The Hall of Fame Debate is Original

The Hall of Fame Induction ceremony extravaganza, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, there are no Denver Broncos on the docket. To the surprise of some one- namely me- people are actually starting to talk about it.

From the World's Greatest grandpa, Paul Zimmerman:

"Doug of New York brings up something I hear every year at this time. The
Broncos, who have been to six Super Bowls, have only one Hall of Famer? Is this fair? Is this just? "What about Gradishar, Mecklenburg, Zimmerman, Little and Davis?" he asks. And I could add Alzado and Jackson and my personal choices, Richie, Tombstone, Jackson. Great players all, but not the greatest, except for Jackson. But when Terrell Davis comes up this January, you're going to see some real action. The anti faction will say his career was too short. The pro faction, of
which I will be a member, will argue quality over quantity. And thank you for
what you wrote."

Also, someone from ESPN discovered parts of America not called Boston or New York, because one of their guys called Mike Sando wrote this article. Frankly, it's a pretty stupid argument. It essentially argues that since the Broncos have consistently won at a high level, they should have a bunch of Hall of Famers. For proof, he cites other teams who have consistently performed at a high level. That sounds good in theory, until you realize that consistently good means consistently good, not excellent. For example, Barry Sanders was the best player I ever saw, bar none. His teams fucking sucked though. How many Hall of Famers do you see on New England's sideline? Brady, maybe Seymour, and we're done here.

I refuse to speculate on the greatness of players I didn't really see, so I won't bother with Gradishar or Tombstone Jackson or any of the other old guys. I think football players are the hardest to evaluate, because what they do is so dependant on their teammates. Was the running game good because of the line, or because of the back? I began to fully appreciate football around 1989 (beginning with the Atwater Dynasty), so I'll start there:

• Atwater: Loved him. My favorite player, maybe ever. Not a Hall of Famer
• Rod Smith: Not a Hall of Famer. Never the best at his position, rarely mentioned in the top 5, even. Consistently good. Statistically speaking, he's almost identical to Keenan McCardell. Is Keenan McCardell a Hall of Famer? Absolutely not. Arguing anything about him being undrafted is retarded. Where a guy is drafted does not count once you're in the league. Also, he was a dick to me once, so fuck that guy.
• Terrell Davis: Best player on the best Broncos teams ever. 2,000 yard rusher, et cetera, et cetera. Not a Hall of Famer. His productive years were simply too short. "But if he didn't get hurt he could've..." but he did get hurt. It sucks, but frankly, it sucks for Garrison Hearst, too. And that guy who was the rookie of the year and then blew out his knee at the Pro Bowl (Robert Something). Also, I've got to knock him down a little because of the success of the running game without him. If Olandis Gary can get a thousand, that means Davis is twice as good as Gary. On any other team, twice as good as Olandis Gary is who? Jamal Lewis?
• which brings us to Tom Nalen and Gary Zimmerman: I absolutely think they should be in there. I think the no talking to the media thing hurts them both.
• Who else is there? Elam? Pryce? No and no.

Let me finish by saying that I would judge the Hall of Fame much tougher than most. In my mind, greatness is obvious, it's almost blatant. If there's a lot of questions, than the answer is probably no. Curtis Martin? No. He's the Rod Smith of running backs. Favre? Yes. Brady? Yes. Manning? yes. Ray Lewis? Yes (unfortunately). Urlacher? No. Strahan? No. Simeon Rice? No. Derrick Brooks? Yes. Torry Holt? Yes. Harrison? Yes. Randy Moss? No. Absolutely. I left out John Lynch. I think he'll get in, but I wouldn't vote for him. For as much shit as I give him, I really used to like John Lynch (honest). His college teams at Stanford with Ron George and Glyn Milburn and Steve Stenstrom were among my favorites. But if he gets in, it'll be because of his work with Tampa, so he's not in the Broncos discussion.