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Worthy HOF thread? ... London Fletcher

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Cubbiebum, Dec 29, 2011.

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  1. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Exactly. Don't teams keep their own numbers for tackles? Makes it a bit hard to trust, too.

    By the logic of this argument for Fletcher, Ryan Clark should have gone to the Pro Bowl This year ahead of Troy Polamalu. It's Clark who leads the Steelers in tackles.
     
    outofplace, Dec 29, 2011
    #13
  2. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    Really? My god, good player hall of famer? Now that's a joke.
     
    JC, Dec 30, 2011
    #14
  3. Raiders

    Raiders Guest

    When Fletcher was with the Rams, if I recall, ESPN The Magazine once wrote in its season preview: "If he's still starting at midseason, we'll buy you a car."

    Or something to that effect. Anyway, it turned out that Fletcher was, but the mag didn't. Dirty lying bastards.
     
    Raiders, Dec 30, 2011
    #15
  4. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Indeed. Dr. Z always maintained that tackle numbers could never be trusted when measuring a player for Pro Bowl status. He kept his own and said they often differed wildly from what the teams produced.
     
    Huggy, Dec 30, 2011
    #16
  5. cyclingwriter

    cyclingwriter Active Member

    Tackle stats never match up at any level. The coaches give a lot of guys credit for assists that really were piling on. According to numbers I used for a story years ago, the average NFL team would have to run about 120 plays per game to justify tackle numbers.
     
    cyclingwriter, Dec 30, 2011
    #17
  6. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    I'm no where near a Redskins fan, but London Fletcher is way underrated by a lot of people here. I'm not saying he is HOF-worthy, but I'm not ready to dismiss it out of hand. Even today, most teams aren't getting as much production at the MLB spot as the Redskins are out of that old man.
     
    Flying Headbutt, Dec 30, 2011
    #18
  7. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    We need spnited to remind us it is not the Hall of Very Good for a Long Time.
    He's very good and has been for a long time. He's not great. I never for one second thought about him and the Hall.

    As for tackling stats, yeah. Wow. A school in my old coverage area was known for wildly inflated tackle stats. I mean, 4-5 players every game with 15 or more. So a visiting SID did some math. He came up with 69 plays where there could be an actual tackle (none for going out of bounds, touchdowns, fair catches, etc.) And the host team credited its players with 62 unassisted tackles. That left seven tackles where there could be assists - and they had something like 70 assists. So that's 10 per play. EVERYONE had a hand in it, or so it seemed.

    In our over-stat-ed world, tackles are a joke. I'm sure a sabermatician somewhere has come up with a formula for TABIP - tackles on balls in play, taking into account wind, artificial turf and other various and sundry factors.

    But you don't need a tackle number to know Fletcher is a very good player. Just not a Hall of Famer.
     
    Moderator1, Dec 30, 2011
    #19
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Perfectly stated.
     
    Mizzougrad96, Dec 30, 2011
    #20
  9. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Tackles, interceptions and sacks can be misleading because if you are a HOF caliber player you are not run at very often, thrown at very often or assigned a single blocker very often. But there are examples of all-time greats like Lewis, Polamalu, Reed, Lott, White and the rest that no matter what you do to them on the field, they will become part of the game.
     
    93Devil, Dec 30, 2011
    #21
  10. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    I remember when Buddy Ryan was coaching in Arizona, and someone ran the numbers and figured out that the Cardinals defense had more solo tackles than the opposing team had even run plays, kick returns, etc.

    Quite a braintrust they had there that couldn't figure out how that was a problem. A braintrust that included both Rex and Rob Ryan.

    On the original question, there's no way he deserves a sniff of the HOF.
     
    BurnsWhenIPee, Dec 30, 2011
    #22
  11. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Doesn't the NFL keep the official stats? I remember the NFL stat crew was employed by the NFL and not the team.
     
    93Devil, Dec 30, 2011
    #23
  12. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    I feel this way about rebounds that are called in by some of our high school coaches. One school called in a game last year in which one player had 21 rebounds, another had 19, another had 12 .... and I'm thinking. In a 32-minute high school game three players combined for 52 boards? Didn't seem right at all.
     
    Cosmo, Dec 30, 2011
    #24
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