JohnTurney wrote:
Posted by Mike Florio on February 4, 2023, 9:30 AM EST
Deion Sanders was right. There needs to be a Hall of Fame within the Hall of Fame.
A portion of Peter King's FMIA
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... andy-reid/
Hall Takes
I met with Deion Sanders, the Colorado coach and fierce Hall of Fame critic, at the Super Bowl about the pro football shrine. He thinks the Hall has gotten watered down in recent years; 45 men have been elected to the Hall in the last four years. “We’ve gotten soft,” he told me. “It’s open house, is it not.”
Our discussion:
Sanders: “What do you call the Hall of Fame? A guy who what?”
Me: A guy who was so great that when you watched him play, you knew he was a Hall of Famer.
Sanders: “He changed the game. That’s what I was told, when I was a shortie coming up.”
Me: Wait a second. Guards don’t change the game.
Sanders: Excuse me?
Me: Guards.
Sanders: “Yes they do.”
Me: No they don’t.
Sanders: “They change the way the game is played. Yes they do. If you have a guard that’s dominant, that changes the way you call your game, that changes the game. Larry Allen changed the game.”
Me: How would you separate the Hall of Famers if you had your choice? Would you really want a wing of the Hall …
Sanders: “Yeah, upper room. You gotta have an upper room.”
Me: How do you decide who’s in it?
Sanders: “Shoot, they decide who’s in it. The game decides who’s in it. You know who changed the game. Like, if you just say OK, you’re gonna put LT [Lawrence Taylor] beside some of the guys that you’ve been putting in the last few years, you just gonna have them sit beside LT like it’s cool? You guys [selectors] can’t feel good about this stuff but you have a quota. You shouldn’t have to meet a quota every year to send guys in. If they ain’t that, they ain’t that. Secondly, how can Devin Hester not be in the Hall of Fame?”
Me: I voted for Hester.
Sanders: “Hester changed the game. When you think about returners of anything, Devin Hester. You kicked, he changed the game, seven years straight. That stuff makes me mad, man. Now it’s like haters involved. Hate shouldn’t be involved in this stuff.”
Me: I don’t think hate is involved.
Sanders: “How can Devin Hester not be in there? Give me anything.”
Me: My opinion is the number of snaps he played.
Sanders: “He’s a returner. Did you want him out there every play? He’s unique. He did something that has never been done before. You couldn’t even get up to go pee. You would hold it on fourth down because of Devin Hester. You would hold it because of Devin Hester. Nobody wanted to kick to him.”
Me: How would you decide the upper room?
Sanders: “You know who should decide? We should decide that. Y’all need to get out the way and let us decide the upper room. Y’all have done your thing and I appreciate that. I appreciate it immensely. You earned a right to be on that committee to vote. The upper room, that should be us. Because when we’re together, we know who ain’t got no business in there.”
Me: What do you do with a guy like [Packers Hall of Fame WR] Don Hutson?
Sanders: “In his era—was he totally dominant?”
Me: Yes. Played in the thirties and forties. Caught three times as many balls as anyone who played in the first 25 years of the league.
Sanders: “He should be in the upper room. Don’t compare eras, because eras are different.”
Me: Who do you think is the greatest quarterback of all time?
Sanders: “Brady.”
Me: Longevity? Or greatness?
Sanders: “Just the will that he had. The will. The way. What he brought to the game. And his fire and his passion. I’ve never heard anybody, a player, say anything negative about how he attacked the game. He’s a winner. He’s a darn winner. Once upon a time for me it was Montana. It was Joe. Shoot, it was Joe. But Brady with the Super Bowl wins eclipsed that.”
