Chuck Foreman

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

That's right - it was Gale Sayers' record - Sayers broke Brown's record.

Yeah, those are all great points. How far can Tarkenton take Minnesota without Foreman? Tough to get into hypotheticals like that but how would Minnesota replace that production?

I agree the bar for the HOF is lower now than in the past - and to see someone so good as Foreman get shut out is - at least to me - unfortunate. He is so memorable to those of us fortunate enough to have seen him play.

Billy Sims, man, that's another guy you had to see to understand how incredible he was. Sims/Foreman backfield in their prime - that would be incredible. Foreman's injury was sad, but Sims' even more so in some ways because he never got to experience the team success Foreman did.

Watching both Mitchell and Foreman play for several years, there's no question Chuck Foreman was superior. I always liked Lydell Mitchell but Foreman was clearly better. No one would have traded Mitchell for Foreman straight up. Lydell Micthell, Joe Washington, Chuck Muncie, all have stats that on paper might correlate with Foreman. And I love all those guys. But Foreman was multiple levels above the others in terms of impacting a game and a team's season.

[SixtiesFan]

In a recent interview, Foreman said something like, "O.J. and I were the two best backs in football."

They probably were in 1975 and 76.

In 1975-76 O.J. Simpson and Chuck Foreman could have been called the two best, but there was a big gap between Number One and Number Two. Foreman was often called "the best all-around back in pro football," because of his pass receiving.

In 1977 Walter Payton came on big when he gained 1852 yards rushing in the last 14-game season.

[Brian wolf]

By 1978, with Earl Campbell taking the NFL by storm, Foreman was dealing with more injuries due to heavy workloads. His last productive season before the wheels came off. Larry Brown went through the same thing earlier in Washington. McCutcheon in LA would go through the same thing.

[Jay Z]

No to Foreman here.

The TDs are the best argument. But Bill Brown had the exact same number.

The "lowered standards" argument comes down to Floyd Little. There was a campaign for Little. I didn't buy the campaign, but would the same campaign work for Foreman? Little was given credit by some for playing on a bad team. Foreman runs into the Vikings problem of being a "secondary" player on a team with multiple HOFers that never actually won a championship. I don't see that changing.

Going along with the team concept again, most of the other runners in his peer group (Larry Brown, Mitchell, McCutcheon, Little, maybe Terry Metcalf) started with weaker teams. Of them all, Foreman started with by far the best team. Yeah, 7-7 in 1972, but four playoff appearances before that, HOF QB, etc. Foreman made more SBs, but he was more of a "final piece" than a load carrier.

[Brian wolf]

It seemed to me that former Steelers' players gave a boost to Little's campaign. With Terrell Davis getting elected though, it opens a whole can of worms, though we all know postseason gave him a boost. Foreman had big NFC championship games but was shut down in the SBs. Should postseason help him as well?

[Bryan]

Going along with the team concept again, most of the other runners in his peer group (Larry Brown, Mitchell, McCutcheon, Little, maybe Terry Metcalf) started with weaker teams. Of them all, Foreman started with by far the best team. Yeah, 7-7 in 1972, but four playoff appearances before that, HOF QB, etc. Foreman made more SBs, but he was more of a "final piece" than a load carrier.

"With Chuck Foreman in their lineup, the Vikings went from nowhere in 72 to the Super Bowl in 73."

I think that is an unfair characterization of Foreman. He had like 300 touches a season for 6 consecutive seasons. Half the time his skill position mates were guys like Stu Voigt, Jim Lash & Brent McClanahan....not exactly the 1980 Chargers.

[Brian wolf]

Haha ... you're right Jay Z

Brown had the same number of TDs as Foreman but played in 85 more games.

Total Games -- Postseason included

Brown 206 games -- 78 TDs
Foreman 122 games -- 83 TDs

[JuggernautJ]

Chuck Foreman to me, is HOF. No question HOVG and I was stunned when I learned he wasn't in there.

"There" is a little vague so, just for clarification, Chuck Foreman has been ion the HoVG since 2010.

My 'dream backfield' would be Billy Sims and Chuck Foreman in their primes.

That'd be a darn good backfield but...
Over Jim Brown and (any of) Gale Sayers/Walter Payton/Steve Van Buren/Barry Sanders or even Hugh McElhenny/Leroy Kelly and a few others?
I don't know...

[Brian wolf]

After the Bengals lost the SB in 1989, I told friends at the time, "these Bengals will be back, they have the perfect backfield of a running FB in Ickey Woods and the perfect HB in James Brooks". When Ickey got hurt in 1989, all the air went out of the team. Even Esiason couldn't get them into the playoffs. As talented a passer as Boomer was, it frustrated me that he couldn't win more big games, and after 1990, when they lost to the Raiders in the playoffs, he never was the same QB. This team, with this offense, should have been special. Only for one season.

[Bryan]

That'd be a darn good backfield but...
Over Jim Brown and (any of) Gale Sayers/Walter Payton/Steve Van Buren/Barry Sanders or even Hugh McElhenny/Leroy Kelly and a few others?
I don't know...

Not over Jim Brown, but more like a Field of Dreams where I convert my cornfield into the Pontiac Silverdome and Billy Sims and Chuck Foreman come back to carry the football again.