Breaking Down the Football Hall of Fame Nominees

The nominees:

Quarterbacks

Randall Cunningham, Dave Krieg, Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair.

Running backs

Shaun Alexander, Tiki Barber, Earnest Byner, Larry Centers, Corey Dillon, Eddie George, *Edgerrin James, Darryl Johnston, Eric Metcalf, Clinton Portis, Fred Taylor, Herschel Walker, Chris Warren, Ricky Watters.

Wide receivers

Isaac Bruce, Gary Clark, Henry Ellard, Torry Holt, Chad Johnson, Derrick Mason, Sterling Sharpe, Rod Smith, Hines Ward.

Tight ends

Mark Bavaro, Tony Gonzalez, Brent Jones, Jay Novacek.

Offensive linemen

Willie Anderson, Tony Boselli, Lomas Brown, Ray Donaldson, Alan Faneca, Chris Hinton, Kent Hull, Steve Hutchinson, Mike Kenn, Olin Kreutz, Kevin Mawae, Tom Nalen, Chris Samuels, Richmond Webb, Steve Wisniewski.

Defensive linemen

La’Roi Glover (DT/NT), Russell Maryland (DT), Leslie O’Neal (DE), Simeon Rice (DE), Richard Seymour (DT), Neil Smith (DE), Bryant Young (DT).

Linebackers

Carl Banks, Cornelius Bennett, Tedy Bruschi, London Fletcher, Seth Joyner, Wilber Marshall, Clay Matthews, Willie McGinest, Karl Mecklenburg, Sam Mills, Chris Spielman, Takeo Spikes, Darryl Talley, Zach Thomas.

Defensive backs

Eric Allen, Steve Atwater, Champ Bailey, Ronde Barber, Bill Bates, LeRoy Butler, Nick Collins, Thomas Everett, Rodney Harrison, Ty Law, Albert Lewis, John Lynch, Tim McDonald, Ed Reed, Dennis Smith, Troy Vincent, Adrian Wilson, Darren Woodson.

Special teams

Jason Elam, Jeff Feagles, Sean Landeta, Brian Mitchell, Steve Tasker.

Coaches

Don Coryell, Bill Cowher, Tom Flores, Jim Hanifan, Mike Holmgren, Jimmy Johnson, Richie Petitbon, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, Clark Shaughnessy, Dick Vermeil.

Right off the top, my first reaction to this list is that it’s much tougher one than last year, where you had several obvious first ballot guys like Brian Uhrlacher and Ray Lewis. And the biggest question was whether the voters were going to put in receivers who were high maintenance and never won rings but who right behind Jerry Rice in every career statistical category. And of course Randy Moss and Terrell Owens (finally) made it in. This list is lousy with borderline worthy players, making it tougher to handicap. But there are three obvious first-ballot guys. The kind of player the writer who presents them should just do what Woody Paige famously did when he famously stood up and said “I’m here to nominate John Elway,” and sat back down.

There’s no need to waste your breath making cases for:

Tony Gonzalez. Statistically, he’s the best tight end that’s ever played and it’s not even close. In the history of football, only Rice has more receptions than his 1,325. Shannon Sharpe currently has the most receiving yards by any tight end in the Hall with just over 10,000. Gonzalez has over 15,000. And his 111 touchdowns are almost twice as many as Sharpe’s 62. A total no brainer.

Ed Reed. An impact player on one of the best defenses in football for over a decade. Reed redefined the free safety position, winning the DPOTY award in 2004, leading the NFL in interceptions three times on his way to 64 for his career. Only six members of the Hall have more. And he has touchdown returns of 106 and 107 yards. But beyond stats, to me the best argument for any player’s induction is “Did opposing coaches have to gameplan for him?” No defensive back of his era had more coaches and quarterbacks having to account for his whereabouts or suffer the consequences than Reed.

Charles Woodson. You know who’s eligible for the Hall who has more interceptions than Reed? Who had 11 career returns for TDs to Reed’s very impressive 7? It’s … well, I just gave you his name. So the effect is sort of lost, but I’m not going to reformat it. One of my beef’s with the Baseball HoF is that they reward guys who were never great at any one time, but who stick around for ever and accumulate stats. (See: Blyleven, Bert.) Woodson played an astonishingly long time for such an athletic position, playing 14 years at corner before transitioning to full time safety for his last four. But in that 14th year he made All Pro, his third selection. He made 9 Pro Bowls, his first as a 22-year-old rookie and his last a token selection at age 39. He appeared in 17 playoff games and two Super Bowls, winning one with the Packers in 2010. If that’s not a Hall of Fame career, Hall of Fame careers do not exist.

And here is where it gets tricky. I was a big Ty Law guy last year and I remain a big Ty Law guy. He played a pivotal role on three championship teams, including a Pick-6 in a Super Bowl that was decided by 3 points. And he led the league in interceptions with the Jets. John Lynch is a solid choice as well. But I think they get edged out by:

Champ Bailey. My only struggle with this is that Bailey would make three defensive backs going in with the same class, which is unheard of. But he’s deserving. More so than Law or Lynch. He made 11 Pro Bowls in 12 years, a streak only interrupted by losing 7 games to injury in 2008. A versatile corner who was a virtual lock to get you 60-75 tackles a year along with his Hall-worthy 52 career INTs. Plus he’s on the 2000s All Decade Team. Though one wild card is that if he might suffer from getting judged by the “Never Won a Ring” standard, with his Broncos getting teabagged by Seattle 43-8 in the only February game of his career. Still belongs in.

London Fletcher. Call me overly sentimental call me what you will. But I love the idea of a guy who went undrafted making it into Canton. I’d love to see him inducted by some Mel Kiper-type and have his speech consist of nothing but him reading the scouting reports on him when he came out of John Carroll. If there were scouting reports on him when he came out of John Carroll. Fletcher is a living embodiment of what can happen when you don’t listen to the haters and keep chasing your dream. He became a starter in his second season with the 1999 Rams and they won the Super Bowl. He missed one game the following season. And never. Missed. Another. 13 seasons of 16 games, 16 starts. He made four Pro Bowls, but none until his 12th year in the league. He’s that guy whose career kind of snuck up on you until you realized he was getting 95-105 tackles every year on his way to 1,300 in all. The Cinderella story of all Cinderella stories.

Dark Horse: Don Coryell. I admit this an off-the-wall pick given that there are only 23 coaches in Canton and Coryell never won a championship. But neither did Bud Grant, George Allen or Marv Levy, and they’re in there. And granted, Coryell’s win total of 111 would time him with legendary Funny Namer Greasy Neale for the second fewest in the Hall. But his .572 win percentage is nothing to sneeze at. If I’m backing his longshot candidacy is that he deserves credit as an innovator. The Air Coryell offense is something that revolutionized pro football. That turned it from the 2-back, run on 1st- and 2nd-down, stone knives and bearskins schemes of the pre-1980s into the complex spread attacks that make modern football what it is and life as a Fantasy League player worth living. If he doesn’t get in, than at least give me the criminally overlooked Tom “Two Time Super Bowl Champion” Flores.

So there are quality candidates. And unlike Owens, probably all of them are likely to show up.