Ty Law Is The Epitome Of A Hall Of Famer
The NFL announced its finalists for the 2019 Hall of Fame class the other day and some names immediately jumped out as obvious selections. Granted, since it’s the NFL Hall of Fame there is no such thing as an “obvious” selection after they made Terrell Owens a second ballot HoFer, but I’m gonna give them credit that they wont fuck up Ed Reed and Tony Gonzalez. The one I know they’re going to fuck up for the third time is why I’m writing this right now cause I’m just about fed up with this blatant disrespect.
Ty Law is unequivocally, absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind a Hall of Fame cornerback. You wanna say he’s not first ballot? Go ahead, I don’t really care. All I care about is him getting in at this point. For starters, he’s from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. If you’re from Aliquippa you’re a Hall of Famer. That’s just how that works. Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, Paul Posluszny, Darrelle Revis are just a few of the many noteable names which hail from the banks of the Three Rivers. Ty Law is also one of those names. It was written in the stars from the moment he was born in Western PA that he would go down as one of the greats and he fulfilled that destiny. I don’t even think I need more evidence but I’ll give it to you because honestly I wrote the rest already and forgot this very important point until I was about to smash publish.
Secondly, you cannot watch modern football as we know it without discussing the impact #24 has had on every game that has been played since 2004. That’s not a homer take. That’s not some made up overreaction. What Ty Law routinely did to Peyton Manning (soon to be first ballot Hall of Famer) and Marvin Harrison (Hall of Famer) prompted the Colts to bitch and moan until the League literally changed the way defensive backs had to play defense. Since then you’ve seen Matt Stafford and Kirk Cousins put up prime Dan Marino numbers. All because Ty Law put Peyton in his back pocket and picked him off THREE (3) times in the 2003 AFC Championship game. Now you don’t put a guy in the HoF just for one game, I get that, I’m not an insane person. But when that game and your style of play is so dominant the League changes completely just to try and neutralize you it should be weighed very heavily in favor of your resumé.
Every sport has All Decade teams (I actually don’t know if this is true for hockey, I assume they do but there’s no way to be sure). I’ve always felt that was a great way to judge a player’s peak and longevity at once. You’re not making an All Decade team just because you had a hot two years. That’s sustained excellence for the better half of a 10-year stretch. Granted, it has flaws since it’s voted on by the same jackasses who have consistently botched the Hall of Fame voting, but it’s just a piece of Ty Law’s Hall of Fame puzzle. So despite only being voted to two All Pro selections throughout his career, he was one of four corners on the 2000 All Decade team along with Champ Bailey, Charles Woodson, and Ronde Barber. (Side note: there are only three active players left from the 2000 All Decade team – Brady, Antonio Gates and Julius Peppers, none of which are ever going to retire according to several federal laws that prohibit them from such.) I’m fairly confident Bailey and Woodson are going to get in. Tampa Bay Bucs insider Steven Cheah is already building the mold for Barber’s bust. And while Woodson was clearly the best of this bunch, I’d argue Law as the second best. Yes ahead of Bailey, because fuck you that’s why. I’m not using logic or metrics here, that’s for this next part where I correctly juxtapose Law’s career to Deion Sanders’ career.
Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is one of the best corners of all time. He was a ball hawk who didn’t want to tackle who intercepted quarterbacks 53 times and ran nine of those back for touchdowns. Ty Law intercepted quarterbacks… 53 times and ran seven of those back for touchdowns. And that doesn’t include his pick-6 of Kurt Warner in Super Bowl 36, also known as half of the touchdowns the Patriots scored in that game. Law also racked up 300 more tackles and four more sacks than Sanders over their respective careers. Law led the League in interceptions twice to Deion’s well, he never did for a single season. Law led the League in pick-6s as many times as Deion with one a piece. I’m not saying Law is better than Deion, that would be hyperbole and flat out incorrect just to ruin the iron-clad case I’ve laid out here today. What I am saying is that if Deion is to be considered one of, if not *the* gold standard for the position, then Law wasn’t far off from said standard. He wasn’t an offensive weapon or a kick returner or a baseball player or platinum recording artist like Deion was, but we’re just talking about playing CB. Which Law did as well as anyone before or after him. And it’s time the Hall of Fame recognized him for such.
PS – This has nothing to do with the Hall of Fame but in my mind it also has everything to do with the Hall of Fame. Every kid in New England knows the Ty Law/Lawyer Milloy Law Firm poster from the ’90s and that should probably get them both into the Hall. I mean look at this fucking thing!
It’s glorious. You couldn’t walk into a school book fair without seeing this bad larry and that plus the “being born in Aliquippa” thing should be enough to retroactively make him first ballot.