[removed]

[removed]

Patrick Willis >> Zach Thomas

Not particularly close either

Patrick Willis snubbed hard.

Booooooooo Fucking PWill should have made it!

I apologize but I would have to humbly disagree. Zach Thomas should have been in ages ago

Glad to see Don Coryell, shame it couldn’t happen while he was alive. Real innovator.

They held out Devin Hester again!?

They're slowly turning into the MLB Hall of Fame

Here's to Joe Thomas! A true ironman who played 10,363 consecutive snaps on offense, which just blows my mind when you think about the physicality of the OL/DL

Devin Hester can wait as long as Ken Riley has

I never saw a great reason for him to be admitted.

Sucks to not see Hester in. Still think Mongo should be in the Hall. Especially now.

But good for Joe Thomas. Ultimate OL Ironman.

He had a 2 year peak and then largely did nothing of note. 11 of his 19 total return TDs came in his first 2 seasons. Then he had 8 the rest of his career. That's not HOF, especially for a special teamer.

I love Hester but the fact he was even a finalist is a complete joke to me. Sorry.

Glad to see Chuck Howley finally make it. Only player on the losing team in a Super Bowl get the mvp. He had a cleaners store up the street from where I grew up. This was back when players had summer jobs or side jobs to make ends meet.

That’s one way to look at it. Another is that he has the most punt returns in NFL history.

So everyone who has one NFL record makes the Hall of Fame? Seems like a crazy low bar.

Of course not. But I don’t think the distribution of returns throughout his career should necessarily play a role in their decision making. The fact that he has the most punt returns in NFL history (by a wide margin) takes precedence over that.

I think HOF worthy careers are people who can't be stopped simply by kicking the other way.

In other words, special teams players aren’t worth HOF?

I'd argue that they don't and they haven't been up until now.

Then why did you even mention the distribution of punt returns throughout his career? If special teams players are automatically not suited for the HOF, that should be irrelevant.

It's a solid argument regardless of his primarily being a ST player. His peak was 2 years. 11 total returns in 2 years then 8 over the next 7 seasons. Put that kind of statistical drop off on any player in the NFL and they aren't making the HOF. He's simply not a HOF player, unless all you care about is one record.

Idk, makes sense to me that the NFL should have at least one punt returner in the HOF, and he’s the obvious choice.

He definitely had a major drop off, but that doesn’t negate from what he was able to accomplish. It seems to me that even if he continued at the pace of his first 2 years, you’d still say he isn’t worthy of being in the HOF by virtue of being a special teams player anyways.

Not at all, if we were talking about more than 19 TDs maybe I'd reconsider. If you're going to put one PR in, you could make a case for Brian Mitchell over him since he did it more consistently over a longer period and was a better positional player. He's 2nd all time in AP yardage and Hester is 49th. And he's only trailing Hester by 4 TDs

>I think HOF worthy careers are people who can't be stopped simply by kicking the other way.

>Not at all, if we were talking about more than 19 TDs maybe I'd reconsider.

Well which is it lol

>And he's only trailing Hester by 4 TDs

That’s a lot when you’re talking about 14 vs 10. Almost 30% less. Imagine if the NBA scoring leader was 30% above second place…

I don't see any contradiction. Like I said we're talking about 19 total KR/PR Tds. You think 19 good plays is enough for a HOF career when there are every-down players with far greater contributions not making it in? That's nuts to me.

On your percentage point you're arguing my point that the total number of TDs is so insignificant that 4 would be a huge percentage.

It's fine to think Hester was awesome, I do too. He's just not HOF worthy to me.

Hard disagree. Willis had the better peak but Thomas had a great career and should have already been in.

Willis will probably get in but he’s for sure not a first ballot guy just based on retiring so early

[removed]

Ah Chuck Howley, the trivia question answer that ALSO played football.

[removed]

Username checks out

Thanks for the solid list of future CTE victims.

[removed]

[removed]

Still no Torry Holt. Sigh

Cant believe it took this long ffs

The fact that Zach Thomas waited this long is beyond ridiculous

They did the same shit to John Lynch, Steve Atwater, and Leroy Butler too...not coincidentally all strong safeties