Nice to see Richie Petitbon get his due

[bachslunch]

Perhaps because he was a total flop as a head coach?

So was Dick Lebeau. But now that they've established that Lebeau is a legitimate Hall of Famer, it seems to me that Petitbon has a very good case -- almost exactly the same case that put Lebeau in. They're a matched set, right down to the French names.

Of course, I think Lebeau's selection was a joke, but obviously the people who count don't share that opinion.

If Petitbon was that good a DC, wouldn't he have gotten a job after being fired as HC?

Might be wrong but I thought he decided to retire afterward.

[bachslunch]

True, but Clark Shaughnessy was also nominated and would never get a sniff based solely on his head coaching numbers. If it's fair to consider a strong assistant coaching career with minimal head coaching success, both have reasonable arguments. I'm actually fine with both getting in at some point, as well as folks like Buddy Ryan and Bill Arnsparger.

Do you really think Petitbon was that good a DC? It seems to me that he was probably a little bit above average, but hardly great. I wouldn't even rate him as very good. For most of his time with the Redskins, he wasn't even the sole DC; he shared the duties with Larry Pecatiello. In his 12 seasons, the defense ranked 16th, 1st, 11th, 11th, 11th, 9th, 6th, 26th, 13th, 13th, 2nd, and 8th. That's fairly good but not exactly overwhelming.

That's surprising to me. Maybe Petitbon benefited from lots of announcer hype or something -- I remember hearing a steady drumbeat about how talented and able he was. Are these points allowed or yards gained? Just curious. He doesn't have any innovator credit I'm aware of.

Womder how this compares with folks like LeBeau, Arnsparger, and Ryan? LeBeau supposedly was not good during the third of his career he spent with Cincinnati and doesn't seem to have set the world on fire in Tennessee, for example. Wonder how much better he really was in Pittsburgh?