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Hall of Fame - 25 Semi-Finalists


Peter

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It seems crazy to me that Andre Reed, Ralph Wilson and Steve Tasker have not been elected yet.

 

Bruce is a lock. I watched Reggie White in many Packers and Eagles games, and I've seen high lights of Deacon Jones. But I'm thankful I had the opportunity to watch Bruce play most of his career for the Bills. Say what you want about White and Jones, if Bruce was not as good as those two, he was easily great enough to be a first ballot HOFer.

 

Andre Reed has more catches and yards then Swan and Stallworth combined, and they are both in. Can they be more obvious about the fact that Andre played in 4 SB losses, while Swan & Stallworth's Steelers went 4-0? What crap. If SB losses were that important, why did Jimbo and Levy get elected? I just can't see what Andre Reed left out of his Hall of Fame resume'.

 

Same goes for Ralph Wilson. It's an insult to the Hall of Fame and to Ralph himself that Art Modell is in the final 25 with Wilson this year. Come on. This is beyond stupid. Did I read on this forum that Modell passed away? I had not heard that. But dead or alive, I cannot imagine Modell or a family member showing their faces 20 miles away from Cleveland to accept the HOF bust. There would be 150,000 Browns' fans with torches ready to burn down the entire facility.

 

And the biggest travesty may be the fact Steve Tasker has never even been close to getting in since he was eligible in 2002. Same reasoning I cannot understand what is going on with Andre Reed, with so many other receivers with less catches and or yards then him already in. The HOF opened up the special teams category years ago when they elected Ray Guy for his amazing punting career with the Raiders. Did they also elect Jan Stenerud, I'm not sure? So doesn't it make logical sense for the best special teams player (7 Pro Bowls, one Pro Bowl MVP, if you can believe that), in NFL history in the non-kicking category to be elected in? During his career with the Bills, there was Steve Tasker, and nobody, when anyone mentioned special teams stars. The NFC had to vote one into the Pro Bowl every year Tasker made if for the AFC, but nobody thought that guy was ever in Tasker's class, whoever it happened to be. He also ran back kicks effectively when called on, and was a pretty good WR when needed there as well. I can't imagine why the voters may make Steve wait years and years, if they ever vote him in at all. The guy was unique, and the best at his positions for many years.

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Cortez Kennedy?!?!?!? WTF? Am I crazy or is that guy completely unworthy of that honor?

 

OK I've taken a look at things. I can see where the guy deserves to be a finalist. I guess my memory is just fading because I never had the impression that he was hall of fame caliber player. The numbers say differently though. 58 career sacks from a DT is nothing to sneeze at.

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Cortez Kennedy?!?!?!? WTF? Am I crazy or is that guy completely unworthy of that honor?

 

'Tez was defensive player of the year in '92 on a team that was 2-14. He was voted to 8 Pro Bowls and was a 5 time All Pro. While he's no Marcus Stroud, he had a fairly decent pro career, I'd say.

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Same goes for Ralph Wilson. It's an insult to the Hall of Fame and to Ralph himself that Art Modell is in the final 25 with Wilson this year. Come on. This is beyond stupid. Did I read on this forum that Modell passed away? I had not heard that. But dead or alive, I cannot imagine Modell or a family member showing their faces 20 miles away from Cleveland to accept the HOF bust. There would be 150,000 Browns' fans with torches ready to burn down the entire facility.

To my knowledge, Art Modell is still very much alive. He isn't the principal owner/president/grand pubah of the Ravens anymore, though.

 

You may be thinking of Al Lerner, who was a partner of Modell in Cleveland and became the owner of the "new" Browns when they were awarded the expansion franchise. He passed away about 5-6 years ago and his son Randy is now running the ship.

 

Nevertheless, I agree....Ralph was deserving of a Hall of Fame induction several years BEFORE Modell was even owner of the Browns.

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Damn, you can almost field an entire defensive unit with this class - how about a front seven of DE R. Dent, DT C. Kennedy, DT J. Randle, DE B. Smith, WLB C. Haley, MLB D. Thomas, SLB C. Doleman and then S R. Woodson and CB L. Hayes in the secondary.

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Andre Reed has more catches and yards then Swan and Stallworth combined, and they are both in. Can they be more obvious about the fact that Andre played in 4 SB losses, while Swan & Stallworth's Steelers went 4-0? What crap. If SB losses were that important, why did Jimbo and Levy get elected? I just can't see what Andre Reed left out of his Hall of Fame resume'.

 

Andre Reed turned some writers off at end of career and writers are what get you in Hall of Fame not ability, catches or yards.

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Damn, you can almost field an entire defensive unit with this class - how about a front seven of DE R. Dent, DT C. Kennedy, DT J. Randle, DE B. Smith, WLB C. Haley, MLB D. Thomas, SLB C. Doleman and then S R. Woodson and CB L. Hayes in the secondary.

 

I'd take them against the Bills offense, at their current advanced ages, even shorthanded two players.

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My guesses:

 

Bruce Smith = Lock

Rod Woodson = Lock

 

Next level

Derrick Thomas = Was one of his era's Superstars, teams had to gameplan away from him

Cris Carter = Hard to ignore 1,000 catches, almost made it last year

 

 

Could make a good argument

Charles Haley - Five rings, great pass rusher

Andre Reed - underrated outside Buffalo despite his numbers

Cortez Kennedy - was a great player

 

Others:

Shannon Sharpe - a glorifed WR in my opinion, good player but gets a lot of love for the position he played where his numbers look flashy but was he really a TE

 

Tagliague- have read in the past that none of the writers vote him too high - wish they had a seperate category for him so players aren't left out

 

Russ Grimm; I never understood why Joe Jacoby got less attention, he was the star of that OL

 

Kuchenburg; Dr. Z pushes for him all the time, Langer and Little are already in, do we need 3 guys from one interior OL in the hall

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Andre Reed turned some writers off at end of career and writers are what get you in Hall of Fame not ability, catches or yards.

Very true...it's all politics. All it takes is to get on the bad side of Peter King (see: Monk, Art) and you're toast. Simply put, the Pro Football HOF is just way too political.

 

And, as another poster put it, it's all about the rings (see: Swan, Lynn; Stallworth, John). Sure, Bruce will get in without the rings, but I'm afraid Tasker and Reed will be left on the vine for several more years to come.

 

Not that it's perfect by any means, but the baseball voting process is a tad more "democratic." It's a secret ballot and done via mail, so there's no closed door politicking going on...Canton should look at the Cooperstown model a bit more closely.

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My guesses:

 

Bruce Smith = Lock

Rod Woodson = Lock

 

Next level

Derrick Thomas = Was one of his era's Superstars, teams had to gameplan away from him

Cris Carter = Hard to ignore 1,000 catches, almost made it last year

 

 

Could make a good argument

Charles Haley - Five rings, great pass rusher

Andre Reed - underrated outside Buffalo despite his numbers

Cortez Kennedy - was a great player

 

Others:

Shannon Sharpe - a glorifed WR in my opinion, good player but gets a lot of love for the position he played where his numbers look flashy but was he really a TE

 

Tagliague- have read in the past that none of the writers vote him too high - wish they had a seperate category for him so players aren't left out

 

Russ Grimm; I never understood why Joe Jacoby got less attention, he was the star of that OL

 

Kuchenburg; Dr. Z pushes for him all the time, Langer and Little are already in, do we need 3 guys from one interior OL in the hall

Pretty much in agreement except I think you underestimate Shannon Sharpe--who was an amazingly good TE.

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Here's my guesses for who will make it...

 

Bruce

Paul Tagliabue

 

Who won't make it until he's dead

Art Modell - if he were alive, he'd be the first inductee to be booed

If Modell ever gets in they should consider doing his induction in private or via satellite hookup - Browns fans won't have far to go to heckle him unmercifully.

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