Twas the week before Christmas and all through the NFL

Every player was stirring even Brandon LaFell.

Some prepared for playoffs

Some prepared for home

Some prepared to retire

Like Favre and Delhomme

When off the field there arose such a clatter

As retirees jumped from their Lazy-Boys to argue they matter

….

(Ok, enough with the fake holiday theme. If you want a much better and smarter take on this song just go read DJ Gallo on Page 2)

As current players gear up for the off-season or the playoffs, former players are gearing up for their own winter campaign: Hall of Fame Induction.

The Secret Council of Nicaea that bestows those ugly yellow blazers and ‘Lionel Richie from Hello-esque’ busts on former players is beginning the months long process of making their lists and checking them twice to trim from a list of 25 semi-finalists to 15 finalists before the final list of 4-7 is announced Super Bowl weekend.

Every year, much is made of who is selected and who isn’t. Let’s face it, there are pretty good arguments for a lot of players left out and equally good arguments for excluding some that are included. I tend to not get too riled up about who is left out.

But this year is different. A great injustice is now entering it’s 3^rd year and I don’t care who else is on the list, this great wrong must be righted:

Shannon Sharpe needs to get in the Hall of Fame. Now.

I know Sharpe will eventually get in. But, to me any year that he is bypassed is a joke. There are no real reasons to keep him out. There is only one excuse. And it is the cherry-picking excuse of hindsight.

Basically the same flawed logic that kept Art Monk out for many years seems to be impacting Shannon Sharpe:

The changes in the NFL since his playing days have distorted his impact on the game.

This is what I wrote about Monk a few years ago, in what was apparently a successful write-in campaign (he was elected the following winter).

Could the game change to such a degree in those intervening 5 years, that we forget how great a player might have been, especially if that player did the disservice of hanging on playing in the league for too long?

The most glaring example of this is Art Monk. Throughout the 80’s, Art Monk was the tall leader of the Smurfs, the group of undersized Redskin receivers whose orchestrated, group-high five  touchdown celebration led directly to rules about group celebrations of touchdowns. When Monk retired in 1995, he actually held the NFL record for most receptions in both a single season and career. Let me repeat that. When he retired he had caught more passes in his career and in a single season than anyone to ever play the game. Doesn’t that mean if there are any wide receivers in the Hall from before this time, Monk should be in too?

…

In the time between Art’s fade from dominance to the beginning of his eligibility for induction in Canton, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Rich Gannon (to a lesser extent Steve Bono, Jeff Garcia and – maybe even Jim Druckenmiller and Tim Rattay) rewrote every receiving record on the books (except for ‘Only Receiver to wear a single-bar face mask and still be cool’ which will forever be held by Mark ‘Super’ Duper). With a more wide-open passing game becoming commonplace throughout the league, thanks to the growth in popularity of Walsh’s West Coast Offense, what had been a few years ago, the best wide receiving career ever, suddenly looked significantly less impressive, even mundane.

By the time HoF voters had Art Monk’s resume placed in front of them for consideration, he no longer sat atop their career record charts and was therefore much easier to dismiss, and dismiss and dismiss again. Today he sits as number six on the all-time receptions list behind Rice, Chris Carter (playing much of his career for Walsh understudy Denny Green), Tim Brown (coached by Walsh disciple John Gruden among others), Marvin Harrison and Andre Reed. His single season record of 106 receptions from 1984 has since been eclipsed by 22 separate player’s seasons.

Where Monk was held back by a perception change in the enormity of his numbers, Sharpe seems to have been held hostage by a fundamental change in his position.

Apparently it is forgotten that Sharpe was the reason for that change in many ways.

Coming to the Broncos in as a 7^th round draft pick at wide receiver, Sharpe seemed like such a long shot to even make the team one local youngster joked he was so obviously going to be cut, they wouldn’t even give him a receiver’s number (he wore #1 in that first training camp I believe).

Ok, that youngster was me – and my career as a shrewd talent evaluator was born.

Over the course of the mid-90’s, Sharpe helped usher in an offensive philosophy in which a tight end was as important to the passing game as any wide receiver. Sharpe allowed an offense to play a ‘three wide receiver set’ and still have a guy big enough to take on a linebacker. When he retired he had the most catches of any tight end in history – ahead of Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome by over 150 receptions.

(Newsome for the record was inducted on his third HoF judgment day).

Today, tight ends being as important as a wide receiver to a team’s offense are common: Antonio Gates is the Chargers top receiver. The Patriots are now using 2 tight end sets that allow 2 rookie tight ends to go out for passes. Jason Witten is the Cowboys most consistent weapon. It isn’t a coincidence that Dallas Clark’s season-ending injury occurred and immediately thereafter the Colts offense began to stumble.

Sharpe wasn’t a beneficiary of these philosophies – he forced their creation. Can anyone name the Broncos  tight end before Sharpe? That would be the immortal Clarence Kay (#88 – why do I know these things?) who had 29 receptions Sharpe’s rookie season. By 1993 Sharpe had 81 catches.

Can anyone name the Ravens tight end before GM Ozzie Newsome (a better talent evaluator than I), reached out and brought Sharpe in?

(For the record: Greg DeLong – who I, quite honestly, had never heard of until I looked him up 47 seconds ago).

Sharpe’s singular abilities forced teams that employed him to find a way to use him. He forced teams playing against him to plan to stop him. Would Ed McCaffery and Rod Smith been nearly as successful without Sharpe taking attention away? No.

And don’t forget he also blocked for a 2,000 yard rusher in 1998.

And was selected to every Pro Bowl from 1992 through 1998 and another in 2001 – if you find those sorts of things important.

And he won three Super Bowls. That is 3 more Super Bowl wins than Tony Gonzalez has playoff wins.

Gonzalez, incidentally, seems to be the primary obstacle keeping Shannon from Canton. The years of being the only catching option in an otherwise desolate Kansas City passing game propelled Gonzalez to the top of the tight end receptions chart faster than you can say Eddie Kennison.

Now when the experts compare Sharpe’s career to Gonzalez’s still-escalating career numbers and the single season totals being put up by Gates and Clark, Sharpe’s numbers are starting to look pedestrian.

When every team has a tight end as a primary receiving threat, it is hard to remember when few teams did and the player that made teams re-evaluate whether a Greg DeLong or Clarence Kay was the best player for that position.

It seems in the minds of many voters; Sharpe is being measured against these new standards. The standards he helped create.

It’s ironic that Sharpe could be held back by the statistics of players like Gonzalez and Gates.

If it wasn’t for him, they might still be playing basketball.

A year ago, I wrote the below post regarding the ridiculous correlation between being named to the Pro Bowl and making the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I have decided to re-post since it was lost in the H1N1 outbreak that hit the site in June and is something valuable to remember as we approach this weekend’s game. It is also a humorous post to re-visit in hindsight, for a couple reasons: 1 – Note the appropriate level of skepticism relative to Favre’s “retirement” – a valuable lesson when listening to any announcements this time of year; 2 – This may also represent the last positive thing ever written about Jay Cutler on this site.

Another note before we dive in. With no game this week (the Pro Bowl does not count) this will be the first in a series of recycled posts. Most likely you didn’t see these posts the first time, so as NBC once said, they are new to you. Plus they are all (sort of) still relevant. You will just need to mentally insert new examples and pop culture analogies. I would never re-post anything that makes me look a fool that doesn’t know anything about football. Those go immediately to the trash pile.

It’s All Just Suppositions

On which she has based her suppositions. It’s all just suppositions.

- Smith Keen, The Pelican Brief

It seems only fitting that we face the meaningless Pro Bowl just a week after the newest NFL Hall of Fame class is announced. Why is it fitting you may ask? What does a meaningless game/excuse for NFL stars to get pampered for a week have to do with being given an ugly mustard yellow jacket and a bust created by the blind girl from Lionel Richie’s Hello video on a steamy day in Canton, Ohio?

Well, for no apparent reason, someone has decided to equate the repeated presence at one as criteria for being invited to the other.

This would seem on the surface to be a legitimate rationale. An invitation to the Pro Bowl is meant to signify that a player is one of the top at his position in the game. Repeated invitations recognize the greats of all time.

At least that is what THEY want you to believe (they know who they are). But how much of a Pro Bowl invitation is based on performance and how much is based on reputation?

Just look at this year’s squad invited to Honolulu. Philip Rivers and Chad Pennington are both sitting at home (though those homes are in Miami and San Diego, so you can’t feel too bad for them) while Jay Cutler and Brett Favre were invited to Hawaii. Cutler started the season with a series of good performance in high profile games (8 TDs, 2 Ints, 3 wins) and Favre put up a couple huge games in leading the Jets to an AFC East lead at mid-season. So, when Pro Bowl voting was completed in early December, these two had made their impressions. Nevermind that both teams would collapse and fail to make the playoffs, in large part due to the turnover fetish of each quarterback. When the Pro Bowl votes were tallied a couple high profile wins with good performances (think Favre throwing 6 TD passes against the Cardinals), can trump a solid if unspectacularly consistent season leading a team to wins.

As a result, three years from now, we are going to be led to believe that these were 2 of the best 3 quarterbacks in the AFC this year. Ignore Chad Pennington and Philip Rivers leading their team to the playoffs, rookie ‘Bert’ Flacco managing his team to the AFC title game and Big Ben surviving repeated beatings to win a Super Bowl. Thus when you hear about Brett Favre being eligible for the Hall of Fame and they are discussing his many accomplishments, I am sure you will hear something along the lines of “Favre is a ten-time Pro Bowler, including in his final season with the Jets.”

[NOTE: This represents the wishful thinking that Favre actually does retire this season. But despite my recent gambling binge, even I wouldn’t put money on that.]

Consider Cutler versus Rivers. Two young quarterbacks helming AFC West rivals. Cutler has now made a Pro Bowl over Rivers but Rivers has led a team to the AFC title game and led the league in passer rating this season.  Yet, some would label Cutler as having a better season (and being a better player) simply because he got voted into the Pro Bowl.

[NOTE: I can’t believe I just made an argument for Rivers over Cutler either. Who is this guy? I must be getting sick. I need to get back to my blatant Broncos homerism. OK, how is this: Cutler is such an outstanding talent that the other Pro Bowl quarterbacks are afraid of his talent. How afraid are they? Peyton Manning tried to kill Cutler this week. There I feel better.]

Despite these injustices, I wouldn’t normally get too worked up about players not getting invited to a worthless boondoggle in Hawaii (especially when a lot of them don’t even want to go). The problem I have with the Pro Bowl system is that Hall of Fame resumes are built on Pro Bowl invitations, a shakier foundation than the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

As a player’s reputation grows thanks to making a Pro Bowl, they then get closer to making even more Pro Bowls. String enough Pro Bowls together, regardless of your team’s performance and you are a Hall of Famer.

Don’t believe me? Check out this list of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. What is one of the first criteria noted? Is it stats? No. Is it wins? No. Is it Super Bowl rings? No. It is Pro Bowls. A voting process that everyone agrees is ridiculous. 

So, we have Hall of Fame voters using the even less informed opinions of fans, players and coaches (who are usually a little busy to watch a lot of other players each Sunday) as the basis for deciding who is enshrined as the greatest of the greatest.

All of this isn’t meant to disparage any of this year’s inductees specifically, rather the circular logic of all of it.

It also isn’t meant to explain how Shannon Sharpe was passed over this year. 3-time Super Bowl winner and all-time leading receiver for tight ends at his retirement (and 8 time Pro Bowler) isn’t worthy of enshrinement? His biggest mistake seemed to be playing the majority of his career for the Broncos, Given the dearth of Broncos in the Hall despite being the second most consistently successful NFL franchise of the last 3 decades, Hall of Fame voters seem to believe Denver is just the southern most outpost of CFL.

Shannon’s mistake was valuing winning over impressing fans. I suppose when Tony Gonzalez appears on his first Hall ballot he will easily make the Hall thanks to his 10 Pro Bowls. That is much more impressive than Shannon’s 3 Super Bowl rings, one for each of Tony’s playoff appearances (and losses).

Of course that is just a supposition.