Pro Football HoF - 2 Names

What about Priest Holmes?

 

If you are willing to put in Riggs, Rogers and Hearst, then sure.

 

That person already exists. He plays in Minnesota. Unfortunately, he can't hang onto the ball or he'd be unstoppable. Of course, in today's NFL, he's of little use on third down. So while big backs will come around from time to time, I don't think the smaller, multipurpose back trend is going away anytime soon, especially with what Chris Johnson did last year.

 

I'll throw this in about Bettis. Despite playing in the modern NFL, he played in an offense that was stuck in the 1970s for most of his career. It's a lot harder to run on third and four with eight men in the box because Kordell Stewart or Mike Tomzack is behind center than it is to run with Peyton Manning looking at the defense. The same thing went for George and Corey Dillon for most of their careers.

To me, that is the question that separates Hall running backs from non-Hall Rbs with so many guys with more than 10,000 yards in the past few years. Was he consistently asked to carry the offense no matter what happened, and what was the drop off when he was out?

 

Here are some more retired or soon to be running backs who will be eligible relatively soon...

Warrick Dunn
Jamal Lewis
Corey Dillon
Fred Taylor

All of those four are over 10,000 yards rushing

Clinton Portis is damn close to 10K.

The most interesting name out there is Ricky Williams, who with a 1,000-yard season will be over 10K despite missing a couple seasons.

Call me crazy, but if Ricky goes over 10,000, I think he'd have my vote.

 

Taylor might go. I don't see Lewis, Porter or Dunn. Williams could go in the crazy wing with Riggins.
Dillon is the most interesting on that list. He toiled in absolute obscurity with the Bengals and almost no support around him.

 

None of those RBs will make it.

And to the point about Bettis carrying a team "stuck in the 70s," that team's blueprint was pretty successful during that particular decade and for most of the time since. It's not like Bettis was being asked to carry BAD teams throughout much of his career, a la a certain HoF running back that gained more tough yards than anyone in the history of the game, despite not being anything close to the big bruiser that many of his peers were.

 

The team was successful, but he was carrying a bad offense in 1998, 1999, 2000.
What back are you talking about? Payton?

 

Reaching 10,000 yards just isn't enough. Too many guys in the same era have reached that total. Dunn was never considered an elite back. Portis was close, but I don't think he was quite at that level.

Jamal Lewis was, rushing for over 2,000 yards in 2003, but he didn't stay at the top nearly long enough.

I can't see the voters putting Williams in. I think he is Hall of Very Good anyway and his pot-induced disregard for the game and other issues will hurt his candidacy.

I might look at Dillon over any of those guys, too, but he is probably borderline at best.

 

Yes.

 

Vets choose two for committee to vote on:

Chris Hanburger and Les Richter.

I've read over the years that Richter was overrated. Dr. Z actually wrote that a couple of times. Makes me wonder if Richter would have gone through if Z were still on the committee.

 

Richter was before even my time. Hanburger was a damn good player. A Hall of Famer? I don't know.