Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

As for Herschel, do we include his USFL numbers? It is the PRO Football Hall of Fame.

I know I often say this (and you might be yawning by now) but I thought a HOF standard used to be, "Can you tell the history of the game without this guy?" In Herschel's case, he was one of the first (if not the first) major college players to turn pro early and the trade was a big deal also. An interesting case regarding him. Especially if you add his USFL yardage.

GameBeforeTheMoney wrote:As for Herschel, do we include his USFL numbers? It is the PRO Football Hall of Fame.

I know I often say this (and you might be yawning by now) but I thought a HOF standard used to be, "Can you tell the history of the game without this guy?" In Herschel's case, he was one of the first (if not the first) major college players to turn pro early and the trade was a big deal also. An interesting case regarding him. Especially if you add his USFL yardage.

I completely disagree with that criterion. I can imagine an excellent history of the NFL that would mention only Jim Thorpe and Red Grange.

GameBeforeTheMoney wrote:Yeah, people forget how good Andre Rison was for a while.

Strange that the "No" votes for Elway, White, Barry Sanders, Bruce Smith, weren't "Maybe" votes. Who would say flat out "No" about them at that point in their career?

No idea who those people were on the "maybe" stuff. Elway is interesting because at that time he hadn't won those two SB's but everyone viewed him as one of the best QBs in the NFL. The rest are non-defensible.