OT: How the hell did Gale Sayers get into the Hall of Fame?

[carolinatony]

Re: OT How the hell did Gale Sayers get into the hall of fame?

I seen him play and while he didn't have a long career he was a great player.
You would pay just to watch him run. He was a HOF imo.

 

[RayClay]

Re: OT How the hell did Gale Sayers get into the hall of fame?

I seen him play and while he didn't have a long career he was a great player.
You would pay just to watch him run. He was a HOF imo.

I saw him play quite a bit. He was a joy to watch. I have little doubt he would have put up a HOF body of work had he been durable enough, but he wasn't IMO.

There have been many great college RBs who weren't strong or durable enough for the NFL.

Perhaps he would have remained healthier if switched to wide receiver. We'll never know.

 

[RayClay]

Re: OT How the hell did Gale Sayers get into the hall of fame?

Sayers made the football HOF for the same reason Sandy Koufax did the baseball HOF...being stupefyingly good, albeit for a very short career. One case you can make for Koufax, though, is his world series record. Sayers teams, concurrent with **** Butkus, had only one winning season. I saw Sayers play, and I'm just fine with him being in the hall of fame. Call it quality, not quantity if you want. Fabulous quality. Sayers, as far as great shifty running backs go, had only one peer, Barry Sanders, of course. As far as 1000 yard seasons, he played in the 14 game season era.

I saw Sayers play and he's better than 99% of the players in there, but still doesn't deserve it IMO. I'm trying to look at it dispassionately and objectively.

Sandy Koufax, despite having only a few spectacular years, at least weighs in career wise. He's 38th all time in strikeouts for instance, ahead of many hall of famers.

Wishing and hoping someone into the hall of fame because they had injuries is a slippery slope.

Should Bo Jackson be in the NFL Hall, for instance?

That's a more valid comparison than Koufax.

I don't know if Curtis Martin was outstanding enough to be in the Hall, but his dedication and endurance was incredible.

 

[Steamer86]

Re: OT How the hell did Gale Sayers get into the hall of fame?

I googled top running backs and saw that most users severely overrate Barry Sanders and Marcus Allen (top 3) while completely missing on Earl Campbell.

Jim Brown was at the top of most lists with Payton. I was surprised to see that so many remembered how good ****erson was. But Earl Campbell is completely forgotten.

Barry Sanders played for the worst coach ever, never had a QB and everyone stacked the line every down....If he played for those Cowboy teams he would have been over 2000 yards 5 or 6 times.....