Earl Morrall: HoVG!

[JuggernautJ]

Earl Morrall is on this year's ballot for the Hall of (the) Very Good and, in my opinion, it is long past time he be included there.
1 NFL MVP, 1 NFL and 3 Superbowl championships (and on at least two of the four championships he played a vital part), 2 time All Pro, 1972 Comeback Player of the Year... Morrall has an excellent resume for the HoVG.

But to me, more telling and more importantly, can you tell the history of the NFL without him?
Earl Morrall is a fundamental part of two of the most important teams of the late 60's - early 70's and the NFL history of that time can't be told without including him.

Stats at PFR:
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... rrEa00.htm

A fact filled bio supporting him for the Hall of Fame:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/3025 ... me-part-ii

[Rupert Patrick]

Morrall, you could argue, was the greatest backup QB in pro football history. When he was called upon to step in for Hall of Fame QB's, he led teams to Super Bowls. He also had a long career, somewhat nomadic. At his peak he was a league MVP. I think he belongs in the HOVG.

[Bryan]

I am a big Earl Morrall fan. One of the most fascinating and unique careers in NFL history. But Morrall was never a starting QB for very long, and there are more deserving players (and QBs) for the HOVG.

On a sidenote, its interesting to me how similar Morrall's 1968 & 1972 seasons were. He had good surrounding talent, performed well in the regular season, but that 1972 playoff against the Browns was very nearly a repeat of SB III. Such a strange game. The 72 Browns weren't any good, Mike Phipps was a terrible QB and the reason Paul Warfield was on the Dolphins. First play of the game Phipps appears to be intercepted by Doug Swift, but the refs rule that Swift trapped the ball. Not to worry...Phipps would go on to throw 5 INTs (two to Swift), the Dolphins would score a few plays later on a blocked punt. Yet midway through the 4th quarter the Browns were winning 14-13. If not for a great catch by Warfield for a first down that eventually led to Kiick's winning TD run, Earl Morrall might have been the QB in two of the biggest upsets in NFL history.

[JeffreyMiller]

The Forrest Gump of the NFL?

[Rupert Patrick]

The Forrest Gump of the NFL?

I've already proclaimed Lou Saban as the Forrest Gump of football, because he drifted about like a feather, always moving from place to place, and you never knew where he'd pop up next, but he left his mark all over the history of the game in so many different places, and at so many different levels, from:

- Being on hand for the birth of the AAFC as a player with the Browns
- Coaching in colleges in the 50's
- Being on hand for the birth of the AFL as the coach of the Patriots in 1960
- Coaching the Bills to back-to-back AFL titles in 1964-65
- Leaving the Bills after the 1965 season and coaching at the University of Maryland for a year
- Getting back into pro football, coaching the Broncos from 1967-71
- Going back to Buffalo from 1972-76, and his main achievement there was to get OJ Simpson's career on track (five years was his longest continuous tenure in any one place)
- Back to the college ranks, where he coached at Miami of Florida and Army, then spent two years out of football working with George Steinbrenner, who was on Saban's coaching staff in 1955 at Northwestern. Saban spent a year running a racetrack and another year as a VP for the New York Yankees.
- After two years coaching at the University of Central Florida (1983-84), Saban retired from coaching.
- Following two years of retirement, Saban got back into coaching, drifting from high schools to semi-pro teams, to junior colleges, and he even coached in the Arena League. He finally quit coaching for good when he was 81 years of age.

There is literally no telling how many different lives Lou Saban touched, not just professional players, but high school kids who graduated in the 21st century who had the opportunity to soak up the knowledge of this old guy who had learned firsthand from Paul Brown and played alongside Otto Graham and Marion Motley. From 1946 to 2002, he was only out of football for the two years he was retired, and the two years he was working with Steinbrenner. Lou Saban didn't seem to care where he was coaching football, just as long as he could teach somebody the game.

[rewing84]

Agreed on earl morrall belonging in the hovg

[JohnH19]

Most definitely! Earl also had terrific statistical seasons with the Lions in 1963 and the Giants in 1965. In fact, he should have received some MVP votes in ‘65 for leading the Giants to a 7-7 season after ‘64’s 2-10-2 disaster.