Initial Pro Football Hall of Fame Candidates

Harrison was night and day better than Tim Brown.

I don't know if he's night and day better than Andre Reed, but his stats make it look like he is.

He'll get in. He won't have to wait as long as Carter did or as long as Reed has, I think the question is does he jump over Reed? I tend to think one receiver will get in this year and it will be Reed or Harrison.

 

Bob Kraft hasn't done shit for the league compared to Jerry Jones.

Without Jones, the NFL would not have taken over the TV landscape. There's a great anecdote in America's Game that when Jones came into the league, he joined the TV committee and he met with one of the network guys, who told him how fair Rozelle had always been and what a great relationship they had. Jones said to the other NFL people, "The last time I heard how much the other guy liked my negotiator, I changed negotiators." It took him getting involved for the NFL to realize how badly they were undervaluing themselves as a TV asset, and that laid the groundwork for the move to Fox and then the constant bidding up of the rights ever since. He also opened the lid on overall marketing, which was not good when he and the league almost had to sue each other but has worked out nicely since then, I think we'd agree.

The fact that all these teams are worth a billion dollars or close to it, that's largely because of what happened when Jones joined the league. All the new stadiums are a result of those franchise values too.

Hall of Famer without a doubt.

 

He owns a team where as general manager he has 1 playoff win in 15 years. As an owner, he's a clown.

 

That's true, although he can claim the same number of championships as Kraft can.

But he was the driving force behind the NFL going from mom-and-pop to Fortune 500.

 

I find it hard to believe that 32 millionaires couldn't figure out they had leverage over the TV networks. That they didn't know how to maximize profits and play hardball. If it wasn't Jones it would have been someone else. Sure NFL owners who saw their wealth explode in the 60s and 70s might have not wanted to mess up a good thing, but once they sold out to people who had to pony up more than $100 million - let alone the addition of Fox in the 80s and the increasing importance of live sports to television, I just don't think Jones is that exceptional. And will sportswriters on the committee really think getting bigger TV contracts merits the HOF? That's what the money is for.

 

Dan, we will never know how long it would have taken them. Remember what a big story the move to Fox was, amid the cries of betrayal too from CBS? The NFL before Jones was a group of fairly genteel and statesmanlike owners who weren't about getting top dollar. Think Clark Hunt, the Rooneys etc. Jones changed that. And frankly, they hated him for it until they saw their own revenues.

 

Oh I agree. But my point is that once long-time owners gave way to enough post-merger owners (Debartolo, Jones, Hess, Bowlen) who never knew the lean times of the league or had the long-term relationships with the networks and only wanted to recoup their investment, it was inevitable. The "old-school" owners had already made back their investment and gotten rich, every extra dollar they made was one more dollar they couldn't have imagined seeing when they started out. That there are only 10 teams still under the same principle ownership at the time of the merger, shows you the shortsightedness of the old guard.

 

Moral of the story: It's OK to be a dick as long as you're a rich dick?

 

Which NFL do you watch? In the one I watch, that's pretty much it.

Also I wouldn't consider the networks to be exactly the most sympathetic victims.

 

Art Modell's pioneering in television and advertising hasn't earned him the nod.
Yes, I know about his enduring legacy.
But he was the Jones of the '60s.

 

I agree. But Modell's team might have been more successful.
Modell and Davis > Jones.

You want to put Jones in the HOF's marketing wing, fine. But I don't think he belongs there either.
His TV deal input deal is vastly overstated.
His marketing? Uh, Dallas was branded as "America's team" pre-Jones. He kept it going. OBTW imagine how much easier things would be if they had a good team?
Jones gets credit for hiring Johnson and then fucking everything up when he wanted more control. Things have not gotten better since Johnson left.

I agree with Mizzou; that owners should be held to high standard ... Hell, I think don't Art Rooney Sr. should be in the HOF.

 

And you could also argue because of these deals, players salaries skyrocketed. More money for owners, more money for players, which meant higher ticket prices for fans, less free televised games, more commercials and less action.
The game now is more show and less game. Commercials, commercials, commercials and more commercials, on top of paying for cable services to see a a lot of the games.