Hog Hannah, a national treasure keeping it real

[Actual Pats Fan]

NFL 100: At No. 25, John Hannah was maybe NFL's best offensive lineman ever — ‘He had no weaknesses’

"He had everything it takes,” ex-coach Raymond Berry said. “Size. Strength. Mentality. … He was the complete offensive lineman.”

theathletic.com

These days, Hannah’s direction isn’t pointed much to football, though he’s seen enough games to make this observation: “For an offensive lineman, the way we’d pass protect, it’d be a lot harder (today) because those quarterbacks are moving around so much,” he said. “The only guys that really stay in the pocket and understand the offensive lineman’s situation that I’ve seen are guys like (Tom) Brady. He kind of sits in the pocket and understands that the safest place for him is up front … because the offensive lineman doesn’t have eyes in his ass and he doesn’t know where the quarterback is unless he’s where he’s supposed to be. You’re blocking an area and if he doesn’t stay in that area, it makes it awfully hard. A lot of these quarterbacks are dancing around and moving around.”

And yet Hannah says he doesn’t watch a lot of football. Asked why that is, he said, “You want the honest answer, or the fabricated answer?”

We chose Door No. 1.
“I think the game’s lost a lot,” he said. “A couple things, one, I don’t like all the politics. They ought to just play ball and quit trying to friggin’, they don’t know what’s going on anyway, and they’re all making good money and they b*tch about the country. So I don’t understand that.
“And another thing, heck, I don’t like the rules changes,” he said. “I think it’s gotten to be a real wussy sport.”


Putting the kneelers and Goodell in body bags.

Let's be clear:

As the genesis of the Steeler modern dynasty is the hiring of Chuck Noll, and its foundation is the drafting of Mean Joe Greene, the genesis of the Patriots' competitiveness in the Super Bowl era is the hiring of Chuck Fairbanks, and its foundation is the drafting of John Hannah. Right away, Greene and Hannah terrorized their respective sides of the ball. It took a unique combination of freak events to keep Hog from multiple Super Bowl rings (Dreith debacle, Sullivan cheapness, Tatum cheap shot, Berry enchantment with Eason). John Hannah is much closer to Tom Brady in greatness and importance to the Patriots franchise than is acknowledged. No, I do not consider Anthony Munoz or anyone else to be as good or better than John Hannah. They weren't afraid of Munoz. Everyone was terrified of John. If they weren't they were deluding themselves as they lay on their back.

 

[Chevy]

Let's be clear:

As the genesis of the Steeler modern dynasty is the hiring of Chuck Noll, and its foundation is the drafting of Mean Joe Greene, the genesis of the Patriots' competitiveness in the Super Bowl era is the hiring of Chuck Fairbanks, and its foundation is the drafting of John Hannah. Right away, Greene and Hannah terrorized their respective sides of the ball. It took a unique combination of freak events to keep Hog from multiple Super Bowl rings (Dreith debacle, Sullivan cheapness, Tatum cheap shot, Berry enchantment with Eason). John Hannah is much closer to Tom Brady in greatness and importance to the Patriots franchise than is acknowledged. No, I do not consider Anthony Munoz or anyone else to be as good or better than John Hannah. They weren't afraid of Munoz. Everyone was terrified of John. If they weren't they were deluding themselves as they lay on their back.

Munoz was as good at Tackle as Hannah was at guard. They were both generational players - the best at their position. I give the OL edge to Hannah overall due to a bit of homerism and the sheer nastiness he brought to the OL.

 

[50-yard-line]

Quintessential “get off my lawn” attitude. Nothing of much value or insight was shared beyond his perspective as an offensive lineman, which was genuinely fascinating.

The NFL has been removing the violence that serves no purpose from the game, and rightfully so. Is there anything gained from a blindside block on a player away from the ball? Does launching yourself head-first into a receiver well after the ball has fallen incomplete add value to the game? On both counts, hell no.

As for the political chatter, players have the right to be politically active like any other citizen … just like Hannah and his political comments, ironically. Hannah’s words are no less political than anything active players are doing - they are both political statements.

The people who say "keep politics out of it!" are almost always the ones who rush to their favorite confirmation-bias cable news channel to swallow a whole lot of marginal half-truths that amplify the outrage du jeur.