No Steeler is a lock to make the hall of fame, there is a tremendous anti steeler bias prevalent now. There are still lots of players that should be in that have not made it yet just because there are already so many in the hall now. Pittsburgh is also a small market team and does not attract the media types that some others do. So even a diserving player will have an uphill battle to get in.
Agreed here 100%
Jerome Bettis - if he did the same thing for the Bengals, just for an example, would have an easier time getting in. The Guy is the #6 all time leading rusher, but there are a lot of anti Steeler voters out there most prevalant of which is Rich Goelisen from Dallas who I got into an open debate about regarding Hines Ward via email.
Never mind that Hines Ward and his 1000 receptions which is good for #9 all time has 250 more receptions than Michael Irvin (#35 all time) on his career and retired with the #2 leader in post season receptions (88 – since been passed by Reggie Wayne’s 92, and is still more than Irvin’s 87 – Jerry Rice is far and away #1 with 152).
As far as a single season performance – I note that Hines Ward’s 2002 performance saw him catch 112 passes (good for 19th all time), most years good enough to be the NFL leader if Marvin Harrison didn’t go lights out with Peyton Manning and catch 142, whereas Michael Irvin’s best single season out put was 111, again by one catch, but still better.
When Goesslin tried to point out the Cowboys were a run first team in his email, I asked him seriously how he had his job, and what pictures did he have of Jerry Jones – since when have the Steelers reminded anyone, especially in the pre-Roethlisberger days of the 1984 Dolphins? Seriously – I outright called the guy a biased moron who has such rose colored glasses on that he doesn’t even understand the basic focus of other teams and THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE HIS CAREER? I asked him why the price of gold has shot up since 2004, what Qualitative and Quantiative Easing where and why the price of commodities are so high – I could answer those questions with ease plus what he does for a living, so obviously and I quote “you can’t be all that smart if you don’t even know what 31 other teams do and this is all you do for a living, you must feel like a horse’s ***”.
He tried to respond back by saying Ward didn’t belong in there before Carter, Harrison, Brown, etc. I responded back with a “No **** Sherlock, I wasn’t saying he should be.” But that it was morons like “you” that kept Art Monk from the Hall of Fame out of your Redskins bias. I wouldn’t vote Ward in in front of Carter either, but that doesn’t preclude him from being in.
When he tried to talk about being the best among your position for a period of time, I pointed out for 4 years from 2001-2004 only Tory Hold and Marvin Harrison had more receptions. Then take your own Emmitt Smith, who had a 5 year run where he was the top of the league before he was merely a quality back – so what is the difference.
Also I noted that the 2005 season in which Ward ceased to be among the NFL leaders in receptions he pulled this thing in called the Super Bowl MVP. I don’t seem to see one of those is Irvin’s closet, though there sure was a lot of white powder and it wasn’t for baking.
He then tried pulling out the intangibles angle again and begged him to name a better blocking WR in the history of the NFL, a guy they had to change the rules after because he hit DBs and LBs who were sizeably bigger than he was and how that compared to Irvin’s own admitting of his tendency to commit offensive pass interference. I pointed out that the difference between winning and losing is often so small, imagine if Webster Slaughter and actually blocked his man on the “Fumble” (if he could understand there is NFL football outside of Dallas – do you think Ward would have taken that play off? Would he have gotten credit for it – probably not, but the team would have been in the Super Bowl. So as far as his intangibles excuse, he’s as full of it as Jerry Jones thinking he’s a great GM.
The guy could never dispute me with any singular fact, finally admitting intangibles do matter. But it was obvious his jealousy of the Steelers success over the Cowboys influences his vote.
Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu and Alan Faneca are definite Hall of Famers; and if Marv Levy is a Hall of Famer than so is Bill Cowher. But its an uphill battle as long as there are people like Toni Grossi out there – who isn’t thankfully as he was the Browns beat writer stripped of his vote when fired, but automatically called Ben Roethlisberger the next Tim Couch, grading the 2004 Steelers draft an “F” (which I enjoyed calling him out about months later saving the article and shoving it in his face; and saying the 2010 Steelers team was on the decline because Dan Rooney was gone – I had to ask him as well how he could be a Browns beat writer and not even know that Art Rooney II had been running the team for 8 years and Dan Rooney was in Ireland for the previous 2 – basically how could you not know the structure of the teams in your division?
There is too much anti Steelers bias out there for their success – its just a fact we have to put up with.
