The argument against Seifert and Flores is that they won with someone else's team, and they provided evidence to support that argument by stinking up the joint in their next gigs.Ness wrote:Owens is maybe a top five receiver ever. Certainly in the modern era. He shouldn't have to wait for someone that wasn't as good as him because they've been on the docket waiting. It would be like Jerry Rice having to wait for Cris Carter. If you're better, you should get in over someone who isn't period. Owens dominated on multiple teams with multiple quarterbacks. Even if he did drive them nuts. But he never got in trouble with the law. He was never involved with drugs (Taylor) never beat women, was never connected to a murder case (Harrison) and not got arrested (Sapp). Also, he didn't play his entire career in the NFL in a dome with a top 5 quarterback ever, he didn't disappear in the playoffs, and he wasn't afraid to go mix it up over the middle. If we're going to grill Owens for stuff that happened off the field, then Harrison or anyone else should be held to the same standard. So will Owens have to wait for Issac Bruce or Rod Smith now? Where is the line drawn? Sorry I don't think this was the right decision. He didn't even make the top ten which is ridiculous. So what's against him, he was a jerk? I remember Joe Horrigan explicitly stating a while back that the selection committee should take into account on the contributions on the field. Voting on their character shouldn't be relevant. Well, that's how it's supposed to work.bachslunch wrote:Disagree. The level of baggage Owens has (being a bad teammate with resulting numerous team changes, showboating, lots of dropped balls) pretty much guaranteed he wasn't going to be first ballot. The number of first ballot WRs has been absurdly small anyway (Rice, Berry, Alworth, Warfield, Largent) and there's no way the voters were going to accord him the same treatment when they didn't for Cris Carter. TO will wait his turn, probably getting in a couple years from now.Ness wrote:Dungy getting in is absurd.
Owens being shafted is just as ridiculous.
And I don't see the election of Dungy as "absurd." He has innovator credit for being the first black coach to win a Super Bowl and for co-creating the Tampa-2 defense. He was a successful assistant coach for many years before getting his chance to be head coach. He's one of the two coaches on the 00s All Decade Team. His lifetime W-L percentage is excellent. And he turned around two bad franchises. That's plenty more than enough to qualify him for the HoF.
As or Dungy he really didn't turn around the Colts as if it was night and day. Peyton Manning was there. The Colts were coming off a bad season in 2001, but had made the playoffs the previous two seasons before that. Seeing as Peyton Manning has carried four coaches to the big show, I really don't think his tenure in Indianapolis is that special. If anything he underachieved. Mora could have just as easily been dragged. The Colts made the Super Bowl without him the very next year he left with Jim Caldwell too. I will say he did get a few quality players to help the Colts. Clark, Sanders, Mathis, and Freeney. Also, we shouldn't even be bringing attention to his race, which should have nothing to do with his coaching ability. I do appreciate what he did in Tampa with his defensive schemes. However, as for as innovators go Coryell should be in way before Dungy, and he's been waiting for years. And where is Flores? He won two Super Bowls with the Raiders, but not even a peep. Where is George Seifert? Two rings and one of the best winning percentages ever.
You've accurately stated the case for Owens. Lots of people agree with you, but enough members of the selectors disagree to bump him off the ballot in the first round. Myself, I don't get it. He handled the situation in Philly badly in his second season there, but all the other talk about him being a locker room cancer anywhere else is just noise. I don't think there's any merit to it beyond what you'll hear about many great players who want to win. I think even at this point the record shows that Favre was as big of a jerk in his later years, and Donovan McNabb almost as much.