Pro Football Hall of Fame semifinalists

I did leave Parcells off the list, and he needs to be added as a shoo-in.

I will investigate further with Dawson.
Six-time all-pro simply means, though, that he was best among his peers of that season and that time frame.
Doesn't mean he was among best-ever NFL center (though he might well be.)
Just doesn't mean for sure that he is.
I will look into it.

 

I hope Shields and Roaf go in together as well... I think Shields has everything going for him to get in on the first ballot. Not only is he deserving, but the writers loved that guy. I'll be surprised if he doesn't get in on the first ballot, but stranger things have happened...

 

I would say he was the second-best center of the post-merger era, behind Dwight Stephenson. For what it's worth, I also hate the Steelers.

 

The only real knock on either Shields or Roaf is that they got to play next to one another for a key part of their careers, a luxury Orlando Pace and Jonathan Ogden didn't have. Walter Jones, the fourth great tackle of the generation, got to play with Steve Hutchinson for some of his best years.

Of the four, Ogden had better be a first-ballot Hall of Famer while Pace and Roaf should get in. I'm more torn on Jones, but I think having a span of three or four years (after Ogden, Pace and Roaf were a little past their primes; Jones aged well) during which he was probably the best left tackle in football in the era where left tackles are at such a premium warrants his selection

And for what it's worth, Tony Boselli was totally in that group and bound for the Hall of Fame before injuries got the best of him. And Willie Anderson was probably just shy of joining that group. He didn't always have the quickness to be a great pass blocker. I'm a Bengals fan who has lived in the markets in which three other of the five guys mentioned once played. Anderson was not as explosive as the others, nor was he quite as enormous and immovable, but I love him even if he went to Auburn.

 

Carter gets hurt because of some really odd things.
1. In his prime, he was likely only the third best receiver in his division after Herman Moore and Sterling Sharpe. Sharpe likely could have gone down as one of of the three or four best receivers in the history of the game if not for the neck injury. Moore was otherworldly for three seasons and then was injury plagued for five years.

2. Moss outshined him for the rest of his career in Minnesota.

3. There is somewhat of a writers backlash against him because of how his career ended. He was a league poster boy for helping Moss and then it came out (unfairly or not) that he was a king-sized douche in the locker room.

Does that mean I agree with any of it? No, but that is the word out there as to why Carter is being held back aside from the regular stuff about receiver's numbers keep escalating and no one knows what to do with their votes.

 

Miami didn't help his cause.

 

True dat...that is when the shittier side of his personality surfaced.

 

Well said. Agreed.

 

Have either Jeff Van Note or Mike Kenn ever received sniffs? Furman Bisher used to push Tommy Nobis, but I don't recall that getting very far.

 

Dawson was not better than Mike Webster, but he is easily in the top three. I would probably put Stephenson ahead of him, too.

 

I can understand leaving him off, but he should not be a "hell no."

 

Good point. I had my timeline screwed up and thought Webster was earlier.