Least Deserving Hall of Famers: Eagles, Jaguars, and Jets.

[Rain Man]

(Okay, I admit that there are no Jaguars. I just didn't want to leave them out.)

VOTE FOR THREE.

With all of the talk about undeserving people in the Hall of Fame, I thought it might be interesting to identify the absolute least deserving people in the Hall of Fame.

I'll do this first for players, identifying the least deserving players by team, and then we'll do a heat or two for non-players.

Poll coming faster than a Namath-to-Kolber kiss.

You can read profiles of the players here, in a very unfriendly format on the HoF site: https://www.profootballhof.com/heroe...me/franchises/

Rules note: If a team has less than 10 HoFers, I'll combine them with another team to get to that number.

[Rain Man]

Let's review:

Boomer Brown - offensive tackle, NFL rookie of the year in 1964. 10 seasons, 7 all pros.
Trivia note: when he played with the Raiders at the end of his career, he was one of five HoF offensive linemen on their roster (Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Jim Otto, Ron Mix, and Brown).

Brian Dawkins - 16 seasons at safety, 5 all- pros, 9 pro bowls. 37 interceptions and 26 sacks. 224 games players, named to NFL's team of the 90s.

Chuck Bednarik - 14 seasons at linebacker and center, 9 all-pros. Career was delayed by WWII. I think he was the NFL's last two-way player in 1960. Played 58 minutes in the 1960 NFL championship where the Eagles beat the Packers, in part because Bednarik made a key stop of Jim Taylor at the 10 yard line with 22 seconds and wouldn't let Taylor get up in time to run one more play. My impression is that Bednarik had the biggest ego in NFL history until Ray Lewis was drafted.

Curtis Martin. (Yawn). 11 seasons at running back, 1 all pro. He would get you 1,200 yards a year on the ground, which is very impressive, and he would do it without making a single big play. Not sure about this guy.

Don Maynard - 15 seasons at WR, first player to have 10,000 career receiving yards. Averaged 18.7 ypr in his career. At one point held the career receptions record and receiving yards record, even though he never led the league in receiving yards in any single season. This guy was kind of a legend when I was a kid.

Joe Namath - Had the best season in the NFL in the 1960s in terms of passing yards, first pro player to go over 4,000 yards in a season, and the only player to do it before the 1978 passing rule changes. Had 27,000 career yards, which is good for the time. Most famous for putting the AFL on the map as a celebrity playboy quarterback, and for winning the Super Bowl against the NFL.

[Rain Man]

Kevin Mawae - 16 seasons, 6 all pros as a center. Played in 241 games, NFL's all-decade team of the 2000s. Yawn.

Pete Pihos - 9 seasons, 6 all pros - 5 as a WR and 1 as a DE. (Hmm, okay.) Missed only one game in 9 seasons. Not fast, but known for sure hands and being hard to bring down after the catch.

Reggie White - The god of defensive linemen. Don't even think about voting him out.

Steve Van Buren - 8 seasons, 6 all pros as a RB. Also played S on defense. Won the rushing title four times. According to the HoF site, "Philadelphia had never finished above fourth place until Steve came on the scene in 1944. That year they finished second, were runners-up two more years, won three straight divisional titles, and the NFL title in 1948 and 1949." Seemed to be a franchise back.

Tommy McDonald - 12 years as a WR. Upon retirement, ranked 2nd in TD receptions, 4th in receptions, and 6th in yards. Gave perhaps the most cringeworthy induction speech ever, including calling his wife ugly, falling on stage, and playing disco music ... in 1998. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-hall-o...eptance-speech

[Rain Man]

This is a tough one, because there's more borderline activity here than in Juarez. After careful review, I'm voting against...

1. Curtis Martin. If you want to get into the Hall of Fame, you have to make at least one big play.

2. Joe Namath. He's a big figure in the AFL, but he's kind of a one-year wonder, and he wasn't who I'd want as QB in a crunch.

3. Kevin Mawae. Yawn.

[Rain Man]

We don't seem to think much of Joe Namath in the early voting.

In his defense, when he retired he was ranked 10th in NFL history in passing yards and 15th in passing TDs. However, he was also 9th in interceptions.

In contrast, Lenny was 9th in yards, 6th in TDs, and 13th in interceptions.

[mlyonsd]

I know Namath's stats aren't that impressive but he and Lenny helped change the league for what it is today. If you didn't live through it you probably wouldn't understand. That's the fame part.

[MMXcalibur]

The Jaguars have Hall of Famers?

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

1. Curtis Martin. If you want to get into the Hall of Fame, you have to make at least one big play.

Curtis Martin only missed 6 games in his first 9 seasons...strange as he had almost 1500 yards in two season and almost 1700 in another. He had over 350 carries in all 3 of those. His career average was only 4.0 ypc.

He essentially was run into the ground almost every year...durability was his HOF trait. That 1700 season was year 9 out of 10....which is pretty crazy.

I cant remember a single trademark run of his....

A lot of modern RB were better than him...shit, Holmes, Johnson and Charles were. Johnson's career ended by getting 400 carries...so Martin's ability to handle that kind of workload is impressive. His natural ability was just "very good" hence only 1 all-pro.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

I know Namath's stats aren't that impressive but he and Lenny helped change the league for what it is today. If you didn't live through it you probably wouldn't understand. That's the fame part.

This. Joe Willie legitimized the AFL. With the rules today, he'd be in the top 5 QBs. That is if his knees held out.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by MMXcalibur

The Jaguars have Hall of Famers?

Well...no. I just figured I should mention them at some point.

If you had asked me earlier, though, I would have guessed that Tony Boselli was in. But I would have been wrong.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by BlackOp

Curtis Martin only missed 6 games in his first 9 seasons...strange as he had almost 1500 yards in two season and almost 1700 in another. He had over 350 carries in all 3 of those. His career average was only 4.0 ypc.

He essentially was run into the ground almost every year...durability was his HOF trait. That 1700 season was year 9 out of 10....which is pretty crazy.

I cant remember a single trademark run of his....

A lot of modern RB were better than him...shit, Holmes, Johnson and Charles were. Johnson's career ended by getting 400 carries...so Martin's ability to handle that kind of workload is impressive. His natural ability was just "very good" hence only 1 all-pro.

Yeah, he was steady, I'll give him that. If you look at 10 straight 1,000 yard rushing seasons, that's impressive. But only four of those averaged more than 4.0 ypc, and two were ridiculously low at 3.6 and 3.8.

He's a better choice than Bettis and Terrell Davis, I think, but I was just never wowed by the guy.