Congratulations-- and Best Wishes

 

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2021 was announced last night, and Peyton Manning, Calvin Johnson, John Lynch, Charles Woodson, Drew Pearson, Alan Faneca, Bill Nunn, and Tom Flores are the eight new enshrinees.  All of them are deserving-- Manning excessively so, as his induction was a foregone conclusion a decade ago. As much as anyone, he defined the modern quarterback position, his teams made the postseason 13 out of 14 years, and he is, as of today, the only quarterback to win the Super Bowl with two different teams. Like Manning, Johnson defined his position-- the oversized yet amazingly athletic receiver who can outrun, outjump, and out-muscle his way to the ball. His type is all over the league now, and he was the prototype. Pearson's game was a whole different thing-- he was a master of the Paul Warfield school of pass-catching: elusive, always getting open at the right time as if he were invisible until the ball arrived. Like his rivals Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, he played his best on the game's biggest stage. 

Fans as we are of defense (and, of course, the 49ers), our man Lynch's selection honors not only him, but one of the greatest defensive teams of our lifetime. Speaking of defense, Charles Woodson played eighteen-- eighteen!-- years in the defensive backfield. He started 251 out of 288 games in those 18 years; in his last season, at age 39, he started all 16. He was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection at a position where even the best players rarely last nine years. And Alan Faneca could, and probably should, have been the first offensive lineman honored as Super Bowl MVP for his tremendous play in Super Bowl XL. If it were up to us, a guard, tackle, or center would be enshrined every year. 

Bill Nunn's honor comes too late for his own satisfaction, though not his family's; and in this era of hyper-awareness of such things, consider it was Bill Nunn who focused on scouting the historically black colleges, such as Grambling and Alcorn State, that brought some of the greatest players in NFL history to the Steelers.  He spent 45 years with the Steelers and now will be honored with them as long as the game is played.

And Tom Flores. He gave 34 years of his life to pro football; like Mike Ditka, he was a Super Bowl player and coach. He led the Oakland Raiders to a world championship and, three years later, the Los Angeles Raiders to another. Same team, essentially, but in between those two championships he somehow maintained a culture of professionalism (shall we say, pride and poise?) while all around the team raged controversy, lawsuits, insults, jokes, and general craziness. In a game where winning is the only thing, Tom Flores' coaching career more than measures up.

        

Q. What do these men have in common?   

Mike Holmgren, on the left, took not one, but two teams with a long and discouraging history of losing, and transformed them into Super Bowl teams. He coached in three Super Bowls, and won one. He also coached three Hall of Fame quarterbacks with great success.

Mike Shanahan, in the center, transformed a proud but struggling franchise, one branded as a perennial Super Bowl "loser,"  and won back-to-back Super Bowls. He also revived the career of one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game, a first-ballot Hall of Famer. 

Dick Vermeil, on the right, also took not one, but two teams with a long and discouraging history of losing, and transformed them into Super Bowl teams. He took a third underachieving franchise and revived it, too, though he didn't make the 'Bowl. And he, too, launched the storybook career of a Hall of Fame quarterback.   

A. None of these men are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

We were ruminating this morning about Andy Reid, the great coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, who face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV later today. Whether his team wins or loses this game, Andy Reid, we concluded, is going to the Hall of Fame. And that got us to thinking about men of similar accomplishment who ought to be there, but aren't. These three men above. 

Bill Cowher is in the Hall of Fame. Tony Dungy is in the Hall of Fame. George Allen is in the Hall of Fame. They all deserve it, with two, one, and one Super Bowl teams to their names. 

But if the Super Bowl is the ultimate pro football coaching achievement, then winning back-to-back Super Bowls, and coaching two different teams to the Super Bowl a decade apart, surely qualifies a coach among those who've achieved the most. It's time to give these three great coaches their due.

Dick Vermeil is 84. Let's not wait too long.

 

Cleveland Rocks

 

    Back in the day, the Cleveland Browns were football royalty, and the Pittsburgh Steelers were pissants. 

    The best thing you could say about the old Steelers was that at least they were a tough bunch: "Maybe they can't beat you, but they'll beat you up."  The worst you could say varied, but it was said loudly and frequently in Pittsburgh taverns on Sunday afternoons during autumn. Pittsburgh had been in the NFL since 1933. The team had nearly gone under during the war-- not once, but twice. In 1943 they'd had to combine forces with the cross-state Philadelphia Eagles to field a squad unaffectionately known as the "Steagles." The following year they'd merged depleted rosters with the Chicago Cardinals; represented as "Card-Pitt" in the standings, they'd quickly become known as "Carpets" because the rest of the league walked all over them to the tune of an 0-10 record. And while other franchises had their own moments of embarrassment tucked away in the past, they also had conference titles and league championships by their name. The Pittsburgh Steelers, after 36 years in the league, had nothing. 

    And there to remind them, every year, were the Browns, and their legendary coach, and their proud fans, and their 24 consecutive winning seasons and eight league championships.

    Cleveland dominated the All-American Football Conference the year the team and league were founded, and they continued to do so for the AAFC's entire four-year existence. Merged into the NFL in 1950, the Browns promptly won the league championship that year too, and over the next five seasons they won the Eastern Conference each year as well as two more NFL titles. They won another league championship in 1964, and added five more conference titles by 1969. Even when they didn't finish first, they contended. At the time of the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the Cleveland Browns had never had a single losing season in their quarter-century of operation.

    Who might have expected that all this was about to change? Perhaps only one man-- a burly, quiet, but immensely powerful and intelligent former Browns lineman hired to coach the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969: Chuck Noll.

    The fortunes of the two teams diverged almost precisely at the moment when Noll took over and the Super Bowl became synonymous with the league championship—the 1970 merger. Noll’s Steelers made the postseason for the first time in 1972, which was also the Browns’ last postseason appearance for eight years.

    And so the reversal began. During those eight years the Steelers won four Super Bowls, Pittsburgh became known as the “City of Champions,” and Cleveland Browns fans slowly and grudgingly became used to a completely new experience—losing on a regular basis. How it must have galled those raised on the Cleveland postseason perennials of the 1950s and 1960s to endure seven straight years of finishing third or fourth in a four-team division, not to mention records of 3-11, 4-10, and 6-8. Even when the 1976 team won 9 games, they couldn’t make the playoffs.  In that first Cleveland postseason drought, they won a total of 46 games, while the Steelers won 77—and those four Super Bowls.

    Things got better in the 1980s, somewhat. With Sam Rutigliano and Marty Schottenheimer  coaching the team, Cleveland made the playoffs seven out of ten years, including five in a row from 1985-1989. During those years, the Steelers languished at or near the bottom of the division. But those years were also when the Browns developed their “snakebit” reputation—“The Drive” in 1986, “The Fumble” in 1987, for example. By contrast, Steelers fans could still look back on “The Immaculate Reception” and “John Swearingen’s Call” as evidence their championship team was favored by the football gods.

    The 1970s had been bad for the Browns. But the 1990s ushered in a veritable apocalypse of badness. In the midst of postseason droughts that lasted four, seven, and then seventeen seasons, Art Modell kidnapped the team and took it to Baltimore, the franchise sat in limbo for three years, and the only coach to lead Cleveland to a playoff win in nearly 30 years—Bill Belichick in 1994—went on to unimaginable glory in New England. And—by the way—the Pittsburgh Steelers became the first team to win six Super Bowls during this time. The other team to win six? Belichick’s Patriots, of course.

    It’s sad but generally true that one-sided rivalries tend to lose their bite over time. Sure, “I’m takin’ da Brahns to da Supa Bowl,” remains a running (sorry about that) joke in Steeltown lavatories, but lately it’s the Baltimore Ravens that have become Pittsburgh’s main rival. Considering the Ravens were built from the ashes of the Cleveland Browns, it was yet another Rodney Dangerfield moment for the loyal fans in the city on the lake.

    So as the 2020 Cleveland Browns ran all over Heinz Field last night, scoring four touchdowns in eight minutes and 48 points overall to knock the despised Steelers completely sideways and out of the playoffs, we can’t help but wonder if this presages a second turn of the wheel in one of the NFL’s greatest rivalries. 

Patrick Willis-- MIA

 As if the recent election results weren't bad enough, today we have a real voting scandal.

Somehow, the great Patrick Willis was not included among the 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection process.  Seriously.

He became eligible this year, as did Troy Polamolu and Reggie Wayne, who were included. No slight intended to those excellent players, but Willis' impact on the games and seasons in which he played, and on the teams for which he played, was as great or greater than theirs. He was the captain, leader, and most outstanding player on the league's best defense from 2011-2013. He faced off against the Hall of Famer Ray Lewis in Super Bowl XLVII, a contest between two of the greatest ever at their position, and he more than lived up to the high standard set by his opponent. 

We have no doubt Patrick Willis eventually will be enshrined in Canton. We're just disappointed it won't happen this year, and we're more than disappointed that the voters believed they could find 15 candidates more worthy than he.  In fairness, we believe Polamolu is an excellent comp for Willis; both had an oversized impact on the game and both defined the great defensive teams they represented. Perhaps in a year or two they'll be voted in together. It would fit.

But this, today, is an oversight that needs to be corrected. It reflects badly on the judgment of those who made the choices. Come on, people. You're supposed to be experts. You can do better. Now please, do better next time. The man deserves the honor, and everyone knows it.