Thread: 2016 Hall of Fame finalists

Originally Posted by Keeper

Some of the owners were pivotal to the league, though. The Rooneys, unfortunately, come to mind. Bowlen also kept the Broncos, who matter greatly in NFL history, in Denver. I think they deserve their own category, but you have to be really special to do it.

Meh the Rooneys. Art Rooneys teams were crap for 40 years until they got the #1 pick to take Bradshaw the same year they wisely chose to accept a $3 million windfall for moving to the far weaker league. His greatest service to the NFL was probably buying Bert Bells Steelers shares so he could become Commissioner and spearhead expansion and the NFLs entry to TV, culminating in The Greatest Game Ever Played shortly before his death.

He may belong as a team FOUNDER in the days when that required a lot of money but ensured DEFICITS rather than massive profits, but future owners are in a very different boat. As for Dan, it boils down to whether the Rooney Rule alone justifies enshrinement, but even that is a legacy from his dad, who's already enshrined. Modell contributed three times as much to the AFCN and NFL (albeit in a very negative way.)

Mr. Bowlen's in a class by himself among owners—but I still don't think ANY (non-founder) owners belong in the Hall.

Among many other things in his MMQB column, Peter King talks about why he thinks Terrell Davis will get into the HOF, eventually. King is a HOF voter, so he probably knows better than us:

Terrell Davis is going to make the Hall of Fame. I never thought that before Saturday. But I do now. I don’t know when it will happen, but the events of Saturday convinced me he’ll eventually make Canton. The cases for and against Davis are pretty simple.

For: He had three intergalactic seasons, and he was one of the best playoff performers ever—seven post-season games, seven 100-plus-yard rushing games. That is unmatched in football history. Add a fourth year in which he rushed for 1,117 yards, and you’ve got a superb start to a career, one of the best ever. But at 26 he suffered a knee injury that doomed his career, and he was out of football by 29.

Against: Should a player with three fantastic years and another good one make the Hall? That’s really what the Davis case comes down to—plus the lesser fact that the Broncos of the post-Davis era had three rushers run for 1,500 yards or more in 2000, 2002 and 2003. (Regarding the “Gale Sayers-had-a-short-career-too” argument: Sayers’ career began 51 years ago, and lots of players between 1940 and 1970 had short careers, because of things like military service, low pay for football players and medical science not being able to fix knees. So it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.)

Now, in the room we’re asked to listen to the cases for the candidates, then cull the 15 candidates down to 10 in a secret ballot; after that, we’re told the 10 top vote-getters, and we have to vote for five in another private ballot. I voted for Davis in the cutdown from 15 to 10. I did not vote for him in the cutdown from 10 to five. But I was sorely tempted to do so. I have always felt longevity has to be a part of a modern player’s greatness. I still do. But I thought very hard (and did so in the weeks leading up to the meeting) whether Davis is the kind of outlier who should sway me. In the end, I just thought there were five better candidates, using all considerations, including greatness and influence on the game and longevity. But after hearing the 24-minute debate, I believe the longevity factor will eventually be overcome—2017? 2018?—and he’ll make it.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/02/07/s...ing-peter-king

Originally Posted by VonDoom

Among many other things in his MMQB column, Peter King talks about why he thinks Terrell Davis will get into the HOF, eventually. King is a HOF voter, so he probably knows better than us:

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/02/07/s...ing-peter-king

The problem is there will ALWAYS be five (supposedly) "better" candidates. I'm convinced that's what's stopping it: Not that they don't think Terrell Davis REALLY earned it, but that there are only so many spots, and giving him one of them means denying someone else. Maybe a guy who might not get nominated again. There's a window of opportunity on HoF nominations; once it closes and bright new stars dim the memory of old ones, it gets increasingly hard.

That's why there was a big push for so long to add a Seniors category, and I'm glad they did. But if Davis gets into that group, it's hard to see him get out to the Hall.