Very interesting thread. I’m still in the No to Kurt Warner crowd, although he continues to put up numbers in Arizona. I guess I’d have to reconsider if he keeps it up for a few more years, but even with the Cardinals’ Super Bowl trip, he was so bad with the Giants in the middle of his career…
The most glaring omission from the original list is Dermontti Dawson, who was the best center of his era in the NFL. Nobody else playing in the league came close with the exception of Mike Webster, who split time with Dawson a bit in his rookie year and is generally considered to be a player from a previous generation.
Paul Zimmerman from SI, who was a HOF voter until his stroke last year (well, he might still be on the committee, but he obviously didn’t participate in the last election) always said that he felt Guy was tremendously over-rated, and that he got too much attention for having managed to hit the gondola at the Superdome with a punt.
Special teamers, in general, have had a tremendously difficult time even getting a sniff. Jan Stenerud is the only full-time special-teamer in the hall, and he did so by being incredibly consistent for nearly 20 years. Steve Tasker gets brought up occasionally in these conversations, and he was a fiend at what he did, but it seems like fairly few of the voters particularly value special teams (Tasker’s coach, Marv Levy, would note that he considered special teams to be one-third of the game).
Of the current / recently retired kickers, I think Vinatieri’s got the best shot, due to clutch kicking in the playoffs. Gary Anderson or Morten Andersen might have a shot, due to longevity plus accuracy, but even then, I think it’s an outside shot, at best. Lechler’s been head-and-shoulders above the rest of the punters in the league for several years now; if he keeps it up, maybe he’d have a shot.
I’m quite relaxed, thanks. But I’m unimpressed by “feels like” arguments, and by the idea that we should discount a guy because he played on a great team; generally, that has made guys MORE qualified, not less.
Nalen was an excellent player, but I don’t think he gets in (at least not for the first several years of his eligibility). I agree that he should be held up as the individual face of the Broncos’ collective O-line unit, but that cuts both ways. Just as he deserves the credit for turning nobodies into great runners, so does he deserve the blame for Denver’s well-deserved reputation as cheap-shot artists out to end careers. This is from Gregg Easterbrooks TMQ article on 11/22/06…
“Apparently I should not have turned off Denver-San Diego after the Bolts’ win became obvious. First, TMQ had noted the sort of play on which Denver skirts the anti-chop-block rule and hides the intent-to-injure tactics of its offensive line. Sarath Krishnaswamy of Dunstable, Mass. was among many readers to point out, “I was surprised you did not mention the hit Denver center Tom Nalen put on Igor Olshansky of San Diego, for which the latter retaliated with fists, drawing an ejection. Nalen dove low and hit Olshansky’s knees when Denver was spiking the ball. That is – on a play Nalen knew was meaningless and where the defense posed no threat, he deliberately went after an opposing player with intent to cause injury. And yet, for this Olshansky is ejected while Nalen skates.” Now I’ve seen the tape, and the reason only Olshansky was flagged is the classic second-swing problem – the official doesn’t notice the first swing, he notices the second. Of course Olshansky was wrong to take a swing, and deserves the $10,000 fine the league meted out. But Nalen’s move was an obvious attempt to injure. Why even bother when the game is almost over? The Broncos play the Chargers again in December. Nalen was fined $25,000, but should have been suspended. Right now Denver team officials are complaining that the larger fine against Nalen was unfair. Mike Shanahan: Your offensive line plays dirty, and you’re complaining about being caught?!”
Nalen will have a lot of supporters for his case, but an awful lot of detractors as well.
As for Junior Seau - he’s an absolute no-doubt first ballot HOFer who we’ve all tended to forget about a bit in his declining years. But once he’s eligible and we remember who he was and how long he played at such a high level, he’ll skate in with a very high percentage of the votes.