A bunch of guys (some kind of marginal) get into the Hall of Fame, but then there's the slam-dunk guys -- players who cruise into Canton on the first ballot. Which teams have the most of those kind of guys?
I'm not a big fan of the Hall of Fame. I don't like the whole concept.
The Steelers won four Super Bowls in the '70s. Now we're supposed to go through and identify which of their players were "great"? Bradshaw's in. Mean Joe is in. Is Donnie Shell in or out? What about Stallworth -- is he Hall worthy or not?
It's tiresome. The team was great, and all of those guys contributed in varying degrees.
If you took Bradshaw and swapped him out with any of the first three quarterbacks selected the next year -- Plunkett, Manning, Pastorini -- then he definitely wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. It's partly how good you were, and who you happen to be playing with plays a huge role in how you're remembered.
I'm not a huge fan of the whole concept, and then there are clear oversights. How is Ray Guy not in the Hall? He revolutionized punting. He changed the game -- got other teams thinking about hang time and coffin corners. He never had a punt blocked. Go back and watch the high snap he pulled down early in the Super Bowl win against Washington; remarkable.
At wide receiver, we've been debating Cris Carter, Tim Brown and Andre Reed for years. Those guys are fine, but I think that Cliff Branch and Otis Taylor are more worthy than any of those guys. Different game back then, but they were game-changers.
But whatever. I'm rambling.
I will concede that inside the Hall of Fame, there's kind of a best-of-the-best group -- guys who get voted in on the first ballot. Here's where you weed out a lot of the arguments. For the most part, when you skim over the names below, we all pretty much agree that all (well, most) of these guys were really good.
In the last 20 years, the 49ers have 7 players who were first-ballot Hall of Famers. The Cowboys and Raiders have 6. Nobody else has more than 3.
That's allowing guys to be double-listed. Raiders get credit for Jerry Rice, Eric Dickerson, Ronnie Lott, Warren Sapp and Rod Woodson. That's kind of soft -- those guys played their best ball for other teams. That's easy with most guys, but I didn't want to get into drawing the line (Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders, for example).
Here are your first-ballot guys for the last 20 HOF classes:
FIRST-BALLOT HALL-OF-FAMERS, 1994- | ||
---|---|---|
Player | Year | Team |
Emmitt Smith | 2010 | Arizona |
Eric Dickerson | 1999 | Atlanta |
Deion Sanders | 2011 | Atlanta |
Don Shula | 1997 | Indianapolis |
Rod Woodson | 2009 | Baltimore |
Jonathan Ogden | 2013 | Baltimore |
Deion Sanders | 2011 | Baltimore |
Jim Kelly | 2002 | Buffalo |
Bruce Smith | 2009 | Buffalo |
Reggie White | 2006 | Carolina |
Mike Singletary | 1998 | Chicago |
Anthony Munoz | 1998 | Cincinnati |
Troy Aikman | 2006 | Dallas |
Tony Dorsett | 1994 | Dallas |
Randy White | 1994 | Dallas |
Larry Allen | 2013 | Dallas |
Emmitt Smith | 2010 | Dallas |
Deion Sanders | 2011 | Dallas |
Tony Dorsett | 1994 | Denver |
John Elway | 2004 | Denver |
Barry Sanders | 2004 | Detroit |
Reggie White | 2006 | Green Bay |
Marshall Faulk | 2011 | Indianapolis |
Eric Dickerson | 1999 | Indianapolis |
Warren Moon | 2006 | Kansas City |
Marcus Allen | 2003 | Kansas City |
Joe Montana | 2000 | Kansas City |
Don Shula | 1997 | Miami |
Dan Marino | 2005 | Miami |
Warren Moon | 2006 | Minnesota |
Lawrence Taylor | 1999 | NY Giants |
Ronnie Lott | 2000 | NY Jets |
Warren Sapp | 2013 | Oakland |
Ronnie Lott | 2000 | Oakland |
Rod Woodson | 2009 | Oakland |
Marcus Allen | 2003 | Oakland |
Jerry Rice | 2010 | Oakland |
Eric Dickerson | 1999 | Oakland |
Reggie White | 2006 | Philadelphia |
Rod Woodson | 2009 | Pittsburgh |
Steve Young | 2005 | San Francisco |
Ronnie Lott | 2000 | San Francisco |
Rod Woodson | 2009 | San Francisco |
Larry Allen | 2013 | San Francisco |
Joe Montana | 2000 | San Francisco |
Jerry Rice | 2010 | San Francisco |
Deion Sanders | 2011 | San Francisco |
Warren Moon | 2006 | Seattle |
Steve Largent | 1995 | Seattle |
Jerry Rice | 2010 | Seattle |
Marshall Faulk | 2011 | St. Louis |
Jackie Slater | 2001 | St. Louis |
Eric Dickerson | 1999 | St. Louis |
Warren Sapp | 2013 | Tampa Bay |
Steve Young | 2005 | Tampa Bay |
Warren Moon | 2006 | Tennessee |
Bruce Matthews | 2007 | Tennessee |
Deion Sanders | 2011 | Washington |
Darrell Green | 2008 | Washington |
Bruce Smith | 2009 | Washington |