Bob Gill wrote:So, given those criteria, what would you do with Rich Gannon? For four years he was about as good as anybody, but that came after a decade or so of mediocrity.
By the way, excellent point about Tingelhoff's longevity working against him, just the opposite of the way it would be for a running back or a receiver. I'd never thought of those two things together, but I think you're right.
I wouldn't give Gannon 4 years as the best - on the year by year basis.
Below is not specific to Gannon.
My 'criteria' is more about limiting the candidates to players who were actually the best (at their position for the modern one position players.) It's also equally about the other side of that which is excluding from the pool of candidates those that were never the best or really even close to the best.
Also doesn't mean I think anyone with 3 or so great years is auto-HOF, that's just a/the minimum to be "in the conversation" (i.e. a candidate), which is of course all personal preference. In terms of PFHOF I'd rather talk about players that were the very best than someone who was good and compiled some stats.
Basically I'd rather see a HOF with Gale Sayers than one with Jerome Bettis. A HOF with both in is conflicting, to me. One fits the criteria of greatness, one was never even close to the best back in football during his own career, let alone in all of history - to date. Yet when those two players are looked at by the majority, one is "exception to the rule" and one is "slam dunk" . . . That makes no sense, when one is a legend who was great and one is a good player who was never great.
Completely off-topic, I find this latest HOF class to be uninspiring. Though the greatest joy I've got from it is Tingelhoff and the look he had when he got the knock at his door and the look he had when on stage at the honors show, almost like a child walking into Disneyland for the first time. I enjoyed that, especially in comparison to the attitude of Brown and Bettis (and Greene's wife for a player who didn't get in) who were all about how they 'deserved' the honor and talked about how 'long' they had to wait. Rubbed me the wrong way.