in given the Colts mediocrity. Ray Donaldson was possibly better.
Cecil Isbell - Way before my time.
Joe Jacoby - I am the last person who ought to be judging offensive lineman. I don’t think our industry in general does a good job on OL.
Billy "White Shoes” Johnson - You know? A few years back, I’d have laughed at this. Gimmicky. But then some dude put all of those weekly NFL highlight shows on YT a year or two ago. I was watching a few from the dawn of Johnson’s career and it was eye-popping. Every bit the weapon Devin Hester was at his peak. His odd career will hurt him though.
Mike Kenn, Bob Kuechenberg, George Kunz - See above on OL.
Albert Lewis - Chiefs defense of the late 80s/early 90s is another sort of lost to history. Lewis seems to get bonus points for special teams excellence. That secondary was a bitch. Is Lewis better than Deron Cherry? Both strike me as Hall of Good.
Jim Marshall - Played into my time, your time, everyone’s time. If you ever pop by the PFRA forum, he splits opinion. Some say he deserves recognition for his longevity, others think he was a football version of a compiler, still others surmise that Bud Grant was a creature of habit and probably could have replaced him before he did. I have no idea.
Clay Matthews Jr. - Kinda like Marshall or the inducted Chris Hanburger. Extremely dependable for a very long time. I’d be sympathetic.
Steve McMichael - Fuck him.
Good player, but you get back to the Banks/Baughan predicament.
Eddie Meador - Literally a teammate of Baughan, so …
Stanley Morgan - I LOVED Stanley Morgan. Much as I LOVED Wesley Walker, Pat Tilley, Roy Green, John Jefferson, Tony Hill, Freddie Solomon, Nat Moore and other WRs, the position I loved most as a kid. Mind over heart, though, they’re all Hall of Good.
Tommy Nobis - Before my time, but I thought he was already in.
Art Powell - Before my time.
Sterling Sharpe - See above.
Steve Tasker - I think everyone has gone way too far with Tasker and special teams gunners in general. Ooh, the greatest special teams defender of all-time!
Well, OK. Sometimes it had an impact, sometimes it didn’t. Tackling a returner at the 15 was his mission and he was great at it, but if the offense dug themselves out of it anyway, how impactful was it, really?
Of course, there’s the equally valuable counter-point that suggests he could change field position when an offense went three-and-out.
I don’t know. I think there’s players who were on the field in more meaningful ways who had more deserving cases than the wonkish celebration (no sport celebrates wonkishness quite like football) of a very specific task … like everyone else on this list.
Even punters have more impact than “special teams gunners”. So might long snappers. Why isn’t Trey Junkin so feted?
Otis Taylor - Before my time, but I can look at a stat sheet and see he was kinda inconsistent.
Everson Walls - Steady as fuck and almost always in the right place at the right time. Impactful on two great defenses, I think the early 80s Cowboys get dinged a bit for losing three straight NFC title games (I think it hurt Drew Pearson too) which is wild because that team was really good, better than some of its better-remembered peers like the early 80s Chargers or one-offs like the 1980 Browns. Walls should be in.
Al Wistert - Before my time.

 

One of the advantages (?) of my age is that almost none of these guys were before my time. Baughan was very good for some awful Eagles teams and good with George Allen's Rams, too, but of course, nobody noticed the linebackers on a team with the Fearsome Foursome. Otis Taylor was seen as the Chiefs' biggest offensive weapon in his day. If he was inconsistent, well, remember how pass defense was allowed to be played in those days (or look it up on YouTube). IMO Jim Marshall should be in the Hall, and Larry Brown not. There are guys on Bubblers' list who're before my time, and interestingly, two of 'em were quarterbacks. Conerly was the Giants QB in the '50s before Y.A. Tittle got there. Lot of other guys from that team are in the Hall. Cecil Isbell threw to Don Hutson, that's all I got on him, but of course, that was likely enough to make him the second-best passer in the league after Sammy Baugh. Maybe the selectors think there aren't enough QBs in the Hall.

 

I think it's more of, they want all positions to have some representation and when you limit the timeframe to "can't play after 1998" in order to get to a top 30 of guys who aren't in yet is going to yield some weird results. No one believes all of these semifinalists will eventually get in. I don't think you can guarantee all of the 12 finalists announced next week eventually get in.

There are four candidates from the 2002 modern finalists who still haven't been inducted.