What do you think ... Does Tasker desrve HOF status?

[BuffaloBill]

Recently debated with coworker who is huge Browns fan .. his opinion is that no way does a non-kicker/ punter get in. Even then a P/K would be a very rare election. He argued even a return specialist should be a "one in a billion" shot at getting in. As Bills fans we know Tasker had to be game planned for. He was a force in any game. He redefined the definition of a special teams player. Tell me in todaay's world of free agency that Tasker would not be highly sought after. So should he be a HOF candidate that gets real consideration?

[JÂy RÛßeÒ]

Absolutely. He changed the game. They added a Pro Bowl position just for him. The HOF voters need to learn the lesson the league learned from Levy - Special Teams are 1/3 of the game.

[JimmyPage]

Yes he does.

And I wonder how tasker would have done if they had used him in the passing game earlier in his career because he was effective when they finally let him play some WR.

[Taro T]

Absolutely. He changed the game. They added a Pro Bowl position just for him. The HOF voters need to learn the lesson the league learned from Levy - Special Teams are 1/3 of the game.

Yeah, what he said.

[lets_go_bills]

They discussed this on NFLN a few weeks back. We had a good thread going on it too. I certainly think Tasker belongs in the HoF. He changed/won games.

[Steely Dan]

Obviously yes. I seem to recall Marv Levy saying on the Bob Matthews radio show that Bill Parcells told him that when they played them Tasker was the guy they most gameplanned for. I also recall an NFL film about something where this very question came up and one of the Dallas Cowboys ST coaches from the past said they should start a new wing of the HOF and make Tasker the first inductee. Tasker was the MVP of one of his 7 pro-bowls. That was back in the day when only NFL players voted for the pro-bowl players. 'Nuff said.

 

Biased opinion piece.

 

ESPN

Article by our articulate friend Timmy.

 

Kent Hull Award For Tasker

 

Kansas City.com Sports

 

"Someone dust off Steve Tasker’s Hall of Fame resume. Pressuring the quarterback on third down is very, very important. But so is downing a punt inside the 10 or tackling a return man inside the 20."

 

Standard Examiner

 

Steve Tasker may never get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He's considered the best special-teamer ever to play the game, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee tends to look down on specialists.

That doesn't mean Tasker doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame -- and the Buffalo Bills gave him his due Sunday. The Bills enshrined Tasker on their Wall of Fame in halftime ceremonies of the opener against Denver. He increased the number of team inductees to 24.

 

The love of Sports

 

Living Prime Time Great, Great bio piece.

 

SF Gate.com

 

Read the entire article. Tasker is talked about at the beginning and end.

 

Highlights

 

Preliminary ballots for the Pro Football Hall of Fame arrived in the mail this week, and the first name marked on mine was Steve Tasker, the longtime special-teams star of the Buffalo Bills.

 

______________________________________________________

 

"You had to know exactly where he was," said Mike Westhoff, who, as special- teams coach of the Miami Dolphins during Tasker's 12 years in Buffalo, had to prepare game plans to account for him. Westhoff, now coaching special teams for the Jets, was one of the first opponents to assign three players to try to block Tasker on kick returns.

 

"He wrecked more returns than anyone," Westhoff said this week. "There were more times we would basically have to fair catch a ball where we would block everybody else, and he would beat us."

 

___________________________________________________

 

In a key 1990 game against the Raiders, he forced a Tim Brown fumble on a punt return in the second quarter to set up the first Buffalo touchdown. In the fourth quarter, he blocked a punt for the go-ahead touchdown, the big play in a 24-point outburst. Without that victory, Buffalo would not have won the AFC East title, would not have had home-field advantage in the playoffs, and might not have started its run of four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.

 

You're friend is a moron of the highest levels of morondom.

[Pete]

Absolutely!

[Dwight Drane]

I look at Tasker like a lot of people probably look at OJ. While he was great on the field and redefined the position.....his life after football makes me want to cringe every time i see him or hear his name.

 

He makes plenty of money by pimping himself out for every commercial gig out there and by talking 300 words per minute on CBS. He doesn't need a yellow jacket.

 

Take him off the Wall of Fame too. OJ only hurt two people. Tasker makes millions of peoples' ears bleed on a weekly basis.

[DrDawkinstein]

I look at Tasker like a lot of people probably look at OJ. While he was great on the field and redefined the position.....his life after football makes me want to cringe every time i see him or hear his name.

 

He makes plenty of money by pimping himself out for every commercial gig out there and by talking 300 words per minute on CBS. He doesn't need a yellow jacket.

 

Take him off the Wall of Fame too. OJ only hurt two people. Tasker makes millions of peoples' ears bleed on a weekly basis.

 

[Steely Dan]

I look at Tasker like a lot of people probably look at OJ. While he was great on the field and redefined the position.....his life after football makes me want to cringe every time i see him or hear his name.

 

He makes plenty of money by pimping himself out for every commercial gig out there and by talking 300 words per minute on CBS. He doesn't need a yellow jacket.

 

Take him off the Wall of Fame too. OJ only hurt two people. Tasker makes millions of peoples' ears bleed on a weekly basis.

 

Congratulations! You have just won the dumbest post of the year award! The trophy is waiting for you in the closest septic tank and must be picked up only by you.

[Tcali]

Recently debated with coworker who is huge Browns fan .. his opinion is that no way does a non-kicker/ punter get in. Even then a P/K would be a very rare election. He argued even a return specialist should be a "one in a billion" shot at getting in. As Bills fans we know Tasker had to be game planned for. He was a force in any game. He redefined the definition of a special teams player. Tell me in todaay's world of free agency that Tasker would not be highly sought after. So should he be a HOF candidate that gets real consideration?

I think Tasker deserves to be in. He was by far the best special teams player in the history of the league.

[Tcali]

Yes he does.

And I wonder how tasker would have done if they had used him in the passing game earlier in his career because he was effective when they finally let him play some WR.

I agree with that.They shoulda let him play WR when he was in his prime. No one could cover the guy.

[bartshan-83]

I mentioned this in another thread, but is Tasker, as arguably the best ST specialist of all-time, more deserving than say, Ray Guy, arguably the best punter of all-time? Along the same lines, Jan Stenerud is the only kicker to ever make it.

 

I'd say vote him in, but just food for thought...

[Dibs]

I mentioned this in another thread, but is Tasker, as arguably the best ST specialist of all-time, more deserving than say, Ray Guy, arguably the best punter of all-time? Along the same lines, Jan Stenerud is the only kicker to ever make it.

 

I'd say vote him in, but just food for thought...

There is quite a solid argument against Guy being the best punter of all-time.......there is no argument as to who the best STer of all time was.

 

Tasker should have been inducted the first year he was eligible.......there was never anyone better.

[bartshan-83]

There is quite a solid argument against Guy being the best punter of all-time.......there is no argument as to who the best STer of all time was.

Fair enough, I just used Guy because I believed he was the closest thing to a consensus.

 

I guess the larger scope of my point is that was Tasker's impact on special teams greater than any punter who ever played and all but one kicker?

 

Again, devil's advocate...I'd vote him in.

[BillsWatch]

ABSOLUTELY!

[Dwight Drane]

Congratulations! You have just won the dumbest post of the year award! The trophy is waiting for you in the closest septic tank and must be picked up only by you.

 

I'm too big to fish it out of there.....maybe Tasker can fit one of his little midget hands down there and get it for me. I'm sure I'd have to pay him $50 to do it, and his agent would take $10 for getting him such a great gig, and he'd have to fit it in-between a bar-mitzvah and a voice-over for a carpet store...but he's a gamer.

[Pyrite Gal]

Another thing that impresses me about Tasker is not simply did he have to be gameplanned for but he actually forced the NFL to change a rule to deal with an innovation he developed and pulled off because opponents game planned a way to stop his kick coverage. It is illegal for a player to cover a kick by running out of bounds and essentially behind his team off the field to cover kicks. Tasker was quick enough and understood the game well enough that he could run down outside of the field of play and get back onto the field to make the tackle. Simply phenomenal.

 

I understand when some argue that a player needs to be good enough that his team puts him on the field as a position player. Tasker was forced to "fill-in" as a WR due to injuries and it became clear that he was on ST not because he was not good enough to be a position player, but in fact he was such a productive ST player that the Bills chose to sacrifice his productive position play to have him be gameplanned for and revolutionize the ST game. While his relatively minimal but impressive WR stats in no way qualify him for the HOF they do show strongly how those who argue that no ST player can be considered a good enough player to get the HOF, Tasker was a skilled player by any measure.

[jester43]

I'm too big to fish it out of there.....maybe Tasker can fit one of his little midget hands down there and get it for me. I'm sure I'd have to pay him $50 to do it, and his agent would take $10 for getting him such a great gig, and he'd have to fit it in-between a bar-mitzvah and a voice-over for a carpet store...but he's a gamer.

wow. i don't think he belongs in the hall either, but geez...did you catch him banging your wife or something?

[Dwight Drane]

wow. i don't think he belongs in the hall either, but geez...did you catch him banging your wife or something?

 

My Uncle